Corporate communications

8 brand tools every successful customer service team uses

Customers are the bedrock of any business. Large or small. Global or local. Startup or established. Your customers drive revenue and lend credibility to your company’s offerings.

Few would disagree with this statement. So, it is odd that numerous marketing teams tend to overlook the value that their customer service team brings to the table.

There should be no questioning the significance that strong customer service offers to an organisation:

  • 96% of customers consider customer service a key component of their loyalty to a brand
  • Increasing customer retention by just 5% can lead to profits increasing 25%
  • 72% of customers will share positive experiences with 6 or more people
  • 67% of customers would pay more for better customer service experiences
  • Investment in customer experience can increase employee engagement by 20%

But, its value doesn’t just extend to helping people and fostering better customer relationships. These teams can bring valuable insight to marketers and companies overall.

In a landscape that is increasingly guided by data, and appears keen to understand customers on a more detailed level than ever before, who better to provide this perception than those directly interacting with customers on a daily basis?

However, to help them acquire this insight, and to enhance their ability to build their brand’s reputation through strong customer support, they need to be properly equipped. Below, we highlight eight crucial brand tools to maximise the benefits your customer service team brings to your business.

1. In-depth knowledge base

Particularly in extensive global organisations, your customer service team can’t be everywhere at once. So, it is vital that customers have a way to serve themselves if they are in need of information. A robust, regularly updated knowledge base should be at the heart of this.

From a range of blog posts, FAQs and other resources on your website, to extensive sales collateral to inform your internal teams, a good knowledge base is a cornerstone of a successful customer service team. With this knowledge base, you are better-placed to:

  • Keep customers happy and informed
  • Consistently deliver support when your customers need it
  • Proactively respond to your customers’ concerns
  • Limit the amount of time devoted to phone calls, emails and other messages
  • Build your reputation as an authority within your industry

2. Empathy maps

When it comes to directly engaging with your customers, your customer service team is on the frontline. They have access to first-hand information about what your customers enjoy about your brand, what they don’t like, what they would like to see improved and what their pain points are.

Unfortunately, it is all too easy for the flow of that information to begin and end with a customer service rep. An empathy map can help ensure that the right data is gathered to guide the content your marketing team develops day-to-day.

Through these maps, you gain a categorised, clear layout of your audiences’ thoughts and feelings, including:

  • What problems they are looking to resolve
  • What their biggest fears and concerns are
  • What their goals and ambitions are
  • What content or support they would like to see from your brand
  • Where they are engaging with your brand
  • What they do, see hear, and say on a daily basis

With this knowledge collected by your customer service team and laid out during strategy meetings, your brand is better positioned to address your consumers’ needs and wants through your marketing.

3. Persona profiles

It is also important that your customer service team has a good understanding of your brand’s “ideal consumers”. Without this, they may be left in the dark about how to respond to a customer’s request or issue. Messages will need to be escalated up the chain of command, hindering your efficiency.

Creating persona profiles based on your insight into your preferred audiences – something your customer service team can help you gather – will give these teams a stronger sense of how to handle those who reach out to them.

Of course, every customer is unique, and personalisation is important. But these profiles can give your representatives a starting point to best guide this interaction. This can result in faster, more focused responses to messages, improving your customers’ experiences.

Download the full whitepaper

To explore our complete list of brand tools that help unlock the true potential of your customer service team, click here to get hold of our latest whitepaper.

Amplify the power of your customer service team

Equipping your customer service team with the right tools unlocks their true potential, not only in how they support your audiences, but in how they steer your marketing strategy.

The insight that these professionals offer on how your customers think, feel and act can be invaluable when harnessed properly. We hope that by emphasising these tools above, you too can get more value out of this important strand of your company.

Of course, a comprehensive platform such as BAM by Papirfly™ can help you take a massive step towards fully equipping your customer service teams with the resources they need to best perform their role.

For more information about the full capabilities of BAM and how it can positively influence every aspect of your marketing efforts, get in touch with our team, or book your free demo.