Customer Support times are probably one of the most important aspects of customer service. If you take too long customers may just give up, resulting in a negative perception of your company. This is why when I recently came across an article in the Chicago Tribune discussing the results of a survey on customer support for online stores I was truly surprised. What shocked me was the companies that scored the worst are some of the largest and most well-respected brands out there. And yet, they hadn’t grasped how customer satisfaction is often directly related to wait times. The problems were not small, with Barnes and Noble having hold times of 8 minutes for phone support, and Dell taking over 65 minutes to respond to email support questions. While this might not seem like a long time to you, your customers would beg to differ. No one wants to lose half an hour or more getting help with something that isn’t working, especially when they are taking the time to buy something off of your site. That’s why it is so important to have a great system for taking in issues and responding with solutions. Obviously, the companies that rank low in this study need to re-evaluate their customer service procedures as we all know that poor customer interactions can result in a slew of nightmares. Whether it’s angry customers sharing their experience online with their friends and followers or just flat-out losing customers, poor customer support can have a negative impact on a company’s image and eventually, their bottom line.
I have had this type of issue when calling in to a phone company for support. Not only did it take over 30 minutes to get someone on the phone, but they also ended up passing me around before I finally settled with the support person who could help me. This is a perfect example of why a 30 minute wait became an issue as it took about 20 minutes to get me to the right person. I might have been ok with waiting 30 minutes, but when you add in the time to get a solution to my problem, it was close to an hour. Suddenly, what was a perfect opportunity for a company to shine instead became a serious support issue that will impact my future phone purchases.
Make sure you have a solid customer response plan set, including realistic service level agreements, and the software and people to back it up. Finding a good support software is key because you need to not only track how long it takes to solve support requests but also customer feedback. This data can help you improve your current system by determining what is bogging down your support team and what is turning off your customers when they come to you for help. Otherwise, you might find yourself in the news for all the wrong reasons.