The Right Mix of Customer Service Tools For Managing Customers

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They say the customer is the king, and I agree 100%. Without customers, your business is as dead as a dodo, which is why managing customer relationships efficiently is key. It doesn’t matter how good your business plan is; if you can’t keep your customers happy, you’re done. Because Happy customers translate to more sales down the line. If you had no idea, consumer to consumer word of mouth generates more than twice the sales of paid advertising.

On the other hand, unhappy customers translate to a poor brand reputation, headaches for your customer service team, and lost sales. Now, you don’t want that. It’s paramount to keep your customers happy always, and in today’s post, we share the right mix of customer service tools to help you with this endeavour. Without further ado, let us get down to business because we have a lot to cover.

The Best Customer Service Tools for 2021 and Beyond

We have listed the following tools in no particular order. All the same, we have cleverly curated a list of tools that will help you keep a smile on your customers’ faces at all times. Pick and run with the tools you need and grow your business like a boss.

1. A Robust eCommerce Platform for Effortless Online Shopping

Running a stone-and-mortar store is amazing. You do what you love, make money, and employ people who go on to feed their families. But it’s the 21st century, and you need to create an online store to make purchasing from your store faster and easier.

Many people nowadays shop online, which makes perfect sense considering the proliferation of the internet and devices that make shopping from home a lot easier. You cannot let such an opportunity slide. Instead, invest in a robust eCommerce platform that makes it incredibly easy for your customers to buy from your business without necessarily visiting your store.

On top of that, the right eCommerce platform makes managing your inventory and store ten times easier. Plus, it can plug into other tools to help you manage every step of the customer journey. If you use WordPress to create and run your online store, WooCommerce is one of the best eCommerce platforms. If WordPress is not your cup of tea, you can rely on tools such as Magento and Shopify to run an online store that works for you 24/7. Other eCommerce tools that make your work easier include BigCommerce, Volusion, Squarespace, and Prestashop, among others.

2. Email Marketing Software to Keep in Touch with Customers

Email marketing is one of the best ways of keeping in touch with customers. According to an article by Marketing Insider Group, businesses can earn an average of $44 for every dollar spent on email marketing. That makes email the king in a world full of other communication channels.

To ace email marketing like a pro, you need all the right tools that make keeping in touch with your customers as easy as A, B, C. The best part is you don’t need to reinvent the wheel – there are a ton of email marketing services out there. You just need to pick one that is perfect for your business, and you’re good to go.

Common email marketing services worth knowing include the likes of Constant Contact, ConvertKit, AWeber, Mailchimp, GetResponse, and Mad Mimi. Email marketing services make creating a list of subscribers and keeping in touch with them undeniably easy. You have all the tools you need to communicate with your customers whenever you want.

3. Social Media Tools to Engage with Customers

We live in a digital era where a large portion of your customer base hangs out on social media platforms for their daily dose of updates, games, and whatever you can think of. If you’re not using social media platforms to engage with customers, you are leaving a lot of money on the table. And it’s a shame considering how easy it is to market your business on social media channels.

Half of the work is already done for you. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest make creating business-focused pages so easy it would be insane to be without one. The best action plan is to automate your social media activities to save time and the effort required to engage your customers. And there are a million and one social media tools that make engaging with your customers as easy as pie. 

One of my best social media tools is Hootsuite. The tool helps you to manage social media activity across multiple accounts like a boss. Other social media tools to keep in mind include Buffer, BuzzSumo, Animoto, and Tweeps Map, among others.

4. A Multi-Channel Help Desk System for Efficient Troubleshooting

It’s of utmost importance to keep your customers happy, and we’ve already established that earlier in the article. To keep your customers happy, you must be ready to hear them out. And for that, you need a robust help desk system like the one offered by Zendesk to collect and manage customer complaints. Without a robust system to track everything, troubleshooting and following up will drive you crazy.

Regardless if it’s a cloud or a self-hosted help desk system, it generally streamlines your customer service, saving you a ton of time and money. You can track every customer and dispense help as required – all from a single dashboard. On top of that, you can automatically assign different tasks to different support reps, making running your small business easier than, say, if you did everything manually. There are tons of help desk systems out there that it is easy to get confused. The best tool should automate repeating tasks and help you manage the flow of information within your business. 

5. Survey Tools to Gather Feedback and Information

You cannot assume that you’re perfect and that your products and services are without flaws. That’s the perfect way to remain stagnant and stall the growth of your business. Astute businesspeople gather a lot of feedback from their customers. After all, that’s the only way to learn how your target audience is responding to your products and marketing message.

And to gather feedback and information from your customers, you need the best survey tools you can get your hands on. It’s incredibly easy to create online surveys nowadays. There are a ton of survey tools such as Google Forms (100% free), Survey Monkey, Client Heartbeat, Typeform and SoGoSurvey, among others.

Final Words

Keeping your customers happy is of utmost importance. Satisfied customers mean more business and a good brand reputation, which is exactly what you’re angling for. We hope our guide helped you curate a list of some of the best tools to manage customer relationships easily. At the end of the day, use whatever tools you have at your disposal to keep your customers happy at all times. After all, the customer is the king.