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\nCustomer service and how you manage it can make or break your business. However, getting started with providing great support can be tricky. There are endless support channels available, and choosing between them is hard.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no point in attempting to be good at all of them, regardless of your business or customers. Trying to be jack-of-all-trades of support means less excellence all around.<\/p>\n
Plus, unless you have huge customer support teams, you\u2019ll also wear yourself and your team thin.<\/p>\n\n
Multitasking is a great skill to have. However, you shouldn’t have to do it to the point where it\u2019s confusing your users or burning out your team members.<\/p>\n
Focusing on only the support channels that make most sense for you and your customers means that you can put your energy into those specific ones.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll be able to provide better, faster, more useful support, and not overwhelm yourself.<\/p>\n
Today, we\u2019re going to talk about some things to keep in mind when choosing support channels for your business.<\/p>\n
The first thing to consider is your team and what it\u2019s reasonably capable of. There are two options here\u2014either you have a dedicated person for managing support, or not.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s talk about the \u201cnot\u201d option first. In small, early stage companies, support is often handled by the founders or other team members as a \u201cside gig\u201d. We do it, too\u2014Sarah and Andrew, our founders, are pretty prominent in our support:<\/p>\n![\"Founders](\"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Google-Chrome_2020-02-05-10-36-00@2x-1024x300.png\")
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This is fine\u2014and an excellent way to learn about your customers to make more educated business decisions. However, founders have other things to do. Allowing support to take up too much time is dangerous\u2014not to even mention the disruption aspect of it.<\/p>\n
In this case, you need to be careful about the amount and type of support channels you provide. This is to make sure it\u2019s not hindering other crucial activities for the company.<\/p>\n
Start out with 1-2 easy to manage support channels\u2014ones that are realistic depending on your schedule.<\/p>\n
For example, if you spend a lot of time in meetings and can\u2019t jump on support issues as they come in, live chat or phone support aren’t the best option.<\/p>\n
Instead, you can pick something where a small delay in response is expected (such as email).<\/p>\n
If you do have people working specifically on support, consider these things:<\/p>\n
Regardless of whether you have designated support people or not, availability is always something to think about.<\/p>\n
If you have only one person available to do support, doing something that requires 24\/7 attention (like phone calls) isn\u2019t an option.<\/p>\n
The other crucial part of the equation is who the people that reach out to you are<\/em> to begin with.<\/p>\n With B2B businesses, this doesn\u2019t even necessarily mean looking at the companies<\/em>. More importantly, it’s about figuring out the individual people<\/em> who reach out.<\/p>\n For example, at Canny, most people who reach out to us for support are product managers with pretty technical questions.<\/p>\n This means that our support channels need to be tailored for quick responses and easy troubleshooting.<\/p>\n Different customers also prefer different channels. If you build software for teenagers, they\u2019ll be more likely to reach out through social media. Highly technical software people probably prefer email or live chat.<\/p>\n However, if you want to be sure you\u2019re using the best channels for your customers, consider running a survey.<\/p>\n You can always use logic when determining where you should offer support, but you can never really be 100% sure.<\/p>\n Where your customers contact you now might not necessarily be where they want<\/em> to contact you.<\/p>\n The third piece of the pie in figuring out the best support channels is the product you have.<\/p>\n Think about these questions:<\/p>\n For example, if your product is something that people need to be up and running at all times, you need a faster method of support than email.<\/p>\n If it\u2019s something less urgent, you can possibly afford to give yourself some time, especially if you can\u2019t be available 24\/7.<\/p>\n Here are some more general pointers:<\/p>\n Whichever channels you decide to use now, it shouldn\u2019t be a forever decision. As your business and target customers change, your support needs to change, too.<\/p>\n Chances are that if your customers aren\u2019t happy with the way support is provided, they\u2019ll let you know. It\u2019s still good to have regular reviews of how your support works and how much your channels are being utilized.<\/p>\n This way you can proactively make sure you\u2019re still focusing on the right things.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing worse than support requests falling through the cracks. It makes pretty much every other support effort useless.<\/p>\n Ideally, you\u2019ll have all of your feedback, requests, and reports in one place. This is especially important for teams that have several people dealing with support.<\/p>\n Regardless of the other options you have available, make sure you always have some kind of self-serve support available.<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s a knowledge base, a Q and A section, or a help center<\/a> is up to you.<\/p>\n![\"Your](\"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Screenshot_2020-01-28-16-43-52@2x-1024x668.png\")
\nThink about the kind of product you have<\/h2>\n
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Some extra tips for support channels<\/h2>\n
Make sure to regularly review your support system<\/h4>\n
Regardless of the amount of support channels, make sure you keep track of all of them<\/h4>\n
Make sure help is always available with self serve<\/h4>\n
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