Turning to Web Based Customer Support for Improved Customer Retention
I had searched for different ideas to improve our customer support for quite some time. In our business, clients don’t wait for solutions; they either get them from us, or find another vendor. And our current method was costing us clients. We tried excel spreadsheets, whiteboards, and writing our own system, but our people just wouldn’t use them because they were either too difficult to use, or took too much time.
I tried outsourcing thinking that if the company providing the customer service was able to focus solely upon our customer support using supplied scripts and answers, they would be able to answer our clients questions and provide them with a better level of service than our internal people. Plus I figured that I could finally get some reports on how many of our clients were calling, what they were calling about, and how long it would take us to get a resolution for their issue. Well, the outsourcing was a disaster. Clients kept asking questions that we failed to get into the knowledge base for the outsourced help desk. Even though we used a US based help desk, and they in turn had an impressive Web Based Help Desk Software system that was giving us answers each week regarding the number of calls, subject of the call, and resolution, our clients were still frustrated at the lack of information or response time for answers. I called the outsourced help desk one day and experienced the same result so I knew something had to change. I asked the help desk company executives what they were using to track issues and deliver reports but they were hesitating to tell me because they obviously knew I was frustrated, and didn’t want to lose my business.
So I called back into their help desk one day pretending to be a customer of my own, and after a lengthy description of my problem, as the help desk agent was reading from the knowledge base article they had looked up, I complemented them on their great customer service. They said, well, “this software makes it easy.” And I asked, “Really, what kind is it?” And they responded, “Well, I think it is ours, because our company information is all over it, but the powers to be around here refer to it as Cynergy Help Desk, so I think they developed it for us
So I did a web search for Cynergy Web Based Customer Support, and found a company named Cynergy Help Desk Software. Their engineers listened to my issues, and showed me how Cynergy could improve our organization. And it was more affordable than I expected. Cynergy delivered the solution in less than 10 days, trained my customer support people on the application, and were there every time we needed help on the system. And the best part? Our people loved it! It was easy to use, easy to get reports from, and our customers appreciated the extra effort we put forth to give them a system that delivered great service in a timely manner.
We still work hard to deliver great customer support, and it is truly hard work, but saving clients and improving our customer support has just gotten better and better and that’s what our business is all about. I love a happy ending.
Willam Kary
CEO
Impact Sales Solutions
William Kary is CEO of Impact Sales Solutions. A medium sized company with over 100 employees in Toledo, OH that delivers customer contact and support to some of the leading newspapers in the U.S. Mr. Kary lives in Long Boat Key, FL.
