Financial slowdowns. Shifting buyer conduct. Funds cuts. Whether or not you are a startup founder or scaling your assist staff, moments of uncertainty ask everybody to rethink norms. However these identical moments can even spark inventive approaches to constructing companies that final.
At Assist Scout, we’ve seen firsthand how groups that prioritize clients are higher geared up to climate change. Listed below are a couple of ideas we’ve realized from the most effective of them that will help you navigate as we speak’s uncertainty.
Double down on relationship constructing
When issues get unpredictable, the intuition is commonly to do extra with much less — to automate, cut back, or streamline wherever potential. And whereas effectivity issues, don’t lose sight of what clients actually need: to be seen and heard.
Prospects wish to really feel acknowledged, particularly when issues are unsure. A useful, well timed response that actually addresses your buyer’s questions and issues will go a good distance in constructing belief.
Katie Harlow
Director of Help
Small, significant touches — like quicker response instances, a friendlier tone, or extra considerate follow-ups — can go a good distance in constructing belief and loyalty.
Learn how to make it occur
Instruments that enable you ship constant, empathetic assist generally is a sport changer in the case of relationship constructing. Think about using your assist software program’s buyer administration characteristic to offer your staff the context they should present extra customized assist or bringing extra of your staff into the assist course of by applications like complete firm assist.
Having data like account particulars, order historical past, and previous assist conversations useful can scale back the quantity of forwards and backwards it takes to resolve points. Pairing that context with responses from precise members of your engineering or management staff helps guarantee clients by no means really feel like a quantity.
Scale delight with self-service
Prospects need quick, correct solutions for the time being they want them. Self-service choices, like well-organized assist facilities or AI-powered instruments, aren’t nearly effectivity — they’re about delivering an excellent buyer expertise at scale.
If you happen to occur to be somebody who has been caught in a “doom loop” up to now, unable to get ahold of an actual particular person, you might really feel some apprehension on the point out of AI — particularly once we simply talked in regards to the significance of constructing stronger buyer relationships.
Nevertheless, self-service and AI aren’t (or at the very least shouldn’t be) about conserving your clients away out of your assist staff. As a substitute, these options are all about giving clients what they want. When somebody has a simple query — like “How do I reset my password?” — the most effective expertise is all the time going to be an prompt reply that may get the particular person again on their manner as shortly as potential.
By dealing with primary questions immediately by self-service, your staff good points extra time to offer customized consideration to complicated points that require experience and empathy, making certain an excellent expertise for all clients, no matter their wants.
Learn how to delight, not deflect
Create a buyer information base that features useful data like solutions to FAQs, product walkthroughs, and video explainers. Making your documentation available will get clients the solutions they want shortly and likewise unlock your staff for points that may’t be resolved by self-service.
Undecided the place to start out? Take a look at our information administration information for useful ideas.
You might also wish to look into utilizing AI instruments like a wise assistant in your web site or inside your product to assist present data within the second. Simply ensure that you employ instruments that prioritize buyer expertise and that you just all the time present a pathway to chatting with a human for moments the place self-service can’t correctly meet buyer wants.
Construct belief with transparency
Belief is considered one of your most useful currencies. Your clients might not count on you to have all of the solutions, however they do worth clear, well timed, and sincere communication. Whether or not you are elevating costs, introducing new options, or evolving your product, being upfront about what’s altering and why helps construct stronger, extra resilient buyer relationships.
At Assist Scout, we’ve had our justifiable share of sincere conversations with clients. Our most up-to-date instance is the transfer from person based mostly pricing to a mannequin that’s contact based mostly. This was an enormous resolution and one we didn’t take evenly. Though we have been (and are!) satisfied that this was the most effective transfer for our enterprise, we additionally knew that the transition wouldn’t be straightforward.
We did plenty of analysis and preparation forward of our official launch. We carried out buyer interviews and created related Docs articles, our assist division arrange a particular mini-team to turn out to be pricing consultants, and we created content material like emails in addition to LinkedIn and weblog posts to assist clarify our reasoning to our clients.
As soon as we flipped the change, we did obtain plenty of constructive suggestions, however not each dialog began out that manner.
Within the dialog above, a buyer wrote in with concern about price. On condition that their account solely had one person — that they had three individuals who rotated assist responsibility, all sharing a single login — switching over to contacts served appeared prefer it was going to trigger a big enhance to their month-to-month invoice.
We’ve been upfront with our clients — some clients pays much less on the brand new plans, whereas others pays extra. Nevertheless, on this case, there was a misunderstanding in how the change could be carried out for purchasers with bigger will increase. We have been capable of clarify our pricing cap plan to the client, which fortunately made them extra comfy sticking with Assist Scout.
We’re glad that the client wrote in. It gave us a chance to have a private dialog in order that we may clear up any confusion and discover a manner ahead. We have been additionally capable of present the client how one of many plan’s new options — limitless customers — may profit them.
Learn how to embrace transparency
There are a lot of methods to offer transparency to your clients. We’re within the thick of our pricing mannequin change, and we’re doing our greatest to encourage dialogue, be upfront with our reasoning, set correct expectations, and present the worth our new plans present.
As one other instance, if you’re introducing AI to your assist expertise, you may present transparency by explaining how the tech works, defining how buyer knowledge is getting used, and being clear in regards to the instrument’s limitations.
It doesn’t matter what sort of modifications your online business must make, conserving the traces of communication open and remembering to be sincere in regards to the what and the why is all the time going to be the fitting transfer.
Don’t go it alone
In instances of change, connection issues. Whether or not you are in search of new concepts, gut-checking an enormous resolution, or just needing encouragement, assist communities, peer networks, and trusted companions can provide views you gained’t discover by yourself.
Lately, we hosted three management dinners the place we gathered CX leaders in numerous regional markets. Many attendees expressed gratitude for the chance to debate how they’re navigating difficult situations in a face-to-face format.
Dillon McDermott
Director of Gross sales
Creating house to have these conversations — particularly exterior of Slack threads and Zoom calls — can assist you suppose extra clearly and really feel much less alone within the decision-making course of. It’s a reminder that whereas each firm is exclusive, many share the identical challenges.
Learn how to keep linked
Discovering an expert group might be difficult, however there are lots of nice ones on the market, each on-line and in-person, that may act as sounding boards once you’re in want of assist or a distinct perspective. Listed below are a couple of on-line communities that members of our staff belong to that is likely to be price wanting into:
We even have one other considered one of our in-person management dinners arising, so in case you’re going to be within the Miami space on June twelfth, 2025, we’d love so that you can be part of us. Study extra and register right here.
Remaining ideas
We imagine that conserving the client on the coronary heart of each resolution you make results in resilience. In instances of uncertainty, it’s what helps us keep grounded, linked, and prepared for no matter comes subsequent.
We hope the following pointers are helpful, and if there are different methods we will assist you as you navigate unsure waters, we’re right here to assist.
