Top 5 Ways To Boost Your Customer Service Team's Productivity

Most customer service teams have more tasks than they can manage. They resolve ticket backlogs that run in triple digits, handle angry customers who want their problems to be resolved first, and manage countless social media mentions.

 

Therefore, businesses must have a highly productive customer service team that consistently delivers exceptional service. In this article, I will explore five ways to boost your customer service team's productivity, so you can meet your customers' expectations and drive success for your business.

 

Let's begin with the basics first!

 

What is Customer Service?

 

Customer service is the act of providing assistance and support to customers before, during, and after they purchase a product or service.

 

For example, when a customer receives a product, the item doesn't fit. You need to provide a way for the customer to reach out to you so they can either return the product or exchange it for a different size.

 

It involves engaging with customers to understand their needs, answering their questions, and solving their problems or concerns.

 

The ultimate goal of customer service is to create a positive customer experience that builds trust, loyalty, and a long-term relationship between the customer and the business.

 

Best Ways To Improve Customer Support Team's Productivity

 

All your customers expect speed and efficiency, which can be ensured by maximizing the team's productivity by incorporating certain changes and using technology-based tools.
Here are some of the best ways to boost your customer service team's productivity:

 

1. Use Regular Rewards and Recognition to Motivate Employees

 

Rewards play a vital part in motivating and incentivizing teams. For example, many organizations offer monetary incentives for successful sales closed by employees. However, non-financial rewards are sometimes required to keep your team motivated. These can often include items like Canvas Photo Prints.

 

Introducing recognition programs like 'Employee of the Month' or a handwritten letter by the CEO praising an employee's performance can motivate your staff to perform better.

 

Additionally, cultural celebrations and acknowledgments, such as recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day 2023, can foster a sense of belonging and appreciation within the team. Companies boost morale and promote a more inclusive environment by valuing diverse holidays and traditions.

 

2. Arm Your Team with the Right Productivity Tools

 

You can provide your customer support team with the right tools to increase productivity. 
For example, a tool like Todoist is great for busy executives who can use it to add more accountability and productivity to their day. With Todoist, it becomes possible to create digital to-do lists and add deadlines to prioritize what you have to accomplish on any given day, which prevents you from getting side-tracked by other ongoing projects.

 

Moreover, having live chat software can help you communicate with website visitors via instant messaging. The solution can help you resolve their queries in real time, leading to more conversions.

 

Besides texting, users can also make voice or video calls to explain their challenges better and receive an appropriate solution.

 

Live chat lets businesses gather insights into customers' needs, preferences, and pain points. To fully leverage these insights, it's essential to understand customer analytics, which can inform product improvements, enhance support interactions, and ultimately drive business growth.

 

3. Help Your Team Eliminate Distractions for Improved Productivity

 

According to a study, all the workers switch their tasks every three minutes, significantly decreasing productivity. For example, support agents might respond to a support ticket when they receive a Facebook notification on their phone. However, as they open their phone and start scrolling through the feed, they get an email pop-up on their desktop.

 

Sometimes, multiple customers may ping an agent while working on other tasks. This flurry of activities diverts your team members' attention and often holds them for up to 23 minutes before returning to the original job.

 

Hence, you should establish clear priorities and goals for your team. This can help them stay focused on what's most important and minimize distractions that are not related to their top priorities.

 

4. Use Internal Communication Platforms to Save Time

 

Sending emails for work-related notifications and collaboration often hampers productivity by burdening your employees with excessive information that often gets buried under its weight.

 

This leads to delays and employee fatigue that can be prevented by using team communication apps like Slack or Skype.

 

Many Slack bots can be trained to give customized responses to questions like 'What's the Wi-Fi password' or 'Where can I find the leave policy for employees? It can also be used to set personal reminders and tasks to boost your team's productivity.

 

5. Encourage Your Team to Take Regular Breaks

 

It is proven that taking regular breaks improves focus and keeps you motivated. In addition, a short ten-minute break can help your team achieve much more every single day. Therefore, it is a good practice to encourage your customer support staff to take small breaks.

 

Conclusion

 

Evolving customer expectations require you to always be on your toes to give your customers what they want. Hence, speedy and efficient support is central to an improved customer experience that reduces churn.

 

Besides using the tips mentioned above in the article to boost the team's productivity, I suggest collecting feedback, emails, and chat polls to better understand the customer service team's problems and help them resolve them based on the feedback received.