As a customer service leader, you want to make sure your audience is supported at all times. Customers should have access to the information they need–whether it’s from a member of your team or from a robust knowledge base. Only in doing so, will you ensure each person receives the best customer experience possible.
To ensure that your customers have the necessary support, you’ll need to develop and improve your customer service material. This material includes (but isn’t limited to) articles in your knowledge base, guidelines for team members, customer surveys, training resources, onboarding emails, and much more.
But, when you should develop support material? And how should you do it?
In this article, we’re outlining what you should know about developing this material for your customers so that you can offer a best-in-class experience.
When to develop customer service material
You probably have some existing materials that serve you right now, but when is the time to develop new material? When is it time to improve what you have? Here’s when it may be time to develop service material.
When you’re introducing a new customer service channel
Many customer support teams are introducing live chat as a new channel for customer support. If you’re going to start offering support in a new channel, then you need to make sure you have supporting materials that can assist your team.
When you’re scaling your customer service team
On a small team, members may have institutional knowledge about how to support customers. But as your team grows, it’s more important than ever that you have a consistent support experience. All team members need to be up to speed on how to interact with customers.
When your company releases a new product or feature
When it comes time to release a new product or feature, naturally customers will have questions. Rather than rushing to come up with answers, it’s best to prepare customer service materials that can debut on the same day as your new feature. It’s also important to equip your support team with materials before the launch.
When you recognize gaps in your customer service material
You probably have a fair amount of support material already, but does it cover everything that your customers need? Are you getting asked the same questions over and over again?
How to develop customer service material
Developing new customer service material can be a large undertaking. You need to include various stakeholders, create the materials, and make sure your audience can find them. Here are some guidelines for how you and your team can develop support material.
Include the right people
Whether you’re a customer service lead or product manager, don’t try to create the material on your own. You need to take an integrated, holistic approach and include all the key players in your effort.
Use words that your audience uses
When you’re creating the support materials themselves, it’s important to use words that are familiar to your audience. It’s helpful to look at the questions your audience is already asking and use their exact phrasing.
Although you might expect the audience to be sophisticated, customer service materials are most helpful when they’re written to a low-grade level (imagine you’re writing instructions to a third grader!).
Be consistent
There’s nothing worse than trying to get support and being confused by the terms the service agent uses. That’s why it’s essential that you be consistent with how you label and refer to products, features, and various issues. This consistency will make your answers much more clear to your customers.
Carefully consider channel
Support materials will vary based on the channel in which they’re published. Internal resources, such as training materials, might live on a company wiki. A knowledge-base, on the other hand, is an open resource available to customers on your website. Every channel is different, and the support materials you create need to be tailored to the channel.
Create resources for your customers and team
As a customer service leader, you need support materials so you can serve your customers, as well as your team. These service resources will help your customers find answers to their pressing questions. It will also help your team support your customers so that they have a stellar experience.
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Read more at https://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/when-and-how-to-develop-customer-service-material-02160015
