The 3 Phases of Customer Service Gladly Team 5 minute read #Best Practices Customer service is vital to the reputation, sales, customer experience, and long-term growth of any business. One of the major challenges of customer service, however, is how dynamic of a process it is. In today’s AI-driven world, this process has become even more complex and nuanced. Although most people think of customer service as simply taking in customer complaint calls or emails, there’s a lot more going on behind the complaint box. Today’s leaders in customer service recognize that connecting with customers is a process, and businesses that place their customers at the center of that process are the most likely to succeed. In this post, we’ll cover the three phases of customer service and give advice for how to keep people — your customers — at the center of each phase, with a focus on how AI is revolutionizing these processes. We’ll also explore how Gladly is leveraging AI to enhance each phase of customer service. Pre-Contact Phase of Customer Service This phase occurs before customers engage with the customer service team. It includes their discovery and exploration of your website, contact channels — such as social media and site chat — and first impression of your company’s brand. Customer service starts long before customers have made their purchase, asked a question, or called to complain about a service or product. It starts with your website and online availability, your social media presence and branding, and the avenues of communication you’ve provided to your customers. Here are some ways you can bolster your pre-contact stages of customer relationships: Train your team and AI: One of the most effective ways to prepare for interacting with customers is to provide training to your team and staff. This now extends to training your AI systems as well. Get to know your customers: Especially as customer service strategies continue to move online and through social media, you need to know the people that your business serves if you’re going to connect with them. Identifying your customers can help you set guidelines for the kind of language, videos, and content you’ll be sharing with them. Make customer service easy to find and use: Contacting your customer service team should be easy for customers. This means making it easy to find your customer service page, contact information, and FAQs. It also means being available and present on social media. AI-powered chatbots can provide instant responses 24/7, improving accessibility. Contact Phase of Customer Service This phase occurs when customers make their first (or repeated) contact with a company, usually with customer service or support teams. This is the most critical customer service phase, as it heavily influences customer decisions on whether to buy from or interact with your company in the future. Below are some tips to ensure your contact phase leaves a great impression on your customers: Personalize the experience: Behind every sale and transaction is a customer, and behind that customer is a person with whom you can build a relationship. Gladly’s comprehensive Customer Profile and Conversation Timeline features provide agents with a holistic view of each customer’s history with the company. This includes past purchases, interactions, preferences, and ongoing issues. By having this rich context at their fingertips, agents can provide: More personalized and empathetic service Addressing customers by name Referencing their individual history Tailoring solutions to their specific needs This level of personalization enhances the customer experience and builds stronger, long-lasting relationships with your customers. Empathize: Empathy is crucial for every step of the customer service process. AI can help by analyzing customer sentiment and providing agents with context, but human touch is still important for genuine empathy. Communicate clearly and respectfully: Clear and respectful communication is key. Gladly’s Answer Threads uses generative AI for chat and SMS responses, which means faster, more accurate responses to routine customer queries while maintaining a respectful tone. Post-Contact Phase of Customer Service This phase occurs after customers have contacted your customer service team. It can happen immediately, in the form of a response form or after some time has passed, in the form of a survey. The post-contact phase is all about forming long-lasting relationships and building for the future. Here’s how to excel in this phase: Learn and improve continuously: Actively seek and analyze customer feedback to demonstrate sincerity and transparency in your customer service approach. This process of learning from past interactions is crucial for identifying how you’ve retained or lost customers. CX leaders can leverage tools like Gladly Insights to determine customer sentiment and pinpoint areas for improvement. By analyzing customer interactions across all channels, Gladly Insights provides actionable insights that drive continuous learning and optimization of your customer service processes. This data-driven approach allows you to make informed decisions, refine your strategies, and ultimately enhance the overall customer experience. Leveling Up Your Customer Service Systems and Processes Gladly can help you personalize, energize, and simplify your customer service teams’ strategies and processes in the AI era. With Gladly’s state-of-the-art customer service platform, you can: Personalize your customer experience Meet your customers on the channels of their choice Build lifelong relationships that keep them coming back Leverage AI to enhance efficiency and accuracy Scale your AI and telephony use flexibly with Pay-As-You-Go pricing, allowing businesses to adapt their investments to their specific needs and growth By embracing AI-driven customer service solutions like Gladly, businesses can stay ahead in the ever-evolving landscape of customer service, ensuring that each phase of customer interaction is optimized for success. DEMO Have your cake and eat it too — get exceptional CX while saving money Book a demo Share
