If your company could be like any other company, what would you want it to be like?
That’s what customer service expert, Shep Hyyken, wanted to know.
To find out, he recently conducted an informal poll on LinkedIn and asked: “Which company’s customer service approach would you want your businesses to be like?”
There were four choices: Amazon (self-service), Ritz-Carlton (high touch), Uber (super convenient), and Ace Hardware (so helpful).
The answers were interesting:
- 37% want to be like the Ritz-Carlton
- 25% want to be like Ace Hardware
- 22% want to be like Amazon
- 16% want to be like Uber
The results reveal that customers seek a harmonious combination between modern convenience and classic traditional elements. Today's customers aren't bound to one way of experiencing products and services – they want the best of both worlds.
Customer experience is like an ace up your sleeve.
Not only do amazing customer experiences help you beat the competition, win new business and build trust, but they also make the price less relevant.
Nearly 60% of customers surveyed said that excellent customer service is more important than price.
And that’s important to know – especially in today’s down economy!
12 CRM features to create amazing customer experiences
When it comes to customer experience, how do you know which features can deliver value for both your business and your customers?
To make your research process easier, we’ve done the hard work.
Here are 12 of the most important SuperOffice CRM features you’ll need for amazing customer experiences:
1. Find and Selections
If you want to get to know your customers better, gathering customer data into a customer profile is crucial.
For example, if you know that a customer has bought certain products in the past, you can recommend similar products that the customer might be interested in.
Or, if you know how a customer likes to communicate, you can reach out to them in a way that is most convenient for them.
Find and Selections in SuperOffice CRM helps you make sense of your customer data and get the overview you need to create personalized communication and offers.
🤔 How does Find and Selections help you create an amazing experience?
By targeting and segmenting what your customers like, what they need, and what they’ve purchased, you’re able to improve your products and services, create better marketing strategies, and provide excellent customer service.
2. Document management
According to McKinsey Global Institute, employees spend 1.8 hours every day searching and gathering information. On average, that’s 9.3 hours per week, and approximately 468 hours per year!
As the amount of information keeps increasing, we need more efficient ways to structure and access that information.
Otherwise, you end up using most of your working hours looking for information instead of building customer relationships.
Document management in SuperOffice helps you get control of the chaos.
🤔 How does document management help you create an amazing experience?
By streamlining your document handling process and providing easy access to important documents, sales and support teams have all the necessary information at their fingertips, helping them to stay on top of customer conversations and better understand customers' needs.
3. Chat
Live chat used to be a luxury in customer service.
Not anymore.
Now, more than 40% of web visitors expect to have access to customer support via a quick and friendly message exchange on your site – with this figure rising as high as 50% for those using mobile devices.
Live chat helps you to:
- Increase sales and conversions
- Personalize interactions
- Provide real-time customer service
- Keep customers happy
Failing to offer customers real-time assistance through live chat could be seen as denying them essential support, making it harder for you to build relationships with existing customers or attract new ones.
Here’s how SuperOffice Chat works:
🤔 How does live chat help you create an amazing experience?
Everyone wants immediate gratification.
Live chat helps your customers achieve that by providing fast and easy real-time communication with your team. Plus, while customers are waiting on a response from reps, they can still get other things done, like handle their work emails.
Everybody benefits when there’s no more wasted precious moments due to long waits or delayed responses.
4. Mailings
When it comes to B2B marketing, nothing beats email.
It is one of the most universal methods of customer communication and can be used across various industries and locations around the world.
Email helps businesses save time.
Sales, marketing and service teams can send email messages to your customers, while creating a written record that can be easily referred back to at any point.
And if you compare different communication methods, email is the most cost-effective.
On average, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect a return of $42.
SuperOffice Mailings includes all the tools you need to reach your target group, send better emails and improve your conversion rates:
- Segment your target group
- Personalize your mailings
- Design your email campaigns with the mailing editor
- Automate campaigns
- Track results
Here’s how it works:
🤔 How do Mailings help you create an amazing experience?
Mailings in SuperOffice CRM gives you the tools you need to easily create personalized communications for customers based on their preferences and behaviors.
Actionable tracking and reporting features let you measure email performance and customer engagement, helping you better understand customers' needs and craft more effective messages.
5. Ticketing system
Have you ever felt like your customer support request has fallen into a black hole?
Chances are you were frustrated and upset because you felt like the company was ignoring you. That’s how customers feel when their request hasn’t been acknowledged or answered.
That's where a ticket management system like SuperOffice Service comes in.
SuperOffice Service helps businesses stay organized and on top of incoming requests or issues from customers, clients, or employees by:
- Storing every single email request in one database with an assigned tracking number
- Having all your customer information in one place for everyone to see
- Communicating with your customers in a simple and easy manner
- Efficiently collaborating with your team while managing requests
Here’s ticket management works in SuperOffice:
🤔 How does ticket management help you create an amazing experience?
Knowing no request will go unanswered makes for a better overall experience with your business.
With SuperOffice Service, customer inquiries never fall through the cracks. Not only can tickets be prioritized based on urgency and assigned to appropriate team members for resolution, but also every step of their journey is tracked.
This gives your customers peace-of-mind that nothing gets overlooked.
6. Customer engagement platform
In the next 3-5 years, non-human customer service will be more essential because customers want to be able to quickly find answers for themselves without having to pick up a phone or sending emails.
Additional research shows that 69% of customers try to solve issues on their own.
They’re looking for 24x7 availability, online chat and self-service options, such as online FAQs, how-to videos or knowledge bases.
Companies who are looking to improve their customer experience must offer self-service options today.
You can get this with the customer engagement platform in SuperOffice.
Here’s how the customer engagement platform works:
🤔How does the customer engagement platform help you create an amazing experience?
Building trust with customers has never been easier.
SuperOffice CRM's customer engagement platform changes the way companies interact with their customers. This secure, self-service portal provides an environment where customers can easily access and update personal information, explore helpful support documents and more.
It also gives them a convenient space to offer feedback on products/services, so that businesses can adjust accordingly and get better results.
7. Personal data and privacy
GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation, and is a set of rules that protect people's privacy and personal data in the EU.
It applies to all companies that collect or process personal data of EU citizens, no matter where they are located.
GDPR is important because it gives individuals more control over their personal data and ensures that companies protect customer data properly.
Companies have to get explicit consent from individuals before collecting and processing their personal data, and they must also explain clearly how the data will be used.
Complying with GDPR isn’t just about avoiding the steep fines, it’s also about customer trust. When you show that you’re serious about GDPR you’re showing respect for your customers’ privacy.
Here’s how SuperOffice CRM helps you comply with GDPR regulation:
🤔 How does the GDPR feature help you create an amazing experience?
The GDPR feature in SuperOffice CRM helps you build trust with your customers. It allows you to give your customers full control over their personal data.
They’ll have greater peace of mind knowing that they can opt-in for marketing communications and view what data preferences are being used to manage it.
8. Quote manager
Let’s be honest – preparing and sending a quote is time consuming!
The amount of time it takes for a salesperson to create a quote and send it can vary depending on a few factors, such as the complexity of the product or service being quoted, the size of the order, specific requirements from the customer, and the level of detail needed in the quote.
Here’s how it usually works when sending a quote:
- Collecting information: The salesperson will need to gather information about the customer's needs, such as the products or services they require, the quantity, and any special requests or customization options.
- Calculating costs: The salesperson will need to calculate the cost of the product or service, including any materials, labor, and overhead costs.
- Factoring in margins: The salesperson may need to factor in their company's profit margin or negotiate a price with the customer.
- Creating the quote: The salesperson will need to create a formal quote document that outlines the product or service being offered, the price, and any terms and conditions.
- Reviewing and revising: The salesperson may need to review the quote for accuracy and revise it as necessary based on feedback from the customer or internal stakeholders.
- Sending the quote: The salesperson will then send the quote to the customer, typically via email or a customer portal.
(That’s a lot of steps 🤯).
And if timelines aren't met, customers can understandably get frustrated.
There’s a better way. Here’s how quote management works in SuperOffice CRM:
🤔 How does quote management help you create an amazing experience?
No more relying on manual processes and double-checking notifications – SuperOffice Quote Management has it all taken care of.
Keep an eye on how quotes progress in real time, set up automated notifications when they're accepted or declined, and ensure that every customer gets a timely response.
9. My activities
It’s easy to get lost in activities, and the list seems to get longer and longer every day.
Should you focus on all the low-level tasks first to get them over and done with? Or do you focus on the high-value activities first?
Author, writer and speaker, Khe Hy, thinks you should apply “The $10,000/ Hr Framework” to everything you do.
The $10,000/hour framework starts with the premise that our time is valuable and that we should treat it as such.
If we consider our time to be worth $10,000 per hour, we will be more mindful about how we use it and more selective about the activities we engage in.
In practical terms, it means that you should focus on high-value activities that have the potential to make a significant impact on your day, such as preparing for a customer meeting, writing a sales pitch, or building business relationships.
Here’s how SuperOffice CRM helps you to focus on the right activities:
🤔 How does activity management help you create an amazing experience?
You can quickly and easily set up individual activities, check progress, plan ahead in the calendar – all to ensure that no activity falls through the cracks.
With this feature by your side, you’ll have increased visibility into each customer contact, so that they always feel supported.
10. Web forms
Web forms enable quick collection of customer data and feedback, which allows for a more personalized experience and keeps customers engaged.
Give your website visitors the power to interact with you effortlessly.
Whether it's gathering contact details or signing up for an event, web forms are a great tool in making communication easier than ever before.
Here’s how SuperOffice web forms work:
🤔 How do web forms help you create an amazing experience?
Whether it's for submitting inquiries or requesting assistance, this feature makes it easy for customers to get the information they need quickly.
11. Projects
One of the ways to build trust with your customers is to deliver on your promises – whether it’s during or after the sale.
To never miss a deadline or a scheduled activity, a good idea is to turn them into projects with a start, a finish, and people responsible for certain tasks (aka project members).
In other words, projects are a great way to strengthen collaboration and alignment across customer-facing teams, with all information accessible to all project members.
Here’s how SuperOffice Project works:
🤔 How do projects help you create an amazing experience?
Projects can help your customer-facing teams organize their work so that they keep their promises with ease.
And when your customer-facing teams are aligned and have easy access to information, your customers will get the attention they deserve on time and as agreed.
12. All-in-one CRM
Platform Having access to relevant information is a pre-requisite for consistent and adequate follow-ups.
Imagine this: your customer is facing delivery issues or has a serious problem with your product. They have reported it to your customer service team and still waiting on the answer. Meanwhile, unaware of it all, your sales rep tries to upsell this customer.
How would the customer feel? “Not happy” would be an understatement.
That’s why knowing what other teams are doing is paramount!
If everyone sits in information silos, engagements with customers will be inconsistent and even incorrect. They will also lead to internal noise, frustrations and poor customer experiences.
Using an all-in-one CRM platform like SuperOffice with marketing, sales and service features gives you a complete 360-degree view of your customer interactions.
🤔 How does an all-in-one CRM platform help you create an amazing experience?
It breaks down the information silos. It allows information to flow freely between the teams – so that everyone is in the know.
Having a shared view of customer information not only drives collaboration across all teams, but also puts the customer in the center of all strategies.
Conclusion
As Shep Hyken says: “The best customer experiences are simple and seamless.”
It doesn’t have to cost much money to exceed customer expectations.
Customers want:
- Personal and proactive interactions
- Convenient ways to achieve a resolution
- And a team of people at your company who are empowered to care
Good customer service helps build powerful relationships with customers.
All it takes is a little focus, a customer experience strategy and a willingness to execute on that strategy with the help of a CRM platform like SuperOffice.
If you’re not using SuperOffice CRM today, schedule a free demo and we’ll walk you through the platform and show you the features you can use to deliver amazing customer experiences.
Ready to get started?
