Customer support is essential to building a successful business, and software plays a central role in your support operations. Customer support software makes it easy to track customers’ inquiries and respond to them promptly.
Some support requests can be complicated and require many back-and-forth interactions to resolve. Support software ensures your team keeps up with these requests and solves customers’ issues, no matter how tough.
Given its crucial role in your business, customer support software isn’t something to choose lightly. You need to carefully consider the best software, depending on your business type, size, and the complexity of the support requests you handle.
This guide explains what customer support software is, how it works, the key features to look out for, and the core considerations for selecting the best software.
What is customer support software?
Customer support software is the digital tool your business uses to receive, organize, and respond to customer requests.
Think of it as a mail sorting system for your customer inquiries. When a customer sends a request, it’ll be immediately logged into your support system and categorized based on the details. Then, it can be assigned to a specific team or team member based on predefined settings.
Suppose you run an electronics store. Customers would send various types of inquiries, including hardware malfunctions, price requests, setup guidance, and item returns. Handling these requests can be hectic, but support platforms make the process efficient for your team.
When someone sends an inquiry, it can be automatically classified based on what they’ve sent. Then, their inquiry can be assigned to a staff or team dedicated to it. For instance, hardware malfunction inquiries can be routed to an in-house expert who handles them.
Support software enables you to aggregate inquiries from various platforms into a single dashboard. Requests sent via email, social media, and online forms can be received and sorted in one place, making the process efficient.
Key features of customer support software
Customer support tools have crucial features that help businesses process inquiries swiftly and keep customers happy. These features include:
Ticket management
The foundation of a support platform is converting customer inquiries into trackable tickets. Every customer inquiry will be converted into a manageable ticket and assigned to the right agent or team, ensuring it isn't lost. Assigning tickets to agents can be done automatically or manually.
This ticketing system should have status updates (“In Progress,” “In Review,” “Closed,” etc.) to keep all team members updated. This way, another support agent can easily continue where their colleague left off with the inquiry. There should also be internal notes for agents to add context to inquiries, helping colleagues understand the nature of the issue.
Knowledge Base
Many customers prefer to resolve issues themselves and only seek help when they are unable to do so personally. Hence, you should offer them a Knowledge Base filled with tutorials, user guides, and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs).
Advanced support platforms usually have a content management system (CMS) that simplifies Knowledge Base creation. They have professional templates that help you create detailed and simple user guides.
Customers aren’t the only ones who benefit from a Knowledge Base. It also makes your support operations more efficient, as agents can direct customers to specific documents instead of having to repeatedly explain the same steps to different customers.
Live chat
Customers often want speedy answers to their problems. Hence, businesses offer live chat support to deliver speedy resolutions. Customer support platforms provide the infrastructure for seamless live chat between customers and your support agents.
When a customer initiates a live chat request, an available agent can be immediately alerted to respond. After the chat, customers can receive an automated survey to evaluate their support experience.
The most advanced customer support tools incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for live chat. These chatbots can respond to mundane requests based on preset commands, freeing up time for your support team to focus on more complex inquiries.
Note that chatbots aren’t a replacement for your support team. Instead, they augment your support agents’ efforts for better productivity.
Security
Support inquiries often involve customers handing over sensitive data that must be protected. Customer support platforms utilize advanced encryption protocols to prevent unauthorized access to data.
Your platform should have role-based control, wherein the administrator decides which data support agents can see or not. For example, you can allow only your finance support team to monitor customers’ transactions, while other teams can’t access this data.
Support platforms keep audit logs for every agent’s interaction with customer data. This way, any leaks can be traced and rectified.
Factors to consider when choosing customer support software
1. Scalability
You likely desire your business to grow over time. Thus, you need software that can scale without causing problems– this factor might seem trivial, but it’s the difference between success and defeat for your support team.
You should be able to add new agents to your support system and have things run smoothly. As your customer base grows, the volume of requests also grows. Hence, your platform should make it easy to upgrade to a higher plan as requests grow.
Most support platforms are cloud-based, so scalability is not much of a concern for businesses. These platforms are often priced per seat, wherein you pay a monthly or annual fee for each support agent in your company. If you hire more support agents, you can create new accounts for them and integrate their work with the existing team.
2. Ease of use
Agents spend all working hours on your support platform. A complex interface can make their work much more difficult and dampen productivity. You need a support platform with an intuitive, easily navigable interface. It should be simple enough for a support agent to master within a short period.
Support platforms offer free trials, so always take advantage of them to test the interface before making a final decision. If it’s overtly difficult for IT administrators to navigate, it’ll be even more difficult for less tech-savvy support agents.
You can run trials with your support team and get their honest opinion – they’re the ones who will spend most time on the software, after all. If their opinions are overwhelmingly negative, it’s a signal to find an alternative platform that won’t cause headaches in the long run.
3. Pricing
Support software is available in all price ranges, from affordable tools priced per agent to custom solutions tailored for large enterprises. You should find one that suits your price point and needs.
Selecting support software involves striking a balance between pricing and the features you desire. Find one that fits within your budget, but remember that the cheapest solution isn’t always the best. Compare prices between different competitors and ensure you get the best deal.
Support platforms for small to medium-sized businesses are priced monthly or annually, based on the number of support agents. Some charge fixed monthly or annual fees per agent, e.g., $10 per agent per month. Others offer monthly packages for a specific number of agents, such as $500 per month for 75 agents.
Platforms designed for large enterprises offer custom pricing. If you represent a large company, you can negotiate directly with the platform’s sales team and snag the best deal.
As mentioned, you should take advantage of free trials to test a support tool before making your final decision. Support platforms usually offer a refund window, ranging from 30 to 60 days, but it’s better to avoid paying for something you don’t like and going through the stress of requesting a refund.
4. Security features
We’ve mentioned security being a core feature of a support platform. Before selecting a support tool, research its security features, including encryption protocols, access controls, backup policies, and compliance with industry standards.
Read reviews and online articles to evaluate a platform’s security history. Your support tool shouldn’t have a history of lax security practices or data breaches.
You also play a major role in keeping your support platform secure. Train support employees on standard security practices, enable multi-factor authentication for all accounts, implement robust access controls, conduct regular security audits, and have a firm plan to respond to security incidents.
5. Support quality
Ironically, a customer support software provider needs to offer excellent support. You should be able to contact them via email, live chat, or telephone and get swift answers.
Support isn’t only about quick responses – the support team should be knowledgeable and willing to help you resolve issues. Often, businesses need help in the initial setup, and the team should be prepared to provide guidance.
You should have access to detailed documentation and a Knowledge Base. When facing issues, you can first consult the Knowledge Base before seeking direct support if that isn’t enough. The free trial presents the best opportunity to test a platform’s support resources before making your final decision.
6. Automation & AI functionalities
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a nascent technology, yet it has made a dent in many software niches, including customer support. You need AI features that help boost your support team’s productivity– not having these features puts you at a competitive disadvantage.
For example, support tools can utilize AI to generate summaries of customer inquiries. Summarizing lengthy tickets saves support agents a considerable amount of time.
Your platform can also use AI to analyze support requests and automatically route them to the relevant agent or team. Likewise, AI can draft responses to mundane customer inquiries, and support agents can make the final edits, saving them time and effort.
AI is a force multiplier for your customer support team, not something you should depend on entirely. Customers can get annoyed if they are mostly directed to chatbots instead of human help.
The idea is to use chatbots to resolve simple inquiries, such as order tracking for an e-commerce business, while support agents focus on more challenging problems.
7. Omnichannel support
Omnichannel support involves managing and responding to customer requests across multiple channels, including social media, email, phone, SMS, and web forms. The best businesses offer omnichannel support to keep customers engaged regardless of how they contact their support team for inquiries. Hence, omnichannel integration should be a core consideration when selecting support software.
Your platform should provide a unified view of all customer inquiries, regardless of the channel from which they originated. This way, agents can view the full history of every request and respond to them from a single dashboard, rather than juggling different tools, which can sap productivity.
While you manage responses from multiple channels, you should be able to measure performance for each channel. For example, you can compare the average ticket resolution times for email requests, live chat, and telephone. This comparison tells you which channel support agents are most productive with, and you can dedicate more resources to that channel.
Final words
Customer support software can make or break a business. Making the right choice helps you build long-term trust and customer loyalty. We’ve explained the core features of a customer support tool and the factors to consider when choosing one. Follow these guidelines to select the best tool for your business and enhance your bottom line.
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