The brave new world of digital tools and technology allows small business to connect with customers in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago. We take this increased connectivity almost for granted, and because of this many small businesses overlook the platforms, analytic tools, and services available to them and just begging to be leveraged. I am going to discuss here three critical areas, where we focus energy and attention, that enable us to develop strong bonds with our users. Our efforts in these these areas are supported by software which enables us to maximize our own capacity and which can enable other small businesses to connect to and bond with customers. The focus for us is strategic, and these simple software solutions are, for us, tools of mass engagement!
1. Customer service is critical to our venture, our customers, and our marketing efforts. We are huge believers in the idea that deep bonds can be achieved when you pay attention to your customers, respond to their requests quickly and clearly, and (most of all) when you politely help to solve their problems. Great word of mouth starts with great customer service!
Help desk software: Zendesk. We have been using this SAAS support ticket management product since we launched our Beta on March 2008. To date we have handled over 40,000 customer service requests, and ZD allows us to categorize, assign, solve, and track each of those requests quickly and efficiently. Tools to create macros allow us to give “standard” answers to common questions; reporting features allow us to look across all tickets or time periods to understand trends; and user accounts allow us to quickly analyze a user’s history of requests and solutions. There is also a robust automated notifications feature that allow us to set “triggers” which generate unique emails to our users. We pay a monthly package price that gives us 7 “seats” and Zendesk’s own high quality, fast and dependable support.
