Businesses have found ways to save both time and money with the Salesforce customer self-service portal. The major benefit of leveraging the portal is enhancing the customer experience. There are functionalities like self-service options that help customers solve their queries by themselves without them waiting for support reps to answer. By using advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence, the portals have become smarter and a faster option to solve customers queries. Businesses are ready to invest in portals as the number of incoming tickets decreases by the self-service option and so does the cost of handling it. The customer reps are able to focus on the complex queries and ensure the customer’s query is resolved and is satisfied with the service. There is a lot this salesforce self service portal can do to enhance the customer experience. Let us have a look at them one by one.
Multiple Ways to Offer Self-service
There are queries that require interaction with support reps, but other than that, maximum queries can be solved by customers themselves. Self-service can help your business in providing a personalized experience to your valuable customers. Technology has evolved a lot and we have many tools that can help you to help your customers. Having the right tool can help your customers in saving time and improving the self service experience.
The self-service portals will have FAQs and a knowledge base loaded with information. You can add a search bar for them to directly search what they are looking for. You can add articles for them to refer to and can watch videos for better explanations.
With the AI advancements, chatbots have turned out to be life saviors. Chatbot is a tool capable of finding answers based on the keywords in the question asked by the customers. Chatbots are basically robots that send you quick responses based on your questions.
One more way to help your customers find answers and information to their questions is through a community forum. It is a splendid way to increase customer engagement. This platform allows customers to ask and share their views, questions, reviews, suggestions, expectations, etc. For business these data can help them in planning future strategies as you know what your customers expect. You can lead the market if you extensively analyze these data and take actions accordingly.
To sum up these, you have the below self-service option to offer:
- Knowledge Base
- Chatbot
- Community Forum
- FAQs
Increase the Visibility and Awareness of Self-service Options
We know that customers like using the self-service option rather than contacting a support rep. But how will the customer be able to use it if these options are not properly visible? For instance, let’s say that you have an AI powered chatbot integrated in your salesforce customer portal. The customer will use it if they find it on the homepage or there is a hyperlink that takes them to the chatbot.
Visibility and accessibility are two major factors to make these features fruitful for your customers. If you are adding new features or the data shows that customers are not using a particular self-service option, it means your customers are not aware about it or they are not able to access it. To educate them there are various ways to increase awareness: you send awareness messages via emails, in call recordings, and through support reps while engaging with the customers.
To add to this, you can add links to all these on the homepage so that it is easier for customers to find. You can provide an internal search bar for them to instantly get the information. If your portal is complex then it will increase the queries of your customers rather than decreasing it. So, having a proper awareness is a must if you wish to improve customer experience.
Learn and Improve Gradually
Adopting a new tool can be challenging. But to make the best use of it, it is important for you to learn from the challenges and mistakes. For instance, an article on knowledge base or a how-to video can guide the customer while they make their first purchase. Chatbots can be handy while having crucial questions and if the customers are still not satisfied then the ticket is transferred to the support rep.
If your portal goes through any changes, you must instantly update it on the knowledge base and all the available information on the database. This will ensure that your customers are able to find the right and latest information and are not confused with the old information. Still if you feel that the new change can confuse your customers, inform them about the change via emails, calls, text or any communication medium that you follow. So, they would not have faced the issue in the first place.
Taking care of your customers and thinking by keeping yourself in their shoes will help you recognize the gaps. Such preventive actions surely makes your customers’ experience with you a memorable one.
Feedback from Customers
Who can review better than the one who has faced the issue? Feedback plays a vital role in learning the issue with the current system and making the necessary changes for the future. You can only improve when you have a clear understanding and data that shows problematic points. After the issue is solved you can ask the customers about their experience with the support team. You can ask them questions like:
- Was the data on the knowledge base helpful?
- Suggestions on what part requires improvement
- Rate the overall experience
- How long did it take to resolve the query?
- Was the experience satisfactory or not?
Collect this data and analyze it wisely. These are the actual feedback from customers themselves and best ways to improve customer experience.
Conclusion
The Salesforce customer portal is able to enhance the customer experience and the above points prove it. Every business is different from one another and it is possible that your business requirement is different from what others normally use. You can always customize the portal as per your needs. You can always keep an eye on the data and the feedback. Improving constantly is the only way to ensure your business is able to provide satisfactory experience to your customers.
Author Bio
Mr. Maulik Shah is the founder of CRMJetty, a hub of innovative customer relationship solutions, that provides ready to CMS integrated portal solutions for various CRM, salesforce customer portal, salesforce self service portal. Maulik is a tech enthusiast and writes about the various aspects of e-commerce technology.
