First reply time, or FRT, is key to starting a customer support engagement off on the right foot. When a customer needs help, they may be experiencing frustration or aggravation. Acknowledging their needs and setting off to find a solution needs to happen as soon as possible. This article covers five steps you can take to get quicker first response times (FRTs). These tips will help reduce wait times, increase customer satisfaction, and improve conversion rates.
1. Staff at Appropriate Levels to Reach Goals
One of the hurdles to success for new eCommerce businesses comes from the founder or owner trying to do everything themselves. Nowhere is this impact felt more than with support. Even if you only have a handful of support inquiries each week, it is important to remember that each interaction is valuable! A great support experience may send that early customer off singing your praises, while the negative impact of a bad experience on your fledgling brand can be enormous.
Having enough help desk staff on hand at any given time will result in faster response times. It’s important to consider this when hiring support agents. You want individuals who are respectable, patient, quick-thinking, and efficient so that they can get through as many inquiries as possible while maintaining quality service each step of the way. When customers contact support, they don’t want to wait for hours listening to elevator music. They want their issues resolved as soon as possible. Your employees should be able to answer and fix customers’ problems right away.
2. Provide Training & Tools
If agents are working at a frantic pace because the information isn’t easy for them to access then things can slow down and frustrate everyone involved. Investing in training for employees on what you do and don’t sell can save time, money, and stress for everyone involved, including yourself as an eCommerce business owner.
It helps to regularly train staff members so that they can continue providing top-notch service over time. Whether it’s through formal training like classroom seminars or online webinars, provide your support team with the information they need to make them efficient and effective at their jobs. This will improve FRT by ensuring that no time is wasted looking for information. Agents should also be well versed in your company’s practices and procedures.
3. Invest In Technology
Installing different systems like chat programs, ticketing apps, or help desk software can improve your FRT by thousands of minutes (or hours) per year. These tools work great for saving time. Agents are able to access important information without leaving the chat window or moving to different screens. Automation tools also reduce direct contact with customers for simple requests, thus saving money.
4. Develop Macros & Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs )
This is where many companies fall short—and why you should reconsider posting an FAQ section in the first place! Customers stay when they find answers quickly and they leave or get frustrated when no information is available or when what’s there isn’t helpful.
Setting up FAQs is a great way to educate customers and save time in the long run. Your visitors will also trust you more when they see how easy it is to get an answer from your business. FAQ sections on your website need to be concise, up-to-date, and clear so they actually help customers in a timely fashion.
Macros can be a huge time-saver and lets you have a unified ‘voice’ for your brand. Instead of having to form a new response every time a similar inquiry comes in, an agent can select a pre-written macro and send it off. This saves an immense amount of time overall, which in turn reduces FRT.
5. Find Ways To Automate And/Or Simplify Repetitive Tasks
It’s important to be proactive by finding ways to automate processes or make things simpler for your staff. Send auto-replies to customers when they make after-hours inquiries. Automatically route support tickets to specific queues to alleviate clutter. Set up chat automation to provide answers & FAQ articles directly to the customer with no human interaction.
Making sure you have a quicker first reply time has a big impact on customer satisfaction. In addition to reducing frustration levels with waiting times, this strategy can lead to better conversion rates. Customers may be more inclined to stay engaged if they’re receiving timely replies from knowledgeable staff members.
If your business is growing and your FRT is suffering, contact our team at wrrk. We would be excited to explore how our experience and expertise partnering with eCommerce businesses like yours can help. Delivering great support is paramount to your success. Together, we can make that happen.
