Apply the right support and response times to your customers!

In the field of customer relations, every detail counts. But if there is one detail to which customers attach crucial importance, it is the management of deadlines... Undeniably, improving the customer experience requires better management of customer support and response times. More specifically, when we talk about deadlines in customer relations, there are two types of essential deadlines:

• the processing time for requests
• response time to requests

Optimization of deadlines: a commitment to customers

In an increasingly digitized world where immediacy reigns, companies must clearly commit to deadlines vis-à-vis their customers. Otherwise, the latter will not hesitate to share their dissatisfaction publicly or turn to the competition.

In order to provide an effective response in terms of response times and response to your customers, it is therefore necessary to provide an optimized and proportionate response. For this, first of all, it is necessary to analyze the processing times under the prism of the following criteria:

• the contact channel used (telephone, email, chat, mail),
• the period (low or peak activity),
• the type of interlocutor (premium customer, customer with a strong reiteration of contact, etc.)
• the type of request (request for information, complaint, request for strong assistance)
• the area of ​​the activity

The strategy will consist of measuring the various processing times in order to establish reasonable quantitative objectives.

And beyond defining objectives on deadlines, the most important thing will be to be able to follow them every day and to plan the associated dashboard.

Point of vigilance

Today, most brands establish response time targets or response quality commitments but do not question the issue of customer expectations.

Another point, if the deadline is not correctly respected on a channel, the risk is that the customer will contact you via another channel and will thus generate a reiteration...

Some examples of support and response times

In order to help you see more clearly and to facilitate the implementation of good practices, EmpireOne Contact Center Support  has condensed for you the processing time recommendations by channel:

The management of

• Telephone: pick up before the 3rd ring
• Email: receive a personalized acknowledgment of receipt immediately with a response time clearly indicated in the acknowledgment and, please, forget the ready-made and impersonal formula of the type “We will provide you with an answer as soon as possible” the perception of “short deadlines” being different from one person to another.
• Mail: receive an acknowledgment of receipt by SMS, email or telephone upon receipt.
• Chat: support for the chat conversation in less than 30 seconds following the message posted by the customer
• Facebook / Twitter: support within 2 hours of the post or private message

Responding to customer requests

• Telephone: A resolution at the 1st contact is the most optimal way to satisfy him and if you cannot provide him with an answer immediately, contact the customer as soon as possible to keep him informed of the response time.
• Email: 24 hours maximum, the customer expects to receive a response quickly and during the day
• Mail: 5 working days maximum
• Chat: response in less than 10 minutes following the start of the conversation
• Facebook/ Twitter: Response within 4 hours following support

Now it's up to you to set goals for support and response times on all your contact channels.