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Improving Customer Support

First posted on July 12, 2021

I always put off calling customer support because they typically send me on hold. So instead of phone calls, I believe that companies should offer a messaging-based support service because:

  1. Customers can explain things more coherently by putting their thoughts into writing.

  2. Support doesn't have to wait for customers to gather their information (e.g. IDs).

  3. Staff can quickly respond to common questions by copy-and-pasting pre-written replies.

  4. People can copy-and-paste specific exact error codes or account IDs into the chatbox.

    • This reduces the chance of saying the wrong account number.

  5. If support needs more information, they can just wait for your following message instead of asking you to call back (and re-explain everything) once you've gathered that information.

  6. It's easier to automate chatbot responses than human-voiced responses on the phone.

    • Some neural net magic can make it appear like you're talking to a human.

Moreover, chatboxes work best when people are already authenticated into their accounts before talking to customer support. This enables staff to pre-identify you and quickly resolve your request.

So if text-based customer support is far superior, then what is holding people back from switching? I think it's that other projects often take priority. Customer support isn't exactly fun to work on, and it's quite a thankless job. But if we can reduce confusion in the first place, I believe that fewer people would call in. Here are some ways I've thought of to reduce confusion:

  1. Advertise the chat box over a telephone number.

    • Or an email address in the worst case.

  2. Specify what information needs to be in the email.

    • A template with a checklist would work.
    • Brief examples would also be great.
    • Specify which actions you can do without customer support.
      • e.g. If you have to navigate to a hidden page to cancel a transaction, then make a Googleable wiki page about it!

  3. Streamline the app's UI to reduce confusion! Who knows, maybe if chat-based support overtakes call-based support, then we might enjoy talking to support. I hope you have a great week!

- Curtis

#61: Preventing False Fire Alarms  |  #63: Increasing Survey Responses for Graduating Class Profiles