If you’re a small business or startup, you know just how vital it is to create and maintain a community of happy and loyal customers. One of the best ways to do so is, of course, to deliver great-quality products or services that you can promote through spot-on digital marketing.
But there’s much more that you can do. For example, you can — and should — provide your customers with different lines of communication that enable them to reach out to you for anything they might need.
When leveraged in the right way, these customer service channels can truly help small companies like yours thrive in a competitive landscape.
Keep reading, and you’ll discover twelve of the best ways you can communicate with your customers and enhance your brand profile.
To understand what a customer service channel (or customer support channel) is, consider the overall buying process.
During this journey, a customer typically goes through a series of stages, which are also known as touch points. These can be anything from an email they receive from you, a social media post they comment on, or even a conversation with one of your live agents or chatbots.
Each one of these moments of crucial interaction between your company and your customers can be considered a customer support channel. But with so many options out there, which ones should you choose to use for your small business?
We’ve put together a list of the twelve best customer service channels for small companies. Take a look and pick the one (or the ones) that suits your company best.
Source: REVE Chat
One of the best and most popular customer service channels is live chat. This tool allows people to communicate with customer service reps online and in real time through natural conversations aimed at providing the fastest, most efficient, and most satisfactory resolution to any issue.
Because of this, live chat remains one of the channels of choice for many businesses, including small ones with potentially more limited budgets and resources.
However, live chat solutions don’t necessarily need to be simple and basic. You can opt for more sophisticated ones that include many additional tools, such as file sharing, transfer options, and boilerplate or canned responses.
Sure, a live chat with a human customer service agent is one of the best ways to serve your customers. But what if you could also have a friendly, knowledgeable chatbot that can handle less complex issues and take some of the burden off your human staff? Consider this the online equivalent of your call center IVR.
With the pervasive presence of AI technology across all industries, it’s unsurprising that AI-powered virtual assistants can be another excellent way to interact with your customer base.
Of course, you don’t necessarily need to go all-in and implement such a perfect chatbot that it’s almost impossible to tell whether you’re speaking to a human or a bot. Something more basic can work just as well, especially if you’re only starting out and don’t have a huge budget.
Even a simple bot can offer 24/7 assistance, answer easy questions, signpost people to the relevant content or information they need, and allow your human agents to focus on more valuable tasks.
Source: Kaleyra
Text messages, or SMS (short message service), can be used effectively to communicate with your customers quickly, simply, and conveniently. Think about it: when you’re out and about, your internet connection might not always be reliable. This means you might be unable to visit a website and contact online customer service.
However, if you can send and receive text messages, you can still ask for assistance and receive that assistance literally at your fingertips. Text messaging can be a great and very affordable option for small companies and one that many customers will likely appreciate.
If text messages aren’t your thing, or if you’d like to go the extra mile and present your business as a personable and committed brand, then video chat is a fantastic way to interact with your customers. Think of Zoom, which has garnered massive popularity in recent years.
Platforms like this are often available for desktop and mobile devices, meaning that customers can interact with your agents on the go and whenever it suits them best. While video chat is undoubtedly an excellent customer service channel, it’s also one of the trickiest to maintain, so consider this before implementing this tool.
No matter how small your business is, you should leverage customer relationship management (CRM) solutions to strengthen and expand your customer base. One of the beauties of CRM software is that it comes in all shapes and sizes — from basic options to hyper-customizable ones.
Through these tools, you can track all customer interactions, pinpoint potential issues, conduct customer segmentation, and more.
Many of the more sophisticated CRM platforms include live chat, a help desk, an inbox, and even customer feedback portals, making it even easier and more intuitive to manage your customer relationship from different angles.
Source: Cloudely
If you think that a good old phone call might be an obsolete way of providing support to your customer base, you may need to think again. Phone-based assistance remains a great way to interact with your customers, whether it’s via landline or smartphone.
A phone call allows for a more intimate approach. It enables your service agents to provide that personal touch that, in a digital-first world, is often missing but remains much appreciated.
The best contact center services offer anything from customer support to sales and marketing aid, so select the ones more suited to your specific needs and watch your small business soar.
Email marketing isn’t just a great way to promote your product or services. When used correctly, it can also be an excellent tool to interact with your customers.
For this to happen, include a clear CTA at the bottom of your emails that encourages your recipients to contact your customer service team if they need assistance.
In parallel, ensure that you have a trained and committed team of customer service agents who read all email communications and can respond to queries within 24 hours (or less).
Another customer service channel that you should consider is web forms. These tools enable you to organize, store, and manage all your incoming inquiries. Usually, forms like these feature a range of sections, depending on the specific aim of the form.
For example, you could create web forms for forgotten passwords, email newsletter subscriptions, assistance requests, and more.
Source: Clearout
Suppose you’ve noticed many customers contacting you with the same question or query. That’s usually a sign that you could benefit from including a self-service option in your customer service strategy. To this effect, creating an FAQ page on your website is a great idea.
FAQ (frequently asked questions) pages are great because they collate the most commonly occurring questions that your customers may have and provide step-by-step guidance or answers.
Customers feel empowered to solve issues quickly and easily, and your customer support teams can return to handling more complex requests for assistance.
Speaking of empowering customers, another great idea for a customer service channel is an end-to-end, comprehensive self-service platform.
This has the potential to guide customers in troubleshooting issues independently. It can also encourage them to get together with other consumers who love your brand and want to share opinions and experiences of using your products or solutions.
A self-service portal is the ultimate sign that you’re operating a truly customer-centric business while saving you time and effort by removing the frustrating and time-consuming back-and-forth that often needs to happen between a customer and one of your service agents.
When implementing such a platform, consider including some or all of the following tools:
Source: Tezo
Suppose your small company is active on one or more social media platforms. In that case, you must make the most of this communication channel to respond to customer queries on the fly.
Through these highly effective digital customer service channels, you can connect with people in real time and offer clarification, assistance, and answers in a friendly and informal setting that billions of people use daily.
While online shopping continues to be a popular choice for consumers worldwide, that doesn’t mean that the in-store experience should be undervalued. If your business operates in one or more physical locations, curating the overall in-person experience is necessary.
When customers visit a store, they have the opportunity to get up close and personal with the goods they’re interested in and can often sample products before choosing whether or not to buy them.
So, make the most of this crucial and immersive context to build a robust and authentic connection with your audience. Consider the following:
Source: Raydiant
Interacting with your audience effectively, efficiently, and quickly is paramount if you want to take your small business to the next level and create a community of devoted, returning customers. For this, a solid customer service strategy is non-negotiable.
You can strengthen yours by offering various customer service channels and catering to customer expectations, needs, and preferences.
In this article, we explored twelve of the best customer service channels, from self-service options to social media platforms, from fast email response to digital communication channels like live chat and chatbots.
Which will you leverage to help your small business thrive?