For Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs) customer support matters a lot. That’s because delivering extremely exceptional customer support is non-negotiable for success. However, the challenge comes when ITSPs have to scale up their customer support to accommodate their growing operations.
When ITSPs expand their presence as well as their customer base, it’s only natural that their customer support department will receive more requests for resolving issues and queries. At a time when almost three-fourths of customers switch to a competitor following just one bad experience, prioritizing customer support is a more critical time for ITSPs than many other industries.
That’s because it’s relatively easier to switch from one ITSP to another in today’s time. It just involves a click of a button and a customer can permanently switch over to another ITSP in no time. However, as they say, behind every problem there is an opportunity to do better.
In this blog post, we explore why customer service is indispensable for ITSPs and what are the five key areas where ITSPs can level up their customer support game. So, without further ado, let’s dive right in and know more.
Why is Customer Support Critical for ITSPs?
Just imagine the state of an ITSP that fails to provide the required level of customer support. It’s harrowing just to think about it, isn’t it? Now just think about the heights an ITSP can ascent when it provides excellent customer support. Customer support is extremely critical for the success of ITSPs for several reasons.
1. Client Retention
It’s said that acquiring new clients is seven times more expensive compared to retaining existing ones. So, it does make sense for ITSPs to retain more of their existing clients than scout for new ones, isn’t it? For sure.
When ITSPs provide effective customer service, they get happy clients. Effective customer service not leading to delighted clients can never happen like that.
2. Building Trust and Credibility
Trust is foundational in the IT industry. When clients of ITSPs don’t trust them, then it can lead to major ramifications. Now, when it comes to ITSPs, prompt customer service can make all the difference between higher trust and no trust at all.
You see, when ITSPs promptly answer customers’ queries, it not only delights clients but makes them feel special. When clients feel so special to do business with you, can it ever result in a trust deficit? Never! ITSPs that provide exceptional customer service build higher credibility and trust.
3. Differentiation in a Competitive Market
Almost all ITSPs provide similar services, similar technical capabilities, and whatnot. In such a highly competitive industry, where can ITSPs build a key differentiator for their business? Customer service is one of the answers!
Exceptional customer service is emerging as a crucial differentiator in an industry that has more or less similar services and competencies. When ITSPs make customer support their key differentiator, they can set themselves apart from the competition.
4. Customer Feedback and Improvement
Would you be surprised to know that customer service interactions are the fastest and most effective way to get valuable feedback?
When ITSPs provide prompt customer service, they understand clients’ problems, pain points, expectations, and aspirations. All these enable the professional service providers to constantly enhance their services.
5. Adaptability to Evolving Client Needs
In the rapidly changing digital age, it’s extremely hard to predict when the client needs to evolve. It happens so quickly that many organizations don’t have any idea of that. As a result, they fail to keep up with the evolving needs of their clients. That leads to a slow but steady decline and a sudden downfall.
However, effective customer service can help them gauge the evolving clients’ needs and what they must do to adapt to the change. Proactive customer service enables them to evolve to clients’ needs.
6. Identifying and Mitigating Potential Issues
Identifying potential issues is as important as mitigating actual issues. The former is an exceptionally proactive approach to knowing the possible issues that can arise in day-to-day operations.
Once the potential issues are identified, they can be easily mitigated before they escalate.
7. Referral and Cross-Selling Opportunities
For ITSPs, the power of referral is immense! That’s because many ITSPs build their brand and grow their business through word-of-mouth publicity.
Just imagine the potential for ITSPs when they get most of their clients through referrals. Effective customer service can do just that.
Ways Using Which ITSPs Can Scale Their Customer Support
It’s one thing for ITSPs to provide exceptional customer support. That’s a basic thing. Without it, they can’t grow their business. But it’s a different thing altogether to scale that level of customer support as they expand their operations. Thankfully, some ways will enable them to do so. Let’s discuss those.
1. Embrace Automation
Automation is the cornerstone of scaling customer support. Why do you ask? Well, just imagine how time-consuming and inefficient a manual customer support process is. But by automating customer support, ITSPs can not only handle repetitive and routine tasks with ease but also easily scale up their customer support by leaps and bounds.
In recent times, automation has been extremely critical. That’s because as per recent stats, nearly a third of businesses have automated at least one business process, which includes customer service. Another stat indicates that four out of every five businesses are expediting process automation.
2. Multichannel Communication
Multichannel communication is no longer an option for ITSPs but a necessity. Especially at a time when a majority of people would prefer communicating with organizations using their preferred channel.
As per a recent study, nine out of every ten individuals would like businesses to have a multichannel communication option. Just imagine how awesome it would be when customers have the freedom to connect with a business’s customer support using their preferred mode of communication. ITSPs must bear that in mind and provide multichannel communication options to their clients.
3. Prioritize Self-Service Options
“Self-service is the best customer service.” That’s the new mantra for many contemporary customers today. And there are several reliable and recent stats to back the quote. As per a study conducted by American Express, three out of every five American customers prefer using an automated self-service, such as mobile apps, websites, FAQs, and voice response systems, for simple customer service tasks.
Another stat by Dimension Data revealed that almost three-fourths of customers prefer to use a company’s website, rather than using social media. Another stat asserts that two out of every five customers now prefer self-service over human contact. All these stats must act as an eye-opener for ITSPs. They must ensure that they have self-service options for their clients.
4. Leverage Scalable Support Platforms
The question may come to your mind “What are scalable support platforms?” Scalable customer support platforms are platforms that can be scaled up (or down) as per the requirements of an organization. A good example is cloud-based solutions. They offer extreme flexibility to scale up or down based on demand.
ITSPs must invest in scalable customer support platforms that can adapt to the changing needs of business. Some Unified Communication (UC) solutions come with built-in sophisticated scalable support platforms that don’t need them to invest in standalone platforms. They can be seamlessly integrated with other tools in the IT ecosystem.
5. Monitor and Analyze Metrics in Real-Time
When it comes to providing exceptional customer support, it makes huge sense to monitor and analyze metrics in real time. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as customer satisfaction scores, resolution times, and response times can be extremely useful in identifying areas of improvement, trends in customer problem resolution, and emerging customer expectations and needs.
Some Unified Communication (UC) systems come equipped with sophisticated real-time analytics and metrics. ITSPs can leverage such communication systems to monitor and analyze metrics related to customer support and service.
Taking Everything into Account,
For ITSPs, scaling support is not just a strategic business decision but a necessity in today’s time. Failing to do that will not only impact customer satisfaction but also the business’s profitability over the longer run.
ITSPs that intend to scale up their customer support must handpick the right communication systems and partner with a solution provider with a long and proven track record of providing sophisticated solutions to ITSPs.
