Ever marvel what the shopper assist queue for a buyer assist platform would possibly appear like? Welcome to the Help Group Mailbag, a weblog collection the place you possibly can be taught what’s on our clients’ minds and get the within scoop on how we offer assist.
As we speak’s query:
Do you will have any examples of how completely different assist groups handle their queues and construction their inboxes? I’d like to see what folks are doing!
Nice query!
There are loads of methods to arrange your mailbox and handle your queue. Some assist groups make use of assignments to offer possession of every dialog to a selected particular person. This could be a good method if one staff member is an skilled on a selected subject or for those who simply need to ensure that your entire buyer requests are equally distributed amongst your division.
Protecting conversations unassigned
At Assist Scout, we take a unique method. We primarily depend on retaining conversations unassigned, making it a team-shared duty to reply to any conversations that land in our inbox. Every member of our assist staff is educated to deal with the big range of questions we obtain. Hopefully, we’re in a position to resolve the shopper’s query with one reply, but when not, when the shopper writes again, the following obtainable staff member will decide up the case.
We like this method as a result of it permits us to get clients again on observe extra shortly. We don’t have to fret about ensuring our particular circumstances are lined once we log out for the day or have a vacation off from work. One among our teammates in one other time zone or location will preserve the dialog shifting ahead.
Nonetheless, this technique of queue administration may also be difficult. As a completely distant staff unfold the world over and its many time zones, we will’t jump over to a different particular person’s desk when we now have a query. Ad-hoc video calls or Slack messages are positively helpful, however they don’t seem to be at all times doable and never at all times the quickest technique to resolve an issue.
We’ve wanted to develop particular and clear processes and communication pointers to assist us assist our clients, no matter time zone. Right here’s how we leverage Assist Scout options to do that.
Utilizing views for higher focus
Since we’re all primarily within the unassigned folder, it’s been actually essential to assist our staff prioritize conversations and stave off emotions of overwhelm. In spite of everything, weeding via an ever-growing queue overlaying the whole lot from password resets to difficult API points could be a lot to absorb!
Whereas some people could thrive in chaos and the unknown, an organized inbox will help the remainder of our staff discover focus and higher strategize their method to the queue. To assist, we’ve created views in our inbox to allow us to identify pressing issues and keep watch over conversations which have been sitting within the inbox longer than we’d like.
We type conversations into views primarily based on particular circumstances we set, similar to conversations which have particular tags or key phrases, or through the use of time-based standards. Views are seen to everybody on the staff, and the conversations inside every view additionally present up of their top-level folder (e.g., an unassigned dialog in our “pressing” view will even present up within the unassigned folder).
We recurrently evaluate how our staff works from these views. If a view feels clunky or isn’t serving to, we’ll make changes and take a look at once more!
Notes to offer readability
Since we don’t assign conversations to ourselves, we want to have the ability to decide up the place the final particular person left off. Leaving clear notes could make that course of loads simpler.
Including inside notes for each other permits us to restate the issue when working via a fancy state of affairs, share our troubleshooting course of so the following particular person is aware of what has already been tried, counsel doable subsequent steps, or ask lingering questions. It additionally provides us an opportunity to loop in somebody who might need some further perception.
We regularly accomplice notes up with different options to assist make issues even smoother.
Notes + saved replies
Saved replies are useful for sending out fast e-mail or chat replies to clients, however we additionally use them to construct inside templates that assist us present consistency in our communication.
When we have to escalate a dialog, we create a be aware and insert a saved reply that has a troubleshooting template in it. We fill within the template earlier than assigning the case to our triage staff, giving all of them the data they should decide up the dialog.
Having a standardized technique to talk gives readability for all concerned: the one who first labored on the dialog is aware of precisely what info must be supplied earlier than escalating, and our triage teammates can begin with a helpful overview of the state of affairs.
Notes + workflows
A number of the emails we obtain have widespread subsequent steps. To offer our staff a head begin on these types of emails, we use computerized workflows so as to add a be aware with helpful troubleshooting recommendation or subsequent steps as quickly as our system receives them. This helps ease the staff’s psychological load, as they don’t want to start out from scratch.
For instance, our assist staff assesses functions to Assist Scout’s startup program. We use an computerized workflow to identify startup functions and add a be aware with particular directions for dealing with them. With no need to click on wherever or bear in mind what to do, we instantly are reminded methods to decide eligibility, see names of saved replies we could discover related, and have a hyperlink to a associated inside useful resource in case extra assist is required.
AI for a second set of eyes
One of many newer introductions to Assist Scout are our AI options. Identical to all of our clients, we’ve needed to resolve how and when to introduce AI into our present processes. We’ve discovered it helpful to think about AI options as an additional device in our rising assist toolkit that we will select to make use of when it makes essentially the most sense — and we go away it as much as the person to resolve when that’s.
AI Summarize is a function that many on the staff have discovered useful of their day-to-day work.
I summarize conversations to see if I can acquire any further insights that I might need missed. It would not even must be a protracted dialog — having that further examine may be useful as AI summarize would possibly interpret the state of affairs in a different way than I did.
Javier Silverio
Senior Technical Help Specialist
I exploit it when the dialog has gotten actually lengthy! I typically worry that it gained’t catch one thing, so I’d find yourself re-reading issues anyway, however the abstract is a useful snapshot when my mind will get tangly and begins zoning out.
Kelly Hummell
Senior Technical Help Specialist
Even staff members who’ve been at Assist Scout for a very long time have discovered the function useful. For example, VP of Prospects Abigail Phillips has been on the firm for eight years and finds that the generated abstract helps her course of longer conversations:
AI summarize provides me a fast preview of a dialog, permitting me to leap into the case extra simply by already realizing the general move earlier than getting in.
Abigail Phillips
VP of Prospects
Discover a system that works for you
Our assist staff is like yours — we intention to offer our clients with one of the best assist doable. The practices above assist our totally distant staff navigate a shared queue easily, with good outcomes (i.e., blissful clients!).
What works for our staff may match for yours too, however earlier than adopting our method, we encourage you to think about what your personal staff’s challenges are. Listed here are some questions that will assist begin the dialog to your staff:
What does a wholesome queue imply to your staff? What’s your teamwide method for sustaining that well being?
What’s the smoothest a part of your staff’s day within the queue, and what course of, information, or assist device function has been most useful to assist that?
What’s a snag in the best way your staff works within the queue that will get in the best way of serving to clients or collaborating with one another?
What’s in your staff’s wishlist for issues that will assist them work extra successfully?
Most of these questions will help immediate helpful reflection on what your staff wants with the intention to present nice assist. From there, take into account how the options of your chosen assist software program — we’re keen on Assist Scout 😌 — is likely to be used to fulfill these wants.
We’d love to listen to what options you’ve leveraged to help your groups, in addition to when you have any questions for us. Is there a assist course of or move you’re mulling over and aren’t positive methods to accomplish it? Let’s discuss it!
