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We can all agree that an excellent customer service is the most important aspect that a company can have. Achieving it should be a priority for all companies. Due to advancements in technology, changes in the market, innovations and new contract models, companies that search for their most compatible customer care solution find themselves confused in front of new concepts and terms. This guide will help you navigate all customer service types, understand their differences and decide which one is the best for your business model. Types of Customer Service The majority of clients often bypass the self-service customer solutions such as knowledge bases, FAQs, etc, as they would rather save time searching and get a quicker solution to their problems by speaking to a Customer Care Representative. The different types of customer service depend on your clients’ preferred contact methods. Some clients prefer to speak to someone directly over the phone, while some prefer to write emails. Those that want an even quicker solution prefer to use live chat support or contact your company directly from your social media channels. To increase customer satisfaction a company needs to provide fast and effective solutions with several contact options. Main Customer Service Channels Self-Service Support- This option includes any solution where the client searches for the answers and troubleshoots their issues themselves. Some self-service solutions include help videos, tutorials, FAQs, Knowledge Bases, online webinars, etc. While having a good self-service solution is a good and inexpensive practice, it should be just a complementary feature to the full customer service package provided to the customers, since they often have very specific inquiries and unique experiences, making it impossible to predict and effectively answer each one of them. Most of the people would also avoid spending time searching for an answer to a problem if they can get it faster from a customer care representative. Community Support- This channel is used by major tech companies (but not only) as it reduces the volume of inquiries that Customer Service Representatives have to deal with. Using community support, users are able to troubleshoot their issues with the help of other users that are either more knowledgeable or have faced the same issue before and have a solution for it. Community Support would still require dedicated agents that would serve as admins for controlling the content, making sure that the content is appropriate and providing assistance to more complex issues. Telephone Customer Service Support Telephone Customer Care- Phone support is the most popular customer support solution. Customer Service Representatives over the phone are usually well-versed in the companies’ services and products, campaigns, practices, and policies etc. Phone support can be helpful for several purposes, such as for taking and canceling orders, managing bookings, managing complaints, giving general information to clients, troubleshooting, selling additional services and products, etc. A good telephone support should also include an Interactive Voice System (IVR) It helps to assign calls to the relevant departments by using a menu for the callers to choose from and connecting them to the right agents. Online Customer Care Nowadays, online customer service is a must for all companies, regardless of their target audience, size, and industry. Technology advancements in recent years have enabled humans to communicate effectively in a timely manner and to connect at any time of the day. Customers are now relying more on online technology to get fast solutions to their issues. Moreover companies are using online services to help and reach out even more customers. Live chat and Instant Messaging Support for customer service The most popular online customer service channels include live chat, which enables customers to contact the company directly from the website, emails, social media (Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, etc) and Instant Messaging support (WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, etc.) Multichannel Support Omnichannel Customer Service- Also known as multichannel support, this is one the most successful customer care solutions to implement as it enables companies to reach even more customers, to provide support faster and to increase customer satisfaction and customer loyalty eventually. This customer service strategy would combine some or all of the other solutions mentioned above to create a top-notch service through your customers’ preferred mediums in a seamless way. Omnichannel customer support would bring customer service to the next level for your company. Customer Service Metrics How do you know if your customer service campaigns are successful? If this is your first time outsourcing customer service, it can be hard to understand what numbers are important and what to look for. We have put together a list of the main metrics with their explanations to make it easier for you to get started: Volumes: This measures the number of tickets (calls, live chat messages, emails, IM messages, web contact requests, etc.) per day, month or any other period. It is important to: analyse the volumes understand which seasons have the highest peaks figure out which days are the busiest and during which hours you receive the most tickets. Analysing volumes helps you to prepare forecasts and improve the customer care by scheduling more staff during volume peaks, which makes the customer experience better by providing a smoother and more effective support, without leaving anyone waiting. Backlog: This metric helps to understand the number of unresolved tickets at the end of a certain period (shift, day, etc.). Unresolved tickets are tickets that need more time to be processed than normally. This might happen because of a difficult or unique technical issue, less staff available, a sudden event that brings a higher ticket volume, etc. Having a low number of tickets in the backlog is a good indicator for a good customer service. The easiest way to value customer care is to average the data AHT: Average handling time calculates how much time is needed to process a ticket on average. A good indicator that your team is performing well is a low AHT. Average Reply Time: This metric calculates the time it takes for your team to reply to your customers. In order to have a high customer satisfaction rate, your team should get back to your customers in a timely manner, therefore the average reply time needs to be short. Average First Time Response Rate: This helps you understand how fast does your team reply to a customer that has just contacted you. Like the average reply time, the average first-time response rate needs to be short too. Resolution Rate: This metric helps you understand the percentage of tickets resolved from the total of tickets received. The higher the Resolution rate, the more efficient your team is. FCRR: First Contact Resolution Rate is similar to the Resolution Rate, but it measures the ability of your team to resolve an issue within the first call (with one call, one email, etc.). This is one of the most important metrics because it affects customer satisfaction directly. CSAT: This is the metric that measures Customer Satisfaction. It is usually calculated by analysing the answers and feedback that customers give at the end of a customer service interaction. (For example: “How would you rate your satisfaction for the service you received?”) The importance of Metrics Keeping an eye on all of these important metrics can become overwhelming and can take the focus from your goals and from what really matters: delivering exceptional customer service to your clients. Therefore, the majority of the customers usually outsource customer service to a trusted partner that reflects your company values. A partner that has the same company culture and makes your client satisfaction their priority. We Are Fiber We are Fiber is a well-established BPO in Europe providing mainly Customer Service and Data Entry solutions for companies across different industries, regardless of size or location. With approximately 700 employees, FIBER enables Clients in more than 20 countries to focus on their core competencies. Contact us here if top-notch customer satisfaction and customer experience are your priorities too! If you’d like to receive a free quote or even if you’d like to have a chat about any questions that you might have, we are available at: info@wearefiber.com Phone (It) +39 02 42 10 11 22 Phone (Uk) +44 20 38 70 44 08

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Customer Service Guide: everything you need to know