3 Ways Your Support Software Prevents You From Being Customer-First | #customersupport #supporticket

To be successful in 2022, it’s vital that you bring customers to the forefront of your B2B business. However, did you know your customer support software is likely holding you back, or outright preventing you from achieving this? To truly be a customer-first business, you need to know what your customers’ goals and pain points are, support them in ways that make these goals more achievable (or alleviate their hindrances), and ultimately help them grow. 

Not only is this customer-centric strategy rapidly becoming the norm for all businesses, but it also ensures your customers’ success, and in turn, your own. In fact, 70% or more of annual revenue comes from current customers.

As simple as it may sound, attaining a customer-first business model isn’t all that easy, particularly when a business’ very own support software is hindering it. 

Your B2B support software is preventing your business from being customer-first by:

1. Lacking structure that builds and improves customer relationships
2. Merely focusing on closing tickets
3. Failing to assist your customers in attaining their goals

Lacking structure doesn’t only translate to lacking a plan. While it’s imperative that your business construct comprehensive plans to institute a customer-first methodology, a plan won’t get far if there is an absence of necessary structure – or roadblocks preventing it. The same holds for B2B customer support software geared only for closing tickets – if it’s the software itself that is preventing you from being customer-first, there is little you can do within the framework of a system that is already stopping you.

Your support software fails to improve customer relationships

Customer relationships are the most important aspect of a successful B2B business. For one, improved relationships means higher retention and loyalty. Equally as important, it also means greater success for your business since it’s 7 times more expensive to attract new customers than it is to retain existing ones. 

Most B2B software services not only completely ignore opportunities for relationship-building initiatives, but they also lack strong analytics to identify risk and opportunity, any customer success initiatives, or needed live chat functions, and they also obstruct any potential avenues to reach these. 

These obstructions can be as simple as not providing the necessary tools for relationship management, they only focus on closing tickets, and they don’t zero-in on making your customers successful.

You’re just closing customer support tickets

If your B2B support software is primarily geared towards deflecting and closing out tickets, it’s likely sabotaging your customer relationship opportunities. Ticket management is barely scratching the surface of the necessities of ideal B2B support software. Tickets need to be solved, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s such a small slice of the greater support pie. 

Ticket-specific support software suffers from tunnel vision and that suffering impacts your customers and your business. The closing-out-tickets-first approach means your business misses massive opportunities to get to the root of your customers’ needs: you’re failing to recognize hindrances in your own process or services that create additional problems for customers, and you’re not reaching your potential of holistically helping customers reach their goals (if they know what they are). 

Your customers need a methodology that legitimately supports them, pinpoints goal areas where they can be successful, and then lifts them up to reach them.

Your support software ignores your customers’ growth goals

A poor B2B software platform only addresses what you need, and never what your customers need. A great support experience is first and foremost about your customers’ specific experience with your company. After all, 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.

Yes, tickets do need to be addressed and solved, but what is the conclusive goal? To ensure success for your customers and your business. To grow your customers, and for you to grow with them. 

A great B2B support solution ensures that both you and your customers achieve growth in tandem. The more focus you give your customers, the more you are neutralizing churn risk. A 5% reduction in monthly churn can lead to 50% more revenue over a five-year period. Your business success is directly proportional to your customers’ success, so why ignore it or use a support software that continuously fails to ensure it? Your support software fails to provide a holistic understanding of what your customers need since the current approach only looks at momentary fixes. 

Being a customer-first B2B business means more than just “meeting customer needs.” It requires your business to ensure customer success and growth. To successfully reach true customer-centricity, a B2B business needs to know, support, and grow with their customers. 

If your support software is preventing you from knowing, supporting, or growing your customers, then it is holding you back from truly being customer-first and preventing success in 2022.