November 29, 2011

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How do customers feel about their experience with your company? Have you solved a difficult problem or let your best clientele know how much you value their business?

It’s no surprise that customer experience is a high priority for consumers. Studies indicate that 60% of customers often or always pay more for a better experience. Also, happy customers who get their issue resolved tell 4 to 6 people about it. It’s no wonder that companies with strong capabilities for delivering superior customer experiences are outperforming their competition (Customer Service Statistics).

We’ve all been on the other end of a customer service call that left us very dissatisfied with unknowledgeable representatives or felt the frustration of attempting to find contact information to request additional information. Every small business has a strategic advantage when it comes to overdelivering on satisfaction – agility. With the increasing availability of online tools, it is easier now than ever to create a caring and responsive customer service process.

In today’s business climate, there are a few good reasons as to why every small business owner should invest more time and energy into customer support services. Online tools can be integrated into your business processes to improve customer retention, satisfaction and cross-selling opportunities.

Whether you outsource customer care to a call center or handle customer support in-house, here are ten tools to help you recognize the basics and provide the best customer support experience for your small business.

1. Get Satisfaction

Online community software, getsatisfication.com, claims to help brands solve problems, give a voice to champions, bring out the best ideas and drive better business. The web-based tool enables small businesses to build online communities that facilitate conversations between them and their customers, provide a more social support experience, build better products, increase SEO and improve customer loyalty. Learn more about their 15-day free trial.

2. ZenDesk

Help desk and ticket support software provided by Zendesk, offers a web-based customer support system to organize, prioritize and engage with others on support requests to ensure customers get accurate and timely responses. Learn more about their 30-day free trial.

3. Assistly

All-in-one customer support toolkit, Assistly, seeks to help small businesses improve support and deliver better customer service ‘out of the box’ in a socially-networked world. Manage all of your customer interactions via email, phone, Facebook, Twitter in one place — real time, 24/7. Learn more about their free full-time agent seat.

4. Zoho Support

Prioritize, manage and close customer support requests with Zoho Support — a web-based help desk software. Build and publish support knowledge bases, analyze and improve the performance of your customer support team, provide customer portals and more. Learn more about their free agent seat.

5. Freshdesk

A recent industry newcomer, Freshdesk is a web-based help desk software that allows small businesses to support customers over email, phone, the web, Twitter and your company’s Facebook page. Learn more about their 30-day free trial.

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