UNSTUCK

Introduction

Delivering exceptional customer support is no longer just a differentiator – it’s an absolute necessity. Organizations are under immense pressure to provide timely, personalized and seamless experiences across various channels. Customer expectations are constantly evolving, and so customer service teams must be equipped and ready to keep up with them.

The problem is, customer support can often be a ‘firefighting’ routine that’s hard to break out of. In fact, when we surveyed Customer Support professionals for our research, one respondent shared that support teams are “often underfunded, understaffed, and left out of strategic planning.” How can Support teams brainstorm for new ways to get ahead when all their energy is spent on maintaining its current level of service?

We created Unstuck to give busy Support teams a playbook they can turn to for ideas and best practice around how to elevate your customer service game. From teamwork to tooling, Unstuck shares little tips, sage advice and big ideas from our very own team, as well as Customer Support professionals, senior leaders and even entrepreneur founders.

Whether you’re looking for better ways of doing things, or you just want to give your Support agents a fun new challenge to try, we hope Unstuck unsticks something for you.

Table of Contents

1. Tips for Customer Experience
2. Tips for Efficiency
3. Tips for Happier Teams
4. Tips for Recognition
5. About Geckoboard
6. Data Sources
7. Wins from Our Customers

Hold regular team retrospectives

No one has more information on how to improve your Support team than your Support Agents themselves. They are also often the least consulted. Hold broad-reaching team retrospectives to determine opportunities for improving team frustrations. Brainstorm ideas on improvements, and commit to trying one out.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Basic

Model future ticket demand based on seasonality and trends to anticipate resourcing needs

Be proactive in your staffing model. Think about upcoming changes to your business, such as seasonality, promotions, service updates or feature launches, and forecast incoming volume based on the impact these changes will have. Find the average number of cases each agent can handle per hour, and then calculate the number of agent hours you’ll need to increase or decrease in order to handle the forecasted change in volume.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Advanced

Close the loop on negative feedback

As you track CX metrics over time, you might occasionally see dips in core KPIs (e.g. NPS). To help both your company and clients feel successful after customer feedback has been delivered, as well as recover poor CX metrics, you need to have an efficient process for taking action and closing the loop.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intermediate
Suggested by Sean Mancillas,
Lead Customer Concierge, Delighted

Monitor negative CSAT scores and follow up

First step: implement a feedback system on your customer support tickets. Great! Now, you’ll need a way to monitor conversations that receive a bad satisfaction rating. Monitoring the “drivers of dissatisfaction” will help you understand the common causes for customer unhappiness.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Expand your team’s availability outside of local business hours

Offer weekend and evening support to reduce first response times, or get ahead of the Monday morning inbox explosion. A follow-the-sun model where agents located globally all work their own daytime hours can be particularly helpful if you support customers around the globe.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intermediate

Optimize your CSAT survey for more responses

CSAT surveys are a valuable source of customer information. By improving your survey design, you can collect as many CSAT scores as possible. Take a look at the HubSpot customer satisfaction survey templates and examples for help and inspiration.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Compare your metric with industry benchmarks

While there are multiple methods for understanding if your NPS is good or bad, external industry benchmarking provides context. Include benchmarks in your internal reporting for key stakeholders to monitor how you’re tracking against your industry.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intermediate

Use customer journey mapping to see your customer’s experience from their perspective

Recreate the journey your customer goes on to understand things from their perspective. This can help you find opportunities to improve onboarding, make it easier to use your product, and create effortless support experiences.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Advanced

Create an autoresponder

Set up automated emails to respond to all new support enquiries. These autoresponders accomplish several things, including acknowledging that the ticket was received, setting expectations on when to expect a response, and directing customers to the help center so they can find their own answers.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Analyze help center searches

The terms that customers search for in your help center are a source of data. Dissect this data to uncover insights, such as what search terms result in zero results being returned. Use this to improve tagging, make existing articles more discoverable, or to create new documentation.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intermediate

Create a separate Twitter account for customer service and outage communication

If you’re frequently communicating with customers over Twitter, you may want to create a separate Twitter handle dedicated to helping customers. This will help your customer service team respond faster to incoming questions.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Follow up on customer feedback

Customers leave feedback and CSAT ratings on only a fraction of your customer interactions. Following up on CSAT and feedback is the easiest way to win back disappointed customers and build customer loyalty.

User test your help center documentation to check it’s easy to understand

If your documentation isn’t easy to navigate, it’s not going to help anyone. User-testing will help you uncover areas where you could provide additional information.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Advanced

Implement a status page

A status page is a website used to update customers during outages and communicate bugs and functionality issues. It’s a tool that customers experiencing an issue can use to see if you’re already aware and dealing with it.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Track Customer Effort Score

Customer Effort Score (CES) asks customers how easy it was to solve their problem. Tracking CES in addition to, or instead of CSAT, provides perspective on improving your customers’ experience.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Regularly track Customer Experience metrics

Monitor how your customer base feels about your company over time. Use insights gathered to inform strategies that improve customer loyalty.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intermediate
Suggested by Sean Mancillas,
Lead Customer Concierge, Delighted

Use 5 Whys Analysis to find the root cause of problems

Dig deeper into customer issues with 5 Whys Analysis. Ask “why?” repeatedly until you reach the root cause of the issue.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Basic

Prepare for new releases

Create a standard plan to ensure the customer support team is informed ahead of new product or service changes so they can prepare and communicate to customers.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intermediate

Set up recurring catchups with high-value customers

Set up dedicated time with your most important customers to check in before things go wrong. Build a good relationship and offer proactive support.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intermediate

Set up policies for security reports and bug bounties

If you set up a process for reporting bugs and security vulnerabilities, your product will be more secure.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Advanced

Run a ‘Start Stop Continue’ exercise with your team

In a team meeting or survey, ask your team what they think you should START, STOP, and CONTINUE doing. You might be surprised at the answers!

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intermediate
Suggested by Sean Mancillas,
Lead Customer Concierge, Delighted

Don’t just solve the ticket, offer suggestions too

Go beyond answering the customer’s query and look for opportunities to help them use the product better.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intermediate

Implement callback systems

Consider implementing a callback system that allows customers to request a callback rather than wait on hold.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intermediate

Monitor social media for unhappy customers

Customers may find it easier to express frustration on social media. Monitoring social media can help manage your public brand image.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Basic

Schedule regular knowledge base audits

Your knowledge base is living documentation. A regular audit will ensure that your content is up to date and relevant.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intermediate

Offer more support contact channels

Consider expanding the support channels you offer so customers can contact you in the way that’s most convenient for them.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Create a Basic system for tagging tickets

Tagging tickets can open up data for improving your support offering. An effective tagging system uses categories for the product inquiry and reason for the ticket.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Basic

Find and fight friction to create content customers need

Identify key moments in your customer’s journey and look for opportunities to provide thoughtful, intentional customer service.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Create triggers for when a conversation has too many updates

Set up triggers to notify team leads when a conversation has too many replies. This can help identify training opportunities.

Fine-tune your agents’ schedules using data

Periodically check your staffing model to see if you need to make adjustments to meet demand.

Work with Engineering/IT to simplify or automate common tasks

Internal tools can significantly increase the efficiency of your support team. By working with Engineering and IT, you can reduce the overall load on the team.

EFFICIENCY Basic

Create a WFM (Workforce management) strategy

Having the right people in the right channels at the right times keeps your support team running smoothly.

Perform a workflow audit

Periodic audits will ensure tickets are consistently categorized and worked on.

EFFICIENCY

Help agents prioritize workloads by giving tickets a priority score

Assign urgency levels to tickets to help agents respond faster to high-priority issues.

Set up chatbots

Consider implementing bots to direct customers to resources or gather more information for agents.

EFFICIENCY

Review your tagging process and build a taxonomy for accuracy

Regularly review tagging processes to ensure accuracy and facilitate insightful data extraction.

Use screensharing and co-browsing to see what your customer sees

Tools like screensharing and co-browsing can help agents diagnose problems effectively.

Implement a ticketing system

If you haven’t adopted a ticketing system, it’s time to do so for effective management.

Use outsource partners to help during busy periods

Outsourcing can elevate your customers’ experience during high-demand times.

A summary per mail keeps misunderstandings at bay

Summarizing what you understood about the customer’s situation speeds up resolution.

Use BrowserStack to replicate customer issues

BrowserStack allows testing on multiple devices, which helps diagnose customer issues.

Get your organization ‘feedback ready’

Ensure departments across your organization are prepared to capture and act on customer feedback effectively.

EFFICIENCY Intermediate
Suggested by Sofia Quintero,
Founder & CEO, EnjoyHQ

Put simpler tickets in a different queue

Triage simpler tickets into a different queue to prevent delays for customers with straightforward issues.

Create reply templates for common queries

Using templates for common responses speeds up the communication process.

EFFICIENCY Basic

Implement an emergency management process

Plan ahead to manage downtime situations. Include points of contact and communication strategies.

Connect your support apps through Zapier

Integrate your tools through Zapier to automate and streamline workflows.

Invest in debugging applications

Using debugging tools will make it easier to assist customers effectively.

EFFICIENCY

Avoid support tags spiraling out of control

Implement a taxonomy for tagging to ensure accurate reporting and analysis.

Link up with your sales team for smooth onboarding

Improve the transition from sales to support by sharing important information between teams.

Identify repeatable tasks and automate them ASAP

Automate mundane tasks to free up agents for more meaningful interactions.

Talk about feelings of inferiority

Open discussions about self-worth can improve team dynamics.

TEAM Basic

Invest in training

Set aside a budget for external training to improve team skills and capabilities.

TEAM Intermediate

Catch and Congratulate!

Acknowledge and reward great work to reinforce positive behavior.

Use improv games to build creativity and camaraderie

Playing improv games can relax and engage your team.

TEAM Intermediate
Suggested by Merily Leis,
Head of Marketing, Klaus

Reorganise your team for increased domain knowledge

Focusing agents on fewer products can help them become experts more quickly.

Offer horizontal progression and opportunities outside the support team

Share staff with other teams during downtime to fulfill progression needs.

Organise customer feedback to identify trends and recurring issues

Utilize feedback tools to present insights in a manner that lets teams take action.

TEAM

Spend time learning how to communicate more clearly over email

Training in plain English improves agents’ email communication skills.

TEAM Basic

Create a feedback loop

Track performance over time and provide feedback in regular one-on-one sessions.

TEAM Intermediate
Suggested by Merily Leis,
Head of Marketing, Klaus

Reward your CS team members

Incentives for positive behaviors should consider quality as well as quantity.

TEAM Basic

Celebrate those little wins to keep the team motivated

Build a culture that acknowledges and celebrates small successes.

Encourage the leap from CX to Product

Support agents can contribute valuable insights to the Product team.

TEAM Intermediate
Suggested by Elisa Reggiardo,
CBO, Tymeshift

Foster communication in and out

Maintain communication practices to ensure service quality remains high during remote work.

Invest in your team’s internal documentation

Ensure your team has access to reliable and up-to-date documentation.

TEAM

Encourage friendly competition between agents and teams

Consider friendly competitions to engage agents in KPIs and motivation.

TEAM

Try team pairing to solve difficult problems

Pairing can improve decision making for unusual situations.

TEAM Intermediate
Suggested by Luis Hernandez,
VP Customer Success, Geckoboard

Offer structured time outside the queues

Allow teams to work on projects outside of customer interactions.

Uncover the world of CX possibilities

Show agents the range of career possibilities within customer experience.

Improve search in your help center

Use robust search tools to enhance customers’ ability to find content.

TEAM Intermediate
Suggested by Jennifer Grant

QA score in agent incentive scheme

Ensure internal quality scores are factored into reward systems.

Read The Service Culture Handbook

Build a customer-centric culture with insights from The Service Culture Handbook.

TEAM Basic

Build relationships with other teams

Conduct social interactions with other departments to improve collaboration and insights.

Regularly surface CS KPIs and emerging trends to the rest of the business

Creating dashboards to share team KPIs increases recognition of their hard work.

Create a team dashboard

Having access to important metrics helps the team monitor its progress easily.

RECOGNITION

Apply the Business Model Canvas

Running support as a mini business will help quantify and share value within the organization.

RECOGNITION

Offer work shadowing with other departments

Allowing employees from other departments to shadow support agents will build awareness of their work.

About Geckoboard

Geckoboard is a software company that makes it easy for teams to build and share beautiful dashboards. Since 2010, we’ve been helping businesses put data at the heart of their culture and decision-making. Our aim is to level the playing field.

Trusted by 1000s of data-driven organizations

Thousands of organizations use Geckoboard to create dashboards that keep their teams focused on their most important performance metrics.

Focus on the metrics that matter

Different teams measure success in different ways. Geckoboard allows you to select the most relevant data.

Less time chasing updates, more time on achieving outcomes

Understanding your business’s performance shouldn’t mean spending hours digging.

Better decisions, faster

Geckoboard’s real-time dashboards mean that you have eyes on accurate performance metrics throughout the day.

Data Sources

Wins from Our Customers

##“At a glance, everyone in our organization can instantly see how we’re doing. And it looks fantastic – large, easy to read, and intuitive!”

— Mike Johnson, President and CEO

##“Geckoboard has eliminated the frustration of waiting for reports. Now we have access to live metrics and can act immediately.”

— John Andrews, Founder

##“With Geckoboard, the dashboard is so clean and it’s such an easy way to consume this data.”

— Kristian Marquez, Managing Director

Clearer data. Better Customer Support.

At Geckoboard, we’re on a mission to make it easy for Support teams to keep an eye on their most important metrics, so they can make better decisions faster. # Ready to supercharge your Support team?

Start with a 14-day FREE trial by heading to https://bit.ly/3Jdnk9V.