As customers get increasingly demanding, offering a wide range of high-quality products and services is no longer sufficient to drive satisfaction and loyalty. In addition to receiving great products, they also expect great service across the different channels they use to interact with an organization – in the absence of which, they are ready to even end the association.

Most customers are even willing to pay a premium for better experiences. Customer service now needs to be the primary focus of every business – regardless of the industry or sector.

But there are many challenges that come in the way of exceptional customer service. Read on as we uncover these challenges and shed light on how you can overcome them by getting a Managed Services Partner on board.

The importance of customer service

In today’s customer-driven era, the customer service you provide is closely linked to your business outcomes. Did you know? 83% of companies that believe it’s important to make customers happy also experience growing revenue!

Bad customer service doesn’t just impact customer satisfaction levels; it also impacts the reputation you have in the market, while also compelling your customers to shift to competitor brands.

Today’s customers have more choices than ever before. So, when a customer needs to choose between two competing products, the chances of opting for a product that not only meets their needs but also comes with the extra perks of a great experience are far greater.

Responding to customer calls as quickly as possible, resolving their issues or addressing their concerns in a timely manner, or even valuing their time and feedback are all ways of maintaining an optimum level of good customer service etiquette. Providing top-notch customer service also aids in recouping customer acquisition costs while cultivating a loyal audience that leads to repeat business.

Customer service is critical to:

  • Enable customer loyalty and retention
  • Provide customers with the right information at the right time and right place
  • Improve first-time fix rates
  • Enhance brand reputation and image
  • Create more happy customers
  • Improve customer lifetime value
  • Outdo competition in today’s highly dynamic world
  • Build longer and stronger customer relationships

The challenges of providing great service

With customer service playing a vital role in driving profits and revenue, companies are looking to equip their agents with all the knowledge and skills they need to meet customers’ needs. But providing great service doesn’t come easy; here are three challenges that act as major stumbling blocks:

  1. Technical limitations: Providing cutting-edge customer service requires you to rely on the latest and most efficient technology and tools. But many organizations still rely on traditional systems, that impact their technical ability to respond to and resolve new-age customer service requests.
  2. Lack of skilled people: With IT teams required to juggle several responsibilities, many organizations lack a skilled customer service resource pool. Managing the IT business always takes a priority, causing service operations to take a backseat – which eventually results in lackluster service and satisfaction.
  3. Inefficient processes: Inefficient processes, lack of real-time support, and multiple customer service touchpoints can negatively impact an organization’s ability to provide great customer service. Not only can they impede the accomplishment of business goals, but they can also cause failure to meet customer expectations in terms of service quality, response time, and overall customer experience.

 The benefits a Managed Services Partner can bring

Offloading Customer Service and associated operations to a skilled Managed Services Partner is a great way to improve agility and competitiveness. By creating the perfect functional ecosystem, a partner can meet the unique customer service needs of small, medium, and enterprise businesses. Here’s what a qualified partner can bring to the table:

  1. Stability and continuity: A skilled partner can augment your IT team’s ability to respond to incidents and requests, as well as ongoing upgrades. Such ongoing support can ensure the stability and continuity of mission-critical data and operations while allowing you to meet service needs with increased speed and efficiency.
  2. Tech innovation: Since great customer service depends largely on the tools you use, a competent partner can research, evaluate, and implement the best-fit customer service tools and technologies that are in accordance with the unique needs of your business. With the best and up-to-date tools in place, you can be sure to respond to customer requests quickly, route them to the right experts, and keep up with SLA expectations.
  3. Skilled resources: If your organization is lacking qualified and competent customer service agents, a partner can enable on-demand access to a skilled talent pool. Through the as-a-service model, you can complement the capabilities of your existing team with expert resources and more efficiently meet the service needs of your customers. You can also ramp up and scale back teams at short notice in response to specific events (like new version releases or updates) that could cause a surge of support requests.
  4. All-level support: A partner can offer services across Level 1/2/3/4, right from end-user support and production monitoring to bug fixes, maintenance, and enhancements. Such support can ensure your processes are optimally managed, user requests are catered to with agility, and your service desk is able to seamlessly scale to cater to a rise in requests – without impacting performance.
  5. Optimized costs: Since Managed Services Partners offer services via a subscription-based model, you can optimize costs across your customer service organization. You only need to pay for the services you need, when you need them, and ensure higher predictability of support expenditure.
  6. Real-time reporting: A qualified partner can also carry out comprehensive reporting across operational, financial, and analytical aspects of your business. Such real-time reporting can not only provide insight into the efficiency of your processes; it can also highlight issues and roadblocks you need to overcome to drive better customer service outcomes.

With more and more customers considering customer service as a core driver driving their buying decisions, improving customer service has become extremely critical. As businesses that focus on improving customer experience witness an 80% increase in revenue, making customer service a strategic differentiator for your organization can not only help in exceeding customer expectations; it can also provide a competitive edge in the market.

 Having a Managed Services Partner on board can ensure the efficient functioning of your customer service activities and that all your consulting, innovation, and knowledge management services are aligned with industry best practices and the latest ITIL requirements.

Contact us today and allow us to drive tangible business benefits for your organization!