In this third installment in our series of interviews, we had a session with not one, but three amazing women that are piloting the Customer Support and Products team at Godaddy. The conversations were borne out of our resolve at Vesicash to improve our Customer Support service by learning from a brand that has perfected her ways in this area.

These women, Demetria Elmore, Laura Messerschmitt, and Maya Bisineer were more than willing to throw insights into how to build a strong Customer Support Team. Below are our takeaways from the conversations:

It is important to know when to follow up with a customer and when to wait.

These women posited that a phone call is the first way to reach out to customers because it shows that you hold them dear. While quick check-ins are important to show that we have them in mind, follow up has to be with an incentive as something has to have changed before reaching out to them.

Demetria noted that brands need to know how to sieve high-value customers and also, rely on sending emails that contain the necessary guidance on how to set up before making calls to them.

Know how your customers want to be treated and treat them even better.

Laura suggested that the key to maintaining a long-lasting customer relationship is to ensure that they are always treated well. To achieve this, it was suggested that brands should provide everything that would make their customers well set up and informed on how best to use the products and services. Demetria added that it is important to streamline the customers you want to provide for and put effort into making them have a smooth experience.

Focus on fixing an agitated customer’s issue, that is what matters the most.

From their experience with dealing with customers over the years, they explained that customers do not care about the cause of a problem but the solution you’d be giving them, and how fast it would be. This is why it is important to document each client’s problem so that you can quickly make reference to it in the future and Fastrack the solution.

Demetria suggested that a ‘thank you for letting us know’ email should be sent after the complaint has been fixed and the email should contain the source of the problem and how it was fixed- this, according to her would give customers the impression that you have them on your mind always and you are always ready to help them out via empathy and action.

Laura added that a Customer Support person should never transfer the cause of the problem to another person or department, e.g ‘Oh, we are sorry you experienced that but you know the way Tech guys are.’ or ‘You mean that the engineering department did not get back to you yesterday? I’m tired of them myself.’ According to her, customers only want the solution, and playing the blame game would only agitate them further.

A Customer Support person should know how to incorporate upsells into conversations.

Maya, Demetria, and Laura all affirmed that sales and customer service are intertwined and that the latter should not lose out on any opportunity to do a sales pitch to the customers. This, according to them, would be possible by listening attentively to the customers and initiate better ways and products available to make their lives easier.

By asking questions that matter, a customer support person would know how best to make the progression into sales without sounding off, especially if it is a niche that you are not very familiar with.

Conclusion

These women all agreed that building a successful and reliable Customer Support team takes conscious planning and steps, members of the team should be trained on how to use the best strategies possible and how to perfectly combine empathy plus action.

They also reiterated the need to document all calls, conversations, and problems so that the team can move in the absence of one or more members. Everyone on the team should have adequate knowledge about the different issues that might arise and how best to calm the customers while solving the problems.

Lastly, they advised the team leaders to know how best to delegate duties according to the strength and weaknesses of the members and also know when to ask for help. Since we are committed to serving you better, each and every of the above would be better implemented to Vesicash’s customer support team so that you do not only pay with confidence but also do that with the assurance that there is a team that always has your interest at heart.