February brings us around to the month of love, and what a better way to celebrate than to talk about just how much we love our systems! Oh… you don’t love your systems? Well let’s see if we can fix that! With Zoho, you have all the tools and support at your fingertips to curate, craft, and build the perfect ecosystem for you, your employees, and your customers. What could be more lovely than that?

Zoho Desk will enable you to efficiently manage your customer support activities. It is designed for all sizes of business and is easy to use. Zoho Desk addresses customer service challenges in real time. Our last article talked about customer feedback surveys, social media monitoring, community forums and Short Message Service (SMS). Before that we discussed other client support tools in detail including email automations, Chatbots, live chat and FAQs. This time we look at the key features of Zoho Desk, what people are saying about Zoho Desk and how we can help you.

Features of Zoho Desk

• Prioritise, manage and close your customer support tickets
• Create a Help Desk solution for your team
• Provide a Help Centre
• Manage contracts and service level agreements
• Create standard and customised reports
• Customise your desk

Ticket Management

You will be able to check customer requests across channels, brands, products, departments and more, all in one place. Irrespective of the channel of communication, your customers choose, you will be available for them. This can be via email, telephone, social media, live chat and more.

Help is Available to the DIY Customer

Customer self-service capabilities can be embedded into your website and mobile apps within the ASAP plugin. Clients will be able to browse your Knowledge Base, post to interact with your user community and chat with Zia, an AI-powered conversation assistant.

Empower Your Team and Automate Repetitive Tasks

Using Zoho Desk will improve team productivity, as they will have everything available at their fingertips to collaborate, communicate and secure customer relationships. Processes can be managed efficiently and effortlessly with repetitive activities automated to save time, effort and costs.

Analyse Team Performance and Customise

It’s key to know what is working and what isn’t and take action. Reports and visualisations can be created to monitor your team’s performance. You will also know how long tasks take, which will help with invoicing clients. Your help desk can also be customised so that it matches your brand personality.

Offer Help to Your Customers Securely

With Zoho Desk, customer data will be protected whilst giving your team all the information they need.

• Roles – define your company hierarchy for better data flow
• Profiles – specify access for various roles
• Data Sharing – control who can access data within each module
• GDPR – stay compliant
• Field Level Security – define who can view and modify data

What are People Saying About Zoho Desk?

“Zoho Desk is the most full-featured help desk you can buy for the money. It is at the top of our help desk list for one very simple reason: it has an Impressive list of features and the most competitive price on the market.”

PC Magazine

“Zoho Desk offers an omnichannel ticketing system that is equipped with agent collaboration and productivity tools to make customer support processes faster and more efficient. It is recommended for start ups and small support teams looking for free support solutions with self-service and SLA features. It also offers scalable paid plans suited for growing companies and enterprises.”

Fit Small Business

“Should you invest in this help desk platform? If you have a growing business and want to develop a solid customer support system – the answer is YES. Our comprehensive review proved that Zoho Desk is an amazing platform where you can service your stakeholders better. Bye-bye bad customer service.”

techjury

How Can Relativity Help You with Zoho Desk?

Zoho Desk is web-based help desk software, which is available for FREE for up to three agents and scalable as you grow. It is feature rich to increase the productivity of your team. Customisation will allow you to determine the most suitable page layouts and you will have the capabilities to add fields, create tabs and edit templates to suit your business. To find out more about managing your customer support activities with Zoho Desk, call Relativity, the business technology specialists on 01825 280123 or email info@relativity.co.uk for more information.

Read our other recent posts:

Which client support software tools are best for your business? In the latest article from Relativity, the business technology experts based in East Sussex, we look at four of the most frequently used forms of customer service automation. Last time we looked at email automations, Chatbots, live chat and FAQs. This time we consider customer feedback surveys, social media monitoring, community forums and Short Message Service (SMS).

Four Examples of Client Support Software Tools

• Client feedback surveys
• Social media listening, monitoring and responding
• Community forums
• SMS messaging

Client Feedback Surveys Provide Useful Insights

It seems that they have been around since the ‘dawn of time’, but client feedback surveys are still very helpful in gathering information about what customers think about your business. With ever increasing competition, you need to gain the edge over them and although surveys may include things you do not want to hear, they will provide useful insights into how services and products can be improved. Consider including customer experience surveys regularly as you will know who is happy and who is not!

• Improves service and product quality
• Helps in making important strategy decisions
• Makes clients feel valued 
• Measures customer satisfaction
• Improves customer retention and loyalty rates

Social Media Monitoring Helps Track What People are Saying About Your Brand

Client support software tools include monitoring social media, which can be used to identify trends and to understand what customers are thinking and saying about your brand. It can also track competitor activity and also measure the impact your social media activity is having. If people choose social media to reach out to you, they will want a fast response.

• Promotes good customer service
• Generates new leads
• Provides feedback
• Identifies influencers
• Share compliments
• Monitor the competition
• Identifies trends

Community Forums Allow Clients to Ask Questions and Share Their Experiences

Here customers can share their knowledge about the products and services you provide. It is an online meeting place, and you could say self-service support group where a problem can be sorted without the need for contacting customer service.

This means customers can solve issues on their own which is a cost saving for your business. They are also helpful for product development as ideas can be gathered from the people who know and use your products and services.

• Increase customer engagement
• Provide market research
• Collect feedback
• Promote brand loyalty
• Improve customer experience

Short Message Service (SMS) is a Popular Way to Connect with Customers

It was actually invented in the 1980s and is one of the oldest texting technologies. However there are many reasons and benefits of using SMS as one of your client support software tools. SMS messaging is very reliable, texts are quick and cost effective and results can be easily analysed.

• Provides immediate communication
• Attracts new customers
• Increases sales
• Provides a profitable ROI

How Can Relativity Help You Choose the Perfect Client Support Software Tools for Your Business?

There are a lot of client support software tools available and we hope our last two articles have shed some light on eight of the channels you can use in your business. There is no doubting that adhering to the adage, ‘the customer comes first’ is good for your business. However, without customer support software, this can be time-consuming and expensive. If you want to update your systems, it can be difficult to decide on the channels you need. Sometimes a little ‘trail and error’ may be needed. Or to find out more about customer service support channels, call Relativity, the business technology specialists on 01825 280123 or email info@relativity.co.uk for more information. We can help you to decide which features you need and which tools are the most suitable for your budget, size of business and how any new systems can work with the tools you already have.

Next time we will be looking in more detail at Zoho Desk, the client support software tool that will help you run your customer service operations.

https://www.relativity.co.uk/four-customer-service-support-channels/

Customer experience is key to your business success, after all it is the customer’s overall perception of your business. However, the client’s journey must be a positive one as happy customers become loyal customers and become additions to your sales and marketing team. This is because they are likely to promote your brand and champion your services and products. That of course all sounds quite straightforward, but in practice it is a lot more difficult to achieve due to the many touch points with customers.

Here, automation is key and there are lots of tools available with which you can collect feedback, assist customers along their journey and provide a super on-boarding experience. In this article from Relativity, the business technology experts based in East Sussex, we look at what the benefits are to you, your team and to your clients.

What is Customer Experience?

Customer experience is the customer’s perceptions and related feelings caused by the one-off and cumulative effect of interactions with a supplier’s employees, systems, channels or products.

Gartner

Customer experience, also known as CX, is your customers’ holistic perception of their experience with your business or brand.  

Hotjar

Customer experience consists of every interaction that a customer has with your company from viewing and navigating your website, talking to your customer service team and receiving the product or service.

What is Customer Experience Automation?

Automation involves identifying repeatable tasks across the customer engagement cycle where it can actually be a hindrance to have people managing the process alone. 

Canon

Customer experience automation is any technology that assists customers with common tasks, sometimes replacing the involvement of humans, to improve customer interactions.

TechTarget

Benefits of Customer Experience Automation

• Personalised and consistent experience at every step of the customer journey
• Automation of simple repetitive tasks
• Increased team productivity and engagement
• Round the clock support 24/7 to reduce wait times for customers and to give quick resolutions to any problems
• Analytics to identify repetitive customer issues and areas that can be improved
• Lower costs and overheads

When using automation, it is important to note that the human element should never be eliminated and the two should run hand in hand. Lasting customer relationships are built on the personal touch.

What Do You Get from Your Customers for Delivering an Excellent Experience?

• Increased loyalty
• Better satisfaction
• More word-of-mouth marketing
• Increased positive reviews and recommendations

How Can Relativity Help You So That Your Clients Get a Better Experience?

It all adds up to the fact that putting the customer first is good for your business, but managing their experience and their expectations can be time-consuming. Automation can certainly reduce this by helping you to understand your customers faster and enabling consistent connection in a cost effective way. However, due to the multiple touchpoints for the customer, it pays to speak to the experts to ensure you have the right automation solution to deliver the best possible customer experience through every component of their journey. Call Relativity, the business technology specialists on 01825 280123 or email info@relativity.co.uk

Next time we will be looking at how to choose the right customer experience automation platform so your business delivers the best customer service possible.

Our recent articles:

Are you confused about which software you should use to run your business? There are a lot of software companies to choose from and making a decision as to who offers the best solutions for your business is tough, as they all sound pretty good and their sales pitches are persuasive. One thing is clear, you really do want the most efficient and cost-effective software for your business. But how do you know? One way to find out is to speak to a business technology company that knows what they are talking about, one that cuts out the jargon so that you understand exactly what’s on offer, such as Relativity, a Business Technology Specialist and a Zoho Authorised Partner with Zoho Certifications. Gordon Mankelow has been at the helm of Relativity for 25 years and chose Zoho products because not only do they offer serious software, but also it is a private company driven by the needs of its customers.

Zoho Places its Emphasis on Product Development and Customer Support

Today, Zoho is one of the most popular software and cloud service companies in the world, and was started by Sridhar Vembu, a man born into a very modest middle class family from Chennai. Zoho is a private company with a public vision with an emphasis on product development and customer support rather than sales and marketing. Vembu refuses to take venture capital, is not interested in his considerable net worth and is more driven by helping people, including setting up a comprehensive programme to hiring high school students. You could say, people before profit.

Why Choose Zoho Products?

• Commitment to continuous refinement
• Dedication to improving the customer experience
• Emphasis on product development and customer support
• Affordable prices and great value
• Priority on privacy - no ads within the products

Zoho brands itself as “Serious Software, Friendly Company”. The company is quite candid in its admission that it loves building beautiful software but thinks its people and the company culture are its most important assets. Its portfolio of products has been built with patience and anticipation with the complete range available under one integrated suite, Zoho One.

How Zoho Has Been Helping During COVID-19

• The Zoho Remotely suite has been offered for free for 6 months, until September 1^st
• A payment holiday was offered for customers using Zoho
• The Small Business Emergency Subscription Assistance Programme (ESAP) was set up with Zoho software free for 3 months
• Partners offered free training on Zoho apps

Free Training and Zoho Certifications to Zoho Partners

Gordon took advantage of the offer and earned the following Zoho certifications and accreditations:

• Certified Analytics Associate
• Level 1 Certified CRM Administrator
• Certified Assist Associate
• Certified Creator Developer - Professional Level
• Desk Certified Associate
• Projects Certified Associate
• Campaigns Certified Email Marketer

What Relativity Can Do to Help You and Your Team?

This extensive list of Zoho certifications demonstrates that Relativity is really qualified to give you great advice on Zoho software products and whether they would help your business in these uncertain times.  Contact our very qualified experts who can advise you on this and whether Zoho apps would be the most cost-effective solution for your business. Call 01825 280123 or email info@relativity.co.uk for more information.

Read more about Zoho on their website here.

Big data is the term for a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Data

• Google receives 2m search requests
• 680,000 items are shared on Facebook
• 34,722 Brands and Organisations receive a Like on Facebook
• 47,000 Apps are downloaded from Apple
• 100,000 Tweets are sent

• Identifying crime before it happens.
• Predicating the spread of disease in Crops and People.
• Help win Elections.
• Predicting the Weather, rather topical after Monday

• Do you make regular email contact with your clients and potentials and use a CRM system to standardise the contact no matter who sends out the email? This makes sures your story is strong and consistent.
• Do you use a CRM system to track all communication with your customers and potentials no matter who made the contact or how they did it? This means that no matter how big you grow, the person doing the contact knows what has gone before.
• Do you have a process for new clients or a  programme of regular contact? Do you use a CRM to make sure the process happens and in a timely fashion engaging everyone in the business who needs to act?
• Statistics. Do you know who is buying, who are your best clients, where they are from, how many ‘touches’ it takes, who your best salespeople are and what makes them best? A lot of business owners may have a ‘gut’ feeling about these sorts of statistics but a CRM system will allow you to see the facts, drill down further allowing you to target what works and improve what doesn’t.
• Integrate. In an ideal world your CRM system will not stand alone it should integrate into or help do the process for other departments in the business, i.e. Raise PO’s and Invoices etc. Reducing or stopping double entry and setting business data free in a safe and secure manner to those who need it. This may not be directly measurable but it can make a business much more effective.

Our Favourites

• Salesforce: The granddaddy of them all, seen as the creme de la creme of Cloud based CRM systems, but often seen as complex.
• Netsuite: So much more than CRM you could run your whole business on this from the Webshop to Accounts.
• Zoho CRM: A simple but very flexible CRM system, the developers focus on integration into their other products and third party.
• Microsoft-CRM: In the Cloud or on Premise a flexible system but seems to require a lot of work out of the box to get it to meet your needs
• Capsule CRM: Very simple with the Core CRM functionality that most people need, tends to rely on third party system (that it integrates very well with) for functionality which is standard in other systems, such as email.
• Insightly CRM: Insigthly to me unsightly but if you can get past this it is a very capable yet simple CRM system with teams and projects. Like Capsule and Zoho, Insightly has close ties to Google Apps for Business.
• CallPro CRM: A call centric CRM system, ideal for telemarketers and those people who sell predominantly by the phone.  Whilst a cloud driven system it can integrate into your phone systems to allow automatic dialling and includes features such as dynamic call scripts and integrated email marketing,