<ul><li>Selecting customer service software: You need to know the difference between "nice to have" features versus necessary features along with the apps that you need to integrate. Having slow or unhelpful tools will waste your support's time.</li><li>Internal Systems: Customer support teams are heavily reliant  on internal systems such as custom database searches, configuration pages, and logging systems to access customers' fix issues. If you can't afford attractive software, make sure that it's not painful to use.</li><li>Set aside a budget for individual tools for your support team, it'll be worth the investment.</li></ul>

Picking your tools

It's highly recommended to have a customer-focused company, but what should the goal be? The goal is to build in systems across teams that support great service.Support managers are encourages to:<ol><li>Push decision-making to the front line</li><li>Automate customer-friendly processes</li><li>Create feedback loops; and</li><li>Making the team feel respected day in, day out.</li></ol>

Integrating support into your product and company

So that you may be able to provide high quality, reliable customer support, you must have a great customer support team, but how do you filter out the ones that you need? Here are some questions that can help you better choose candidates:<ul><li>What is the ideal support personality you're looking for?</li><li>What skills should your support professional have? </li><li>How will you integrate this new hire to the team? and;</li><li>How do you keep them?</li></ul>

Hiring the right people

It's tempting to say that your company will be available on every channel for your customers however, this isn't applicable for small teams without having to spread your team too thin and deliver inconsistent customer support quality.In order to figure out which channels to support you need to find out what channels your customers are using the most (tech support/live chat/social media), start with focusing on fewer channels, and then capitalize on your existing skill sets.

Choosing which channels to support

The only downside to having a knowledge base is that it's time consuming to develop, but here are the benefits of having it:<ul><li>It will lessen the strain on your support team</li><li>Allow for faster onboarding </li><li>Greater consistency of support; and</li><li>Saves time for both support and customer</li></ul>

Creating a knowledge base

Customer service softwares produce detailed results for us, but it doesn't tell you which metrics matter to your team and what you need to do about them. In order to choose which metrics matter here are three big questions that will help you decide:<ul><li>Why are you reporting?</li><li>Who are you reporting to?</li><li>What do you want the outcome to be?</li></ul>The metrics you choose to report should be meaningful and authentic. Afterwards, take a baseline measurement, set internal targets for your team, and work forward.

Measure the right data

Almost every single company claim to provide great customer service, however, we still hear complaints from customers so we will presume that there is an opportunity for improvement.In order to have a thriving customer support team you must define what "great service" is for your company. Afterwards, once you've set a standard you then only need to deliver on your company values, consistently exceed customer expectations, and examine any legal requirements.

Defining Great Customer Service

Follow these 7 foundational steps to build a brand new support department or maximize the success of your existing customer support team.