Improve Your Response Times: Delegating Customer Support

A customer service virtual assistant is a great option for businesses that need customer support assistance and wish to improve customer response times. Your customer support virtual assistant’s role can be customized and adjusted to your team’s needs, helping to field large volumes of customer messages and help you manage an increasing workload.

As easy as this sounds, it can be challenging to know where to start when hiring a virtual customer service representative. Turn Key Ops helps simplify the process, helping you to identify a qualified virtual customer support associate who can help improve your customer experience. Here’s how.

Preparing for Your Customer Service Virtual Assistant

Once you’ve decided to hire a virtual assistant for customer support, it’s time to get started with preparations that will set them up for success. To get started, you’ll need to get your VA access to customer inquiry channels and determine a software used to escalate advanced concerns. Some initial steps to getting started include:

Setting up an email or email access for support inbox. A password manager can be used to manage log-in credentials and a 2FA to maintain security.
Add your VA to any help desk software you use to manage customer messages
Allow access as page admin/page access to social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter that you may use

Handling Escalation Requests

Even the best virtual customer care representative may need assistance from time to time, especially when handling challenging or complex customer requests. To best handle this, we recommend picking a communication channel for your assistant can use to mark down requests that require escalation. Using easy-to-use software such as Asana or Slack can improve communication between your customer service virtual assistant and your other staff.

These escalation requests can then be channeled to a person on your team who is equipped to handle higher-level inquiries. Whether it’s a daily or weekly basis, these inquiries will all be located in one spot – helping to save your team time and improve efficiency.

Handling Responses

Your customer service virtual assistant can help manage a high volume of incoming messages. Creating an easy method and clear structure to follow can make it easier for them to respond to incoming messages.

For example, you may wish to create guidelines on how to initially respond to customers as an acknowledgment, helping to improve initial response times. This helps minimize the number of times their concern is transferred to multiple staff people and ensures it doesn’t get lost in a sea of messages.

Creating a Knowledge Base

Creating a knowledge base of frequently asked questions and answers specific to your industry and business processes can make training your virtual customer service representative easier. This comprehensive document should include the most common customer concerns and inquiries and how to properly address them. All information and resources available should be included to give your VA as much support as possible.

When creating your knowledge base, it’s important to consider how you present the information. The information should be organized in a document that’s easy to reference and understand. Organizing processes in a flowchart can make it clear to your virtual customer care representative the appropriate steps to take in every scenario that could arise. Your knowledge base can also include contact information on who to go to when additional assistance is needed or if they have questions that need to be answered.

Response Formatting

Your customer service VA should also know the steps to crafting an appropriate response to customers. The initial point of contact sets the tone for your brand reputation – and this response must be well-thought-out. A typical first response for customers may look like:

How to create a greeting and introduction
How to gather details/info and ask clarifying questions to document the situation and acknowledge the issue at hand
How to guide the customer in what the next steps for customers are (and when they can expect a follow-up)

Find Your Virtual Assistant for Customer Service with Turn Key Ops

Turn Key Ops can help you find a highly qualified and experienced virtual customer service representative equipped to handle your customer’s needs. Improving response times for your business can help enhance your customer experience and improve your business reputation. To learn more, schedule a discovery call with our team today!