In the last decade, a major shift from over-the-phone conversations to digital customer support is seen at the rapid pace. Delivering the unmatched customer experience, when the customers are looking for the company’s assistance, is a must-have for the brands to get ahead of the pack in the niche market. It makes the role of the customer support team pivotal.
Alas! This department of the company is under tremendous pressure of accomplishing the defined goals and helping the customers in every way. Consequently, in the end, the targets and customer experience get impacted. Here, sharpening the staff skills won’t work. Instead, supercharging the team with content marketing can benefit both the company and the customers.
Yes, the content marketing can fill those gaps at every step of the way and make the support team efficient. Take a round-up of how is content marketing a boon for the customer support team:
Truncate the response times
A phone rang up, or when a question pops up in a live chat window, it’s not necessary that service rep has the answer at ready to every question which customers ask. In such situations, “Please hold on! Let me check the solution for you,” is responded to the customers and this answer takes no time in ruffling up the customer’s feather. The situation definitely sounds like at your company, right?
In this digital world, time is a killer for the businesses because the customers expect to get the answer to their query off the bat. This is where creating a valuable knowledge that’s packed with all the common questions asked by the customers would help the customer support team. When the right content is provided, your support team can answer the questions immediately, which in turn, cut the response times by half.
In addition, the FAQs can be uploaded on the website from where the customers can easily access and solve the problem on their own, and consequently, there will be fewer complaints and calls. Also, for every customer query, an article or link can be recommended which resolves the customer concerns in detail, which direct the customers to the right channel and delight them.
Strengthen the customer relationship bond
Customer support plays a crucial role in providing customer service where, in the guise of helping the customers, they can make the customers purchase the company products. But, most of the time, it sounds product pushy, which drive away the customers. Here, the brilliant content can be a game-changer.
The great content always solves the customer’s problems and makes them feel the brand is actually trying to help them in overcoming the challenge they are facing. When customer support team send a steady stream of such content to the customers which is not selling them, while helping them in making the right purchasing decision, the likelihood of winning the customers and nurturing the relationship will be more.
Build relationships by influencing the behavior of the customers rather than sending discounts or promotional offers. Make certain, create the content which doesn’t sell, but makes the customers purchase.
Consistency is ensured
There exists a thin line between the customers and customer support team interaction, which must be respected and treated critically, else crossing the wire will be disastrous and hurt the brand’s image. Maintaining a consistency in communication with customers is all-imperative. But, human err is no exception. In order to avoid the wrong or potentially worst suggestion, counting on the knowledge bank makes sense.
The customer support team when having the approved knowledge base at hand, the staff can answer the queries consistently with a sheer transparency. The added benefit of the content is training the new joiner who will directly face the customers won’t be a painful journey.
Besides, if the companies have the sufficient budget, then they can invest in AI chatbots that respond automatically and the precious time of customer support can be invested bringing and converting the leads.
Reduces strain
The customer support can be called a one-man-army that can bring leads from top to the bottom of the sales funnel and retain the existing customers. It’s not as easier as said than done. The several follow-ups, consistent communication, and impressive messages are the part and parcel of customer support team works. The hefty sum is spent on the customer support staff by the companies, no matter if they have a dedicated support team, or outsourced to third-party.
When the team is wasting its time on customer inquiries or crafting an email from the scratch, it will be a great loss to the companies, but content marketing to the rescue that mitigates the burden on customer support by helping them to answer the queries easily, swiftly and efficiently.
Increasing sales and loyalty
Now, in the business world, the playfield is changed. At the bare minimum, excellent customer service is all needed to sell the products and services, and build customer loyalty with improved customer experience. The customer support when powered by content marketing, the results are amazing.
According to CMI, “90% of non-media companies create original content, in some shape or form, to attract and retain customers.”
The convincing stat proves that content marketing works as a customer support clone to drive leads and increase conversion rates. The reason being the support team (In direct touch with the customers) better understand and can line up the content marketing, the way customers use the product, which brings the customer success. Going ahead, the content marketing can also be leveraged to remind the customers of the company and their services in a proper format which helps in retaining them and building loyalty. This way content marketing do all the heavy lift for the support team.
When the unique Content Marketing Strategy is tightly integrated into the customer support DNA, it will surely become the BFF of the support team. However, content marketing does not replace the customer support, while lending a hand to the support team with decreased response time, higher consistency, reduced strain, strong customer relationship and uplifted conversion rates. Make the job of customer support easier and let them accomplish their task faster with content marketing.
About the author: Shahid Mansuri Co-founded Peerbits, one of the leading mobile app development USA, in 2011. His visionary leadership and flamboyant management style have yield fruitful results for the company. He believes in sharing his strong knowledge base with leaned concentration on entrepreneurship and business. Being an avid nature lover, he likes to flaunt his pajamas on a beach during the vacations. Follow him on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram.
