Help Scout Customer Service Blog

Back to Basics: What is a Help Desk?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0500

Is your business drowning in email requests? Is it finally time to get something more scalable for managing customer service? When it comes to solving this problem, the answer usually involves some sort of help desk.

Help Scout’s new white paper, “What is a Help Desk?,” explores the purpose and benefits of a help desk. This guide walks small businesses through each of the three steps below, helping you choose the software that meets your needs—and say goodbye to superfluous features you’ll never use!

Conduct an internal evaluation of your business’s online customer support needs.
Understand the purpose and benefits of using a Help Desk.
Determine which Help Desk will fit your business needs.

The paper is a quick and informative read that will have you ready to select the best customer support product for your business in no time flat.

Get started now: Download the guide.

Email Customer Service: What’s an Acceptable Reply Time?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:00:00 -0500

Many businesses struggle with a support inbox that is overflowing with customer inquiries. The good news: customers want to talk to you. The bad news: every single one of them thinks their issue is the most important one.

Customer expectations vary as to how quickly they should receive a response. Forrester Research found that 41 percent of consumers expect an email response within six hours. Only 36 percent of retailers actually respond that quickly…and 14 percent never respond at all. Now that is shocking.

That last statistic brings to mind an article by communications expert and customer service guru Peter Shankman. Shankman writes,

“Since we have such low expectations of customer service … it’s so so incredibly easy to blow each and every one of your customers’ minds, and shock them into 100% loyalty, every single time you’re given the chance! All you have to do is simply treat each customer one level above ‘crap.’ Amazingly, you don’t even have to be anywhere near ‘great,’ ‘awesome,’ or ‘outstanding’ to be different than the norm. To be thought of as ‘good,’ we just need to treat our customers one level above the normal expectation of crap. That’s it. Anything we do that goes above and beyond ‘one level above crap,’ is so rare, and so unexpected, that if you do that, you can rule the world.”

Rule the Online Customer Service World

If your team has the capacity, delight at least one customer every day by responding within an hour. Crazy, eh? An hour! Imagine their initial joy at your attentiveness, and the customer loyalty built with a single timely, correct and thoughtful response.

Shankman heralds these kinds of simple, but important, actions: “The best acts of customer service are the tiny things that reinforce the customer’s loyalty. They can be done daily, usually without any cost, and can foster customer retention, increase customer satisfaction, and yes, even grow your customer base.”

Understandably, it’s not always possible to WOW a customer by responding that quickly. Twenty-four hours or less is widely considered an acceptable response time, and this is a time frame that every business should meet.

The Speediest Responders

Help Scout’s partner STELLAService conducted a 2011 survey to identify the best email response times from the top 100 Internet e-tailers. Office Depot led the pack with an impressive average reply time of 48 minutes….sheesh! Impressively, even the slowest responder took less than 18 hours, as shown in the graphic below.

Your commitment to timely email responses matters greatly to customers. Responding to inquiries within 24 hours—and sooner, if possible!—should be more than a company goal, it should be a standard of practice.

Itching for more data-driven customer service insights?

Download a (free!) copy of the ebook
“75 Customer Service Facts, Quotes & Statistics.”

You won’t want to miss Chapter 6:
Email Customer Service.

Help Scout Partners with STELLAService

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0500

We love teamwork. You know, the “two heads are better than one” English proverb that’s so deeply ingrained in most of us. But the art is in finding that second complementary noggin, or in our case, business. We’ve found the ideal complementary business in STELLAService.

The Partnership

Help Scout is double-fist-pump-excited to announce our new partnership with STELLAService. The two of us are a great match because our primary goal is the same: we want to ensure customers experience stupendous online customer service.

STELLAService achieves this by rating the customer service performance of online businesses. This process is rigorous, to say the least! STELLAService “stress tests” more than 300 elements of the online customer experience. Retailers that pass the test (more than 50% don’t!) with an “Elite” or “Excellent” rating get to display the STELLAService seal on their website.

Help Scout’s side of the story: we are the means for helping retailers be “Elite” or “Excellent.” Our customer service software enables online retailers of all sizes to manage email customer service. Customers benefit by receiving timely, personalized and correct responses. Businesses benefit by keeping their team on the same page (it’s hard to share one support inbox!) while delivering outstanding online customer service.

Any retailer that displays the STELLAService seal will receive 15% off Help Scout—for life!

Click here to see if your business is eligible to display the STELLAService seal.

Customer Service, Reinvented!

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:00:00 -0500

Super Bowl commercials offer a rare form of infectious inspiration. The rational, the possible—tossed out the window in favor of the loftier “what ifs?” Nothing embodies these sentiments better than the 2012 Toyota Camry “It’s Reinvented” commercial.

If Toyota can dream of pizza curtains—brilliant!—then customers can take the same giant leap. The creative mind dares to dream big, and asks: What would customer service reinvented look like?

The reinvented help line:

Every call to an 800-number is answered on the first ring—by Morgan Freeman.

The reinvented customer support agent:

Scripts for agents don’t exist, and live agents have been trained by Jay-Z to communicate through freestyle rap. A little beatboxing is thrown in for good measure.

The reinvented hold system:

The hold music miraculously plays all your favorite songs, leaving you begging for more. Keep away, live agent, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” isn’t finished yet!

The reinvented customer survey:

The customer survey is administered by Victoria’s Secret Angels, who feed you peeled grapes and end up tossing aside the question prompts … because let’s be honest, they’d rather talk about you.

The reinvented apology:

Bill Gates pops by the house with a bouquet to personally apologize that Windows just crashed.

The reinvented email auto-reply:

“We received your message and will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible. But no need to wait with baited breath—spend the time shopping with the $100 Amazon gift card we’ve enclosed!”

The reinvented help desk:

No IT guy needed: your great grandma set this thing up in four minutes!

Oh wait … this help desk dream already exists! Sorry, couldn’t resist highlighting that Help Scout truly is an astounding feat of reinvention.

Many of these “wild” ideas are a lot closer to reality than you might think. Unscripted customer service that goes above and beyond is within your reach. But don’t take our word for it—trust the experts in our ebook!

“75 Customer Service Facts, Quotes & Statistics” is full of customer service insights that can get your team dreaming big about reinventing customer service.

Customers We Love: Meet Oceans HQ

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0500

Scuba diving is big business, as Oceans HQ knows well. Over the last decade, almost a million people each year have taken courses to become certified scuba divers. This adventure is the highlight of many tourists’ vacations, with dives and trainings booked months in advance.

The organization and customer management these bookings necessitate can be a pain point for the thousands of small, locally run dive shops. This is where Oceans HQ comes to the rescue.

André Tanguy, dive instructor and co-founder of Oceans HQ, used his familiarity with these issues to create the SaaS application Dive Center HQ. It combines point-of-sale, CRM and industry-specific tools to make running a dive shop as streamlined and profitable as possible.

Oceans HQ also offers a few other simple and intuitive web applications, as well as professional consulting services. The company’s team of four uses Help Scout to keep track of the 20-plus inquiries they receive per day about their products and services. Below, André discusses how they make the most of Help Scout.

What do you use Help Scout for?

We use Help Scout to manage all email support inquiries. Since we have several products, there are a number of support mailboxes to keep on top of. Help Scout enables us to deliver customer support we're proud of.

What were you using before Help Scout?

We tried Zendesk as well as a single shared mailbox, but neither solution met our needs.

Why Help Scout?

It's easy to use and implement (we didn't need a training manual), the support is super friendly, and the service is very reliable.

How has it changed the way you do business?

Instead of having a specific person dedicated to customer support, every member of the team answers inquiries.

Help Scout enables us to provide professional, personal service to our clients and it reduces the risk of inquiries getting lost, going unanswered or getting multiple answers.

What’s your favorite feature in Help Scout that you use the most?

We have two. First, assigning tickets to different team members. Second, we like the fact that everything is invisible—no customer logins, just responses delivered directly to customers’ inboxes.

Do you have a favorite customer story? One where someone on your team went over and above to deliver outstanding service?

There are so many stories, it's hard to pick just one.

We treat every customer as an individual, and Help Scout lets us take the time to fully engage with them one-on-one. Also, thanks to Help Scout tracking our customer inquiry history, we've been able to gain useful business insights and establish even stronger relationships with our clients.

What’s the best bit of advice you can give on delivering outstanding customer service?

Be honest, reply in a timely fashion and set realistic customer expectations.

Huzzah! Our First eBook!

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:00:00 -0500

This is one of those exciting and celebratory moments that calls for using one of our favorite words—huzzah! We’ve just finished our first ebook, “75 Customer Service Facts, Quotes & Statistics,” and are bursting to share it with you.

The ebook is chock full of data-driven customer service insights as well as nuggets of wisdom from industry thought leaders. We even included a section of quotes that continually inspire our team, such as General George S. Patton’s sage advice: “Always do more than is required of you.”

And without further ado ... it’s yours! Use this link to download this ebook free of charge. We hope you find it to be a useful resource, and invite you to share it with fellow card-carrying members of the “We Love Customers” club.

New Webinar: Introduction to Help Scout

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -0500

If you've recently signed up for Help Scout or have been thinking about trying, boy do we have something cool for you! Next Thursday, February 2, at 3pm EST we will be holding our first "Intro to Help Scout" webinar.

Anyone is welcome to join. We'll be giving a brief overview of the product for about 30 minutes, then open up for questions. We hope to see you on Thursday!

Signup to Attend

The Chick-fil-A Difference: Why Customer Lingo Matters

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:00 -0500

The conversation around how you talk to customers could be a lecture entitled “The Chick-fil-A Difference.” In the drive-thru, when you say “thank you,” the Chick-fil-A employee always replies “my pleasure.”

The “my pleasure” policy instituted by the company’s founder, Truett Cathy, was inspired by a visit to the Ritz Carlton. When Cathy said “thank you” to the man behind the counter, he responded, “My pleasure.” Out of this exchange, Chick-fil-A’s novel idea was born: treat customers as if they’re at a luxury establishment.

This model continues to distinguish Chick-fil-A from its competitors, highlighting the importance of the little ways you communicate with customers. Below are a few words and turns of phrase that will set you apart from the crowd.

Positive Trigger Words

CBS News MoneyWatch columnist Michael Hess focuses on the importance of wordplay in his recent article “The 6 Best Words in Customer Service.” Hess says there are “positive trigger words … that convey the same message but with completely different results.” Chick-fil-A = case in point.

At least one of these six words should make their way into every conversation with a customer:

Delighted
Absolutely
Pleasure
Happy
Sorry
Yes

Hess says the positive triggers common to these six words are that they are active, genuine and upbeat. They’re not noncommittal, and won’t be misconstrued as the robotic delivery of a company script.

Phrases Customers Like to Hear

Hess says the phrase “let me see what I can do” sets customer expectations somewhere between low and zero. Yowza. Amend your company handbook and ban that one immediately.

Set the bar much higher using one of the phrases Entrepreneur magazine says embody the magic words customers want to hear from you:

"How can I help?"

"I can solve that problem."

"I don't know, but I'll find out."

correct

"I will take responsibility."

personally

"I appreciate your business."

See the connection in these five phrases? Always use “I.” You are not a “we,” even though you are representing the company in this interaction. The more personable you are in your communications, the better.

Our Favorite Word: Huzzah!

Positive trigger words and magical phrases should definitely be part of your repertoire. But have a little fun with wordplay, too, and let your company’s personality shine through.

Here at Help Scout, we’ve become known for saying “Huzzah!” It’s our quirky and adorable version of “Yippee!” that never fails to communicate to customers and colleagues that we are genuinely excited about something.

What’s your company’s favorite word or phrase?

Customers We Love: Meet EverTrue

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:00:00 -0500

Keeping in touch with alumni can be tedious and time-consuming for universities (why do alums seem to move so often?!). Likewise, alumni may find it difficult to stay connected with each other and their alma mater. EverTrue makes this process seamless for both sides through mobile apps for alumni communities.

EverTrue helps colleges, independent schools and other nonprofits more effectively track and engage their alumni and donors. They achieve this through mobile networking tools, which include a location-based alumni directory and a content aggregator for the school’s publications, social media and multimedia channels.

EverTrue, a fellow TechStars company, grew from 2 to 10 employees last year. Every member of this growing team uses Help Scout to respond to email inquiries. Marketing associate Harvey Simmons answered a few questions about how Help Scout is enabling the EverTrue team to deliver great online customer service.

What do you use Help Scout for?

We use Help Scout to manage three primary types of communications: 1) existing client support, 2) new client inquiries and 3) general information requests.

What were you using before Help Scout?

Prior to Help Scout we used a combination of e-mail addresses - e.g. "info@," "support@," etc.

Why Help Scout?

We had the good fortune of getting to know the Help Scout founding team through our mutual involvement at TechStars.

We share their passion for delivering outstanding customer service, and we feel fortunate to have implemented Help Scout just as we were beginning to scale our business. The product has grown as we've grown, and we expect to be long-term customers of Help Scout.

How has it changed the way you do business?

Help Scout has not only allowed us to manage and respond to customer inquiries and new leads in a timely manner, but it also helps us analyze our response time and hold our entire team accountable, from our founding team to our newest intern.

What’s your favorite feature in Help Scout that you use the most?

We are very competitive, and that's why our favorite feature is staff reports. I can use staff reports to track who responds to the most inquiries and who is lagging behind. (Note: I've been in the lead for the last 14 days!)

Do you have a favorite customer story? One where someone on your team went over and above to deliver outstanding service?

EverTrue’s Director of Client Services, Courtney Camps, shared this recent story: We were in the final stages of launching a new client on our system, but we were having problems with their data integration. EverTrue engineer Anthony Dipasquale took it upon himself to analyze the root causes, and we discovered a duplicate record issue that had likely challenged our client for several years. We resolved the bug not only in our database, but also in the master CRM system on-campus.

What’s the best bit of advice you can give on delivering outstanding customer service?

Make customer service core to everything that you do. We try not to view customer service as a cost center, but as a revenue center by delivering decreased churn through improved customer happiness.

Customer service guides our product roadmap, engineering decisions and business development priorities. By putting the voice of our customer at the core of EverTrue, it brings clarity to many decisions we need to make each day.

Southwest’s History of Great Service Outshines a Slip-Up

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:00:00 -0500

I recently had a less-than-stellar customer experience with Southwest Airlines. I travel a lot, and am very loyal to Southwest. This experience was only noteworthy because the company has always given exceptional service … and I’ve come to expect no less from them. Southwest’s self-description certifies this mantra, saying, “We like to think of ourselves as a Customer Service company that happens to fly airplanes.”

The Fumble

Here’s what went down: Southwest released their usual weekly sale on a Tuesday. Spotting a great fare, I tried to book before it was a goner. I tried a half-dozen times to book a flight online that day, each time getting to the final booking page … only to have the site crash.

Frustrated, I dialed Southwest’s 800-number. Twenty minutes later I had never gotten through to a live agent (and no, I do not choose to be called back later at Southwest’s convenience).

Wow. Totally out of character for this company, which has a proven history of excellent customer service and annually makes “best of” rankings for customer experience.

The Recovery

I wasn’t annoyed enough to abort ship. The low fare plus Southwest’s stellar track record (up until now) was enough for me to stay the course. I managed to finally get my flight booked late that night.

Less than a week later, a shiny yellow envelope appeared in the mail from Southwest. Inside: four free in-flight drink tickets! Yippee!

To keep the record straight, I did not receive the drink tickets as an apology. Southwest didn’t even know they’d crossed me. I received the tickets as thanks for being a Southwest Visa cardholder (don’t even get me started on what an amazing deal those 50,000 free points for signing up have been). Their timing just happened to be superb.

I Still LUV You, Too

The point that shone through in all of this was that I forgave Southwest immediately, no questions asked. I don’t care why their site was down, or that I couldn’t reach a live agent. If it becomes a pattern, I will care and seek out answers, but for now I’m happy to see that day as one customer service fumble and just move on.

Was my forgiveness bought for $20? Nah. Those drink tickets were a serendipitously timed treat, no doubt, but that’s not the takeaway. This is: if you consistently give superior customer service, you can afford a stumble or two along the way. Your customers will still love you, will remain loyal to the brand, and will likely just forget it ever happened.

How to Right A Wrong … While Building Customer Loyalty

I’m not the only Southwest customer that forgives a stumble. On December 29, 2011, self-proclaimed Southwest fan B.J. Schone had a bad travel experience with Southwest (they ruined his luggage, and the Southwest representative at the luggage desk didn’t give a care). He wrote a letter to Southwest, and their wonderful reply wooed him right back into I-LUV-SWA territory.

Shone proceeded to forgive Southwest publicly with this tweet (quickly retweeted by @SouthwestAir): “Here's the response I received from @SouthwestAir and @SouthwestVerity - AWESOME! http://t.co/227bUELH.”

At the end of the day, both sides won. Schone has a check for a brand new suitcase, and the company has another great customer service story to add to its hearty stash. And I’m willing to bet that Southwest’s timely and generous response ensures that Schone will be even more loyal to the company than before the incident.

By Becky Neely, Content Queen at Help Scout
Becky is passionate about communications and is a certified grammar nerd. When she's not hunting errant commas, she indulges her insatiable love of travel (39 countries and counting...).