How to Manage SaaS Customer Support

To provide effective customer support for your SaaS, you need to know your customers, offer suitable support channels, and give your team the right tools and training. This guide explains how to build a customer support system that addresses user issues.

When choosing the support channels, think about what your customers prefer. You need to know how they prefer to get support and offer it in those ways.

Before you jump into choosing channels, take a moment to really understand your customer base. Think of it as creating a customer profile:

• Who Are They? Are your customers tech-savvy millennials who prefer to chat online? Or are they older professionals who might prefer a phone call? Understanding their age, comfort with technology, and preferred ways of communicating will guide your choices.
• How Do They Use Your Product? Knowing their pain points will help you match the right channels to their needs.Do they mostly use your software on their computers or on their phones? This can help you decide whether to prioritize mobile-friendly support options.
• What challenges do they typically face? What are the most common questions or issues they run into? Identifying customers’ pain points can guide you in choosing suitable channels that match their specific needs.

Now you can start defining the support channel. Let’s examine the available options to determine which ones might best align with your customer’s needs.

1. Email & ticket system 

Consider using this support option for inquiries that require detailed explanations or are not time-sensitive. Explaining the issue in detail facilitates a more thorough and considered response. Think of it as a written conversation.

장점: Detailed explanations, time for thoughtful responses, documentation for future reference

단점: Not a solution that lends itself well to timely inquiries.

Best for: This channel is suited for inquiries related to technical issues, feature suggestions, account management, and further communication.

2. Live Chat 

Focuses on addressing common questions and troubleshooting issues efficiently. This tool functions as a technical support resource, which provides troubleshooting guidance for customers encountering issues.

장점: Troubleshooting can benefit from screen sharing, providing a method for visual collaboration and guidance.

단점: Dedicated personnel are necessary, and it may not be suited for all intricate challenges.

Best for: This option is suitable for addressing immediate inquiries, handling prevalent issues, and getting assistance with workflows.

3. Phone Support

While other forms of communication may be more suitable in some cases, a phone call can be a useful option depending on specific needs. Addressing intricate challenges that demand human judgment and insight may necessitate the exploration of this path. High-value clients often value personalized attention, which can be facilitated through rapport building. Especially crucial for billing support, where customers might have sensitive questions or urgent issues with payment processing.

장점: There are various aspects of customer interaction to consider, including the potential benefits of a personalized approach, the significance of rapport building, and the complexities of problem-solving tasks.

단점: It is important to factor in potential upfront costs as they may depend on the specific infrastructure needs of a call center. While suitable for standard usage, extensive scaling for high-volume scenarios may require careful consideration.

Best for: Billing inquiries, high-profile clients, intricate technical issues necessitating comprehensive explanations.

4. Self-Service 

This is where your knowledge base, FAQs, and online forums come in. Consider implementing self-service options to give customers more control over resolving their issues. This feature may enhance user efficiency, streamline internal operations, and contribute to the development of a supportive user base, but results may differ.

• Knowledge Base: A collection of resources, encompassing articles, guides, and tutorials, accessible for information retrieval.

• FAQs: A list of frequently asked questions and their answers.

• Community platform: A forum designed to facilitate user interaction, information sharing, joint problem-solving, and peer support. While a balance in moderation, promoting engagement, and acknowledging valuable contributions is important, it is uncertain how these factors influence the community’s activity.

장점: It has the potential to improve customer capabilities and contribute to the development of a strong network, although it might also reduce support needs.

단점: Documentation is important for addressing various issues, but its scope for addressing different problems might be limited.

Best for: Common questions, how-to guides, troubleshooting steps, and fostering user engagement.

A knowledge base is a place where customers find answers to their questions on their own. It’s a collection of information, like FAQs or troubleshooting guides. Although not a definitive solution, the organization may have an impact on the number of support tickets. This change would potentially offer the support team more free time for other duties, but there is no certain outcome. When creating a knowledge base, think of: 

• Clear Sections: Think of your knowledge base as a bookstore. Organize your articles into sections like “Getting Started,” “Troubleshooting,” “Billing,” etc. It’s crucial to provide customers with an easy way to navigate through the information available to them.
• Powerful Search: Make sure your knowledge base has a great search function. While designed to guide users toward pertinent resources, the service’s effectiveness in assisting them in their search for specific information depends on various factors.
• Visual Aids: Include pictures, screenshots, and videos that help people understand.
• Easy Navigation: Think of a treasure map – you want to make it easy for customers to navigate through your knowledge base. Use a table of contents, breadcrumbs (those little links at the top that show you where you are), and links between related articles to help them find their way.
• Keep It Fresh: Your product is always evolving, so your knowledge base should too. To maintain relevance to users’ interests, keep it current.
• Create a helpful content: write like you talk; avoid technical jargon. Employ language that is straightforward and avoids technical jargon to ensure broad understanding. Use the same tone of voice throughout your knowledge base. Aim for the style of a supportive discussion with a trusted friend.
• Predict Their Questions: Think about the problems your customers usually encounter and write articles that address those issues head-on.
• Connect the Dots: If one article is related to another, include links so users can easily find more information.

The support team is the front line of your business. When customers reach out for help, your agents are the ones who make or break the experience. Training the team is one of the few things that you could do for your business.

Master your product. Your agents need to know your product inside and out:

• In-Depth Training: Give them comprehensive training on every feature, every function, and any technical details they need to know.

• Stay Updated: When you add new features or make changes, make sure your team is the first to know.

• Get Hands-On: Encourage your agents to actually use your product. The more they interact with it, the more they’ll grasp how it affects customers.

Building soft skills. Technical knowledge is required, but soft skills enhance interactions.

• 커뮤니케이션: Teach your team to communicate clearly and professionally, whether they’re on the phone, in a chat, or writing an email.

• Common customer challenges: Investigate these problems to aid in offering better advice and assistance.

• Cultivating critical thinking: Foster individuals’ ability to identify and solve problems proactively.

• 분쟁 해결: Equipping your team with the necessary training to navigate disagreements can potentially prevent minor issues from escalating into larger conflicts. Training may not significantly mitigate the effects on team dynamics and overall productivity, but it has the potential to diminish the intensity of these impacts.

Tools and Processes.

• Support Ticketing System: Provide clear instructions and training on using the support ticketing system for efficient handling of customer inquiries. Tracking issues and keeping on top of them is crucial for ensuring that nothing gets overlooked.

• CRM (Customer Relationship Management): If you use a CRM, show your team how to use it to personalize their interactions with customers. They have access to all previous interactions with the customer and other pertinent information.
• Enable team communication: Implement communication tools and processes that simplify internal and interdepartmental communication.

Think of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as promises you make to your customers. These SLAs provide an estimate of response and resolution timeframes. How to set SLAs:

• Organize support requests by category and priority.

Think about the different types of issues your customers might have. Requests vary in urgency, ranging from critical issues requiring immediate attention to inquiries about minor features.

Label these issues as “critical,” “high priority,” “medium priority,” or “low priority.”

• Set realistic timelines:

Response Time: Decide how quickly you’ll get back to customers for each type of issue. Aim for fast responses, especially for critical problems.

Resolution Time: Figure out how long it usually takes your team to solve each kind of problem. Be honest and set achievable goals.

Do Some Research: Peek at what other companies in your industry are promising. You want to be competitive, but also realistic about what your team can handle.

• Tell Your Customers What to Expect:

SLAs should be readily accessible to customers. Put them on your website, in your help center, and even in automated emails that customers get when they contact you.

• Monitor your progress to gauge your overall advancement and identify areas for further improvement:

Use your support software to measure how quickly you’re responding and resolving issues.

Regularly check reports to see if you’re meeting your SLAs. If not, figure out why and make changes.

The best way to know if your support is working? Ask your customers! Their feedback might be useful for understanding how people experience your service. How to collect feedback:

• Quick Surveys: After a customer chats with your team or sends an email, ask them a few questions about their experience. Keep it short and sweet.

• Feedback Forms: Put a form on your website or within your product where customers can share their thoughts. Ask specific questions like, “How easy was it to find what you needed?”

• Social Media: Keep an eye on what people are saying about your product and support on social media. Respond quickly to any negative comments.

If your customers love social media, chat with them there. If you have a lot of customers, use a tool like SurveyMonkey to send out surveys.

For really in-depth feedback, consider chatting with some customers one-on-one.

Getting feedback is just the start. Now turn them into action.

• Analyze the Data:

The time required to resolve issues: look at the average time for different types of issues. 

Are customers happy? Check those survey results and any other feedback you’ve collected.

Could you provide the number of support requests you’ve received recently? Is this number going up or down?

• Fix What’s Broken:

Identify inefficiencies: Examine your support process for any factors causing delays.

Make Things Smoother: Update your procedures to speed up responses and solutions.

Automation considerations: Determine whether automation tools can aid in handling repetitive tasks, thereby enabling your team to dedicate their full attention to more demanding initiatives.

• Educate your Team:

Continuous Training: Regularly provide your team with updates on product features and support best practices.

Knowledge Distribution: Foster knowledge exchange through team collaboration and exchange of tips and tricks.

Act on Feedback: If customers are asking for a specific kind of help, make sure your team knows how to provide it.