How to Build a Thriving Support Team and Department from Scratch
Building a customer support team is best done with a clear plan. You can wing it, but you will find yourself having to undo mistakes at tedious length later. Whether you’re starting a support department from scratch or have been managing customer support for a while, these seven building blocks make for a solid foundation.
Capitalize on your existing skill sets
Look at your existing team’s strengths to decide what form of support to focus on in the early days and what gaps you need to fill in the long run.
- Outgoing writers or social influencers can be a valuable addition to the support team
Make the call
Different products and services fit more naturally with different support channels
The pros and cons of online customer service channels
Email: Conversational, asynchronous, and an excellent record of past discussion
- Phone: Allows for direct conversation in real time
- Live Chat: Makes back-and-forth less cumbersome
- Social Media: Facilitates conversation around your product or service
- Forums: Allow your community to help each other
- Knowledge Base: An excellent way to scale your customer service efficiently
Individual tools
Allowing your customer team some flexibility in which tools they use to get their job done will help them be more effective
Internal tools and systems
Customer service teams rely heavily on internal systems like custom database searches, configuration pages, and logging systems to access customer information, fix issues, and report back to the company. Spend some time and effort to make those tools efficient and, if not attractive, then not actively painful to use.
Deliver on Your Company Values
If your company values integrity or speed, those values should inform your definition of great service, and you should set your team up to deliver on those values
- Keep in mind that customer service teams can only offer service as good as the rest of the company will allow
Consistently exceed customer expectations
Set internal expectations by asking the following questions: How quickly will you respond to customers? How will your team behave when dealing with customers (tone, language, attitude)? How will you handle disagreements with customers? What (if anything) are you not able to support?
- Who in the company is responsible for customer service? What ethical principles will you hold to?
Decide which channels to support
It’s far better to provide quality customer support on a few channels than to spread your team too thin
Define “great customer service”
When building a support department, you need to decide on the specifics of service quality you will provide and include your entire team in crafting that definition.
Create your knowledge base
Your investment will be rewarded tenfold when your customers can find answers on their own
- A knowledge base will also save time when responding to common customer questions
- Most knowledge base software offers reporting tools which are valuable for successfully scaling your support
- Take the time to write down how certain issues are handled and how to use different tools
Do the work
Customer service is not like a project that has a beginning, middle, and end. It is ongoing work that must adapt over time as the market, your customers, and your team change
Hire the right people
What is the ideal support personality? Start with emotionally intelligent, empathetic, resourceful communicators, and then add factors specific to your company culture. What skills should your support professional have? Ensure your job description, screening process, and interview questions list any necessary skill requirements and clearly differentiate them from the “nice-to-haves.”
- How will you integrate them into your team? Once you’ve hired team members, plan out their first few weeks to teach them about your culture and approach to service, as well as how to keep them engaged.
Measure the right data
Understand why you are reporting
- Who are you reporting to
- What do you want the outcome to be
- Measure the numbers that correlate to the change you want to see
- The metrics you choose should be meaningful and authentic
- They should also be measures that your team can impact
Find out what your customers are using
Look at what your existing customers naturally gravitate toward, and do some research on your target audience to make sure you are available on the platforms they’re already using to reach them
Examine legal requirements
Do service level regulations apply to your industry? If so, create your own definition of customer service that you will commit to following and, in some cases, use as an upsell opportunity for higher-priced or pay-to-play business models.
Pick your tools
Customer service tools are often low on the priority list for companies with limited budgets.
Selecting Customer Service Software
What functionality do you need?
- How many people need to use it? What sort of conversations will it be handling? What platforms does it need to support? What do you want to report on? What are your “nice to have” features versus necessary features?
Integrate support into your product and company
The goal of a customer-focused company is to build in systems across teams that support great service
- Push decision-making to the front lines
- Automate customer-friendly processes
- Create feedback loops
- Support your team
- Treat them with the respect they deserve
- Include them in product and strategy meetings
- Celebrate their successes
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