Remote working and customer service: are they compatible?

Remote working is a hot topic right now. Everyone is talking about it and every company since the pandemic lockdown that can keep operations online by working from home is doing it. However, many customer service and marketing teams were unable to keep their departments running smoothly without the intervention of a new system. Many companies did not have a disaster recovery plan in place, so many work from home policies were being developed while everyone was transitioning into lockdown mode. No, that’s not ideal but it was the best some organisations could do to stay operational where permitted.

One question came into play for many organisations: is your customer service workflow remote working compatible? For many, the answer was no. Many customer service departments mainly operate with a telephone line and an email, with the marketing department managing the incoming social media messages. While this is okay for a very small business or a startup, a growing business needs a more comprehensive workflow that will accommodate a growing customer base.

Imagine your business only has 20 customers. At that point, you wouldn’t really have a piece of software that’s designed to manage thousands, but if you’ve found yourself employing one or two people just for customer service, it’s safe to say that your business might need a scaleable software solution. There are a couple of things to look for when you’re identifying the right solution.

Remote working possibilities

Post-pandemic strategies will include remote working and working from home policies, since should another pandemic be on the horizon, businesses will be prepared. In addition to this, organisations will now be thinking of the spread of contagions in their office, giving those who recently had a flu the option of working from home during the virus’s convalescence period to ensure no other team members are affected, in the hopes of reducing the overall number of sick days taken. This would mean that any solution you deploy will need a seamless remote working transition, allowing team members to securely access data without compromising security.

Click4Assistance is built with remote working in mind, with the dashboard accessible from any PC or laptop with a Chrome browser. And you don’t have to worry about accessing data on a network outside of the office, since all of your data is encrypted in transit so it’s as secure as a payment page. It’s not recommended to use open networks, but sometimes unavoidable when you’re working remotely, but Click4Assistance has your data security covered when chatting to customers while on the move.

Live chat, video chat and so much more

The Click4Assistance dashboard allows you to access the full suite of communication solutions from one fully customisable dashboard. Your customer service team gets live chat, video chat, social media messages, your integrated CRM, meeting rooms and so much more, all from one place. To make the dashboard more productive, your customer service agents can customise their own dashboards on an individual level, hiding the stuff they don’t need to reduce distractions and increase efficiency and productivity. Having everything in one place saves lots of time wasted switching from application to application, looking for messages and also reduces the likelihood of missing a message from a customer. Streamlining is the way forward, and that’s built into Click4Assistance’s solution.

Live chat is an amazing communication tool when you think of it. Your customers can contact you directly, with a method of communication that they are used to since they spend a large chunk of their time texting their family and friends. It reduces the time lost waiting in a telephone queue, and it reduces your overall call volume. With Click4Assistance, the messages don’t get lost in a flooded inbox, they all in the same workspace, reducing the chance of missing a customer message. Your customer service team members can chat with multiple people at a time with live chat versus telephone, making them much more productive, while providing an alternative communication method for those who have difficulties speaking over the phone or in person.

When you add on artificial intelligence and video chat to your customer service communication solution, your customer satisfaction rate will skyrocket, your team will be more productive and your solution will not only be remotely accessible and secure, but also provide an alternative method of communication that your customers will enjoy and your customer service team will appreciate.

The best live chat provider

Click4Assistance has more than 15 years of experience developing customer service solutions for businesses like yours and has become the best live chat provider on the market. If you’re interested in deploying Click4Assistance, the UK’s premier GDPR compliant live chat software solution, to increase your business’ productivity for 2020, give us a call on 08451235871 or send an email to theteam@click4assistance.co.uk and one of our experts will be with you right away. Not ready to reach out yet? Discover how it works, try a demo, or better yet, try Click4Assistance completely free for 21 days.