A remote visual support tool is an innovative technology that takes advantage of live video support and augmented reality (AR) to enhance customer services and support practices. As a small business, chances are you do not have an overwhelming number of customers calling in daily. Therefore, opting for a remote visual support tool is the right option as it saves costs as well as affords you the manpower to redirect to other areas of your business with pressing needs. Taking several factors into consideration, opting for a remote visual support tool is one of the best routes for small businesses. They can help agents access and resolve customer needs in real-time, bettering the business’s overall customer outlook.
Small businesses in the remote work era
Since the emergence of Covid last year, the world was forced to adopt certain changes, some of which changed the work environment for good. Social distancing forced companies to resort to making staff work from home, and since the lockdown was eased, most companies have preferred to keep working that way.
At the moment, many small businesses have resorted to limiting staff numbers in the office through remote roles. As long as you can do your job from anywhere, you do not need to show up to work. This seems like the new normal.
The organization of small businesses when working remotely
One of the features that characterize small businesses is a relatively small team of staff. Due to low numbers, going remote sounds ideal to help reduce costs. It also helps increase productivity once the stress of commuting to work is taken away. Teams in small businesses can easily work remotely, especially in the area of customer support, connecting through their phones, social media, or the internet.
There are several effects of remote work on small companies, some good and bad. But so far, the benefits seem to outweigh the cons. We can conclude this from the rate of adoption in the general workforce. However, small businesses can easily reorganize themselves to accommodate remote working of their staff compared to huge businesses that have to deal with a lot of headaches. This is one of the few areas where small businesses actually come out top versus large corporations.
The challenges of remote work for small businesses
Despite the obvious juicy advantages, the challenges associated with remote work for small businesses are well documented. Remote work comes with a fair number of downsides, some of which are:
- It is hard to stay organized;
- It complicates the process of hiring and training employees;
- Managing new and existing customers are more difficult when working remotely;
- Not being at work complicates communications.
Although there are a good number of disadvantages, most small businesses still opt for remote work.
The importance of good customer support for small businesses
Excellent customer support is non-negotiable for small businesses because it helps them retain customers and even extract more value. Basically, through high-class customer support, small businesses get to retain loyalty, recouping acquisition costs, and also benefit from referral.
Why is it so important for small businesses to care about their customers
Small businesses are still trying to build a robust customer database, therefore, they need every single one they can get. This is why qualitative customer service is very important to show they care about their customers.
The major benefit is that it offers a win-win situation where the business benefit from continuous patronage and the loyal customers become ambassadors through their word of mouth. Therefore, the more customers you can satisfy, the higher the chances are that they generate a lead for your business.
The consequences of bad customer service for small businesses
With the benefits already covered, surely there are consequences on a business exhibiting bad customer services. The major downside of this is that it hinders a business’s chance of attracting more customers. Basically, since most small businesses already struggle with a limited customer database, exhibiting bad services could cause them to lose the customer. Therefore, the potential revenue that could come through referrals will also be lost.
A good example of excellent customer service is seen in the early days of Zappos. The company created a structure to effectively cater to customers’ needs. This was especially in its early days, establishing excellent call centers and also hiring only the best customer service reps. Over time, satisfied customers subconsciously engaged in free marketing and referrals, growing the brand exponentially to what they are today. Without this, they couldn’t have been successful.
The brand is built around having the very best customer service and surely, the business couldn’t have grown to its extent without that. Other honorary mentions include Chick-fil-A, Trader Joe’s, and Aldi.
The impact of a remote visual support tool for customer satisfaction
Quality customer service is generally based on building a solid relationship between the business and customers. This is why businesses go to the farthest extent to satisfy customers as much as possible, and are rapidly adopting remote visual support tools to that end.
So far, the tools have helped businesses enhance sales by revolutionizing their customers’ journey across several areas.
What is a visual remote support tool?
The move to increase customer satisfaction with a visual assistance tool is no longer news for businesses, as many have adopted the ideology today. These are basically tools that allow customer support teams and technicians to connect to a remote device through the internet.
They exist to allow each party to access the device and perform certain specified operations. For example, a support technician can sit at a location and connect to the system remotely. He can troubleshoot a problem without having to commute to the area. This saves both time and cost for the business as well as customers.
The impact of video during remote interaction with customers
Research and performance metrics have shown that video improves the process of interactions with customers as well as overall support. Basically, with video interactions, service agents can now have access to what their customers are seeing, showing them options and evaluate visual cues. This helps agents resolve customer requests faster, saving time, which is one of the valuable parts of the customer relationship management industry.
A good example of this is when a customer is in need of product maintenance or installation. A business having visual inspection in such case brings a lot of value. Indeed, it allows for a thorough inspection and also sprinkling a touch of modernization on the business. Generally, it leaves customers happy and resolves their requests much quicker. Having the video remote option also facilitates easy room for after-sales after delivering on the customers’ request.
Integrate your visual support tool in your IT ecosystem
Once you integrate an adequate visual support tool with your business’s IT ecosystem, records can easily be kept. Although this does not seem like not much, having the ability to archive video interactions with snapshots and chat conversations is actually very important for small businesses at the point of upscaling and growth.
Having these archived materials ensures that you can easily create a solution resolve tutorial for customer support agents. This helps them easily look through the problems that someone else has dealt with in the past. With this, they can resolve matters that they are not well-grounded in, with a very short reaction time.
Also, the archives are very useful for getting new staff to speed. They can be sectioned into structured training from the most common problems customers faces in that line of work to the most difficult ones. Basically, integrating your visual support tool in your IT ecosystem does nothing but benefit your business in more ways than one.
