Proactive customer support is a methodology or approach to customer service in which businesses take the initiative to help customers before customers reach out for help. It’s about troubleshooting potential problems and solving them as soon as the first problems appear. In other words, you address the customer’s problem even before they encounter it, by detecting or anticipating the problem in advance and extending support to solve it. Instead of waiting for customers to ask about their delayed deliveries, they tell the customer what the new delivery date is.
It’s a relatively simple approach to implement. Some brands make customers feel special. But what do these brands do differently than others? Do they offer discounts and promotions to their customers? Or do they extend customers’ subscriptions for a month for free? It involves a change in the way they approach customer service, a change from reactive to proactive service.
Factors Of Proactive Customer Service
Companies like Netflix and Amazon have provided memorable proactive support experiences that customers remember as exceptional service stories. Proactive service is used quite often in the world of customer support.
For example, Amazon expects questions about delivery dates and times. Let’s say the customer is an Amazon Prime subscriber, and a problem occurs. In that case, Amazon will sometimes even grant them one free month of service for this hassle without the customer ever asking. This is different from reactive customer support, where the customer contacts your support team only after noticing a problem. At that point, customers usually have a problem that isn’t easy to fix without guidance, so they have to wait for your help.
How To Implement Proactive Customer Service?
Implementing proactive customer service is a joint effort involving your team, your customers and the company. Here are three things you need to consider before you get started: Know your customer. If you don’t know who they are, what they need, or what problems they face, you can never proactively support them.
The Right Support Team
The real power of proactive service solutions works best when there is a solid team behind it. This means you need to focus on building a team with a good mix of people from different functions in your organization. Build a content library, FAQs, forums, and self-help portals are great proactive support tools, but only if you populate them with useful, engaging, and easy-to-follow content.
Proactive Approach
Reward customer loyalty with discounts and offers. Include a live chat option on your website. Pay attention to what customers are saying online. Ask customers for feedback. Report errors before customers notice. Create content that answers common customer questions. If you follow these guidelines, you will have a proactive approach to customer service.
How can I be proactive?
8 ways to be more proactive. Look for proactive people. Don’t sweat things you can’t control. Take back control. The first step is to take responsibility for your actions. Don’t give in to negative gremlins. Accept that mistakes are inevitable. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Be solution-oriented. Celebrate your successes.
Our team hopes that you now know how to get more proactive customer service. Be sure to follow all our tips to help your business or contact us to see how we could help you make this work.