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As one of the latest “buzz words” in business, many professionals are now focused on the “customer journey”, or understanding the entire path taken by a prospective customer to becoming a company advocate. From their very first step – be it an online search or a video ad – to the moment they buy and eventually refer someone else, this journey is complex and distinctively unique. Surprisingly though, the term is often used to describe interactions with Sales and Marketing, but forgets about the most long-standing relationship customers have with your company – the Help Desk.
What’s the role that help desk software plays in the customer journey? Here are a few answers to this question…
A good help desk software solution assists in winning business – This is especially true in some industries such as software or SaaS that let you “try before you buy”. By providing excellent support in the trial phase of the customer journey, prospects can see what their help desk experience will be like if they become a full customer. Encourage salespeople to let potential buyers know then can reach out to support with any issues or concerns during their evaluation and they will be treated like a long-standing customer. If you’re using help desk software, prospects can see just how organized and efficient your team is at responding to customers and meeting their needs.
Software can be trusted as a repository of client information – The amount of data available to businesses about prospective customers is amazing. Companies can see what ads prospects have clicked on, how much time they spent on a landing page, how long they watched a demo, and so much more. But it’s amazing that when a prospect converts this information gets far less attention. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way thanks to help desk software. With the right B2B software, you can create companies with individual contacts directly in the solution. It’s also easy to add products and see all related support conversations. This customer information can then be evaluated further to learn about potential business. Maybe a certain marketing channel is good at attracting customers from a specific industry? Or possessing a type of product increases the likelihood of retention? The possibilities are endless.
Solutions such as help desk software can let you know about “at risk” customers – Knowing how difficult it can be to acquire customers, it should come as no surprise that more companies are focusing on customer retention. Fortunately, B2B help desk software offers several features to monitor customer happiness with your business. Solutions like a “Customer Distress Index” (CDI) look at several factors such as the number of open tickets and average ticket resolution time to create a score. A customer with a low CDI is likely happy with you, and a higher CDI could mean they need more attention from your business. Watching this score to determine whether it is trending up or down provides valuable insignt into potential at-risk customers. These scores are great for business to business companies as it lets you do an ongoing assessment of overall satisfaction.
Easily share customer journey intelligence with integrations – Nowadays, it seems like every department has their own technology stack. Instead of letting valuable information sit siloed off away from everyone, utilize help desk integrations to share your knowledge with different teams. Integrations that work both ways (bi-directional) are ideal because not only are you educating others, but you’re getting access to new customer information that lets the help desk team be more efficient. Simply put, the more you know as an entire business, the better the customer journey will be.
To summarize, help desk software directly affects the customer journey in several ways. It can have an impact during the buying process as customers “test drive” all areas of your business by enabling your help desk team to work smarter and more efficiently. But, where help desk software truly shines is near the end of the journey. Over time, it becomes a treasure trove of customer information businesses use to learn about their current customers to identify potential at-risk clients, and even target “look alike” prospects to increase revenue. Businesses also leverage help desk data through integrations with other software solutions to better understand customers and boost retention rates. In general, the help desk team is often overlooked for their impact on the customer journey, but they are vital to the success of your business and the right B2B help desk software can maximize their impact.
