Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support
- Text messaging services and applications (such as SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger) have seen explosive growth over the last decade. They are an entrenched part of consumers’ daily lives. For many demographics, text messaging rather than audio calls is the preferred medium of communication via smartphone.
- Despite the popularity of text messaging services and applications with consumers, organizations have been slow to adequately incorporate these channels into their customer service strategy.
- The result is a major disconnect between the channel preferences of consumers and the customer service options being offered by businesses.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- IT must work with their counterparts in customer service to build a technology roadmap that incorporates text messaging services and apps as a core channel for customer interaction. Doing so will increase IT’s stature as an innovator in the eyes of the business, while allowing the broader organization to leapfrog competitors that have not yet added text-based support to their repertoire of service channels. Incorporating text messaging as a customer service channel will increase customer satisfaction, improve retention, and reduce cost-to-serve.
- A prudent strategy for text-based customer service begins with defining the value proposition and creating objectives: is there a strong fit with the organization’s customers and service use cases? Next, organizations must create a technology enablement roadmap for text-based support that incorporates the right tools and applications to deliver it. Finally, the strategy must address best practices for text-based customer service workflows and appropriate resourcing.
Impact and Result
- Understand the value and use cases for text-based customer support.
- Create a framework for enabling technologies that will support scalable text-based customer service.
- Improve underlying business metrics such as customer satisfaction, retention, and time to resolution by having a plan for text-based support.
- Better align IT with customer service and support needs.
Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support Research & Tools
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should be leveraging text-based services for customer support, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:
- Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support – Phases 1-3
1. Create the business case for text-based customer support
Understand the use cases and benefits of using text-based services for customer support, and establish how they align to the organization’s current service strategy.
- Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support – Phase 1: Create the Business Case for Text-Based Customer Support
- Text-Based Customer Support Strategic Summary Template
- Text-Based Customer Support Project Charter Template
- Text-Based Customer Support Business Case Assessment
2. Create a technology enablement framework for text-based customer support
Identify the right applications that will be needed to adequately support a text-based support strategy.
- Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support – Phase 2: Create a Technology Enablement Framework for Text-Based Customer Support
- Text-Based Customer Support Requirements Traceability Matrix
3. Create customer service workflows for text-based support
Create repeatable workflows and escalation policies for text-centric support.
- Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support – Phase 3: Create Customer Service Workflows for Text-Based Support
- Text-Based Customer Support TCO Tool
- Text-Based Customer Support Acceptable Use Policy
Workshop: Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
1 Create the Business Case for Text-Based Support
The Purpose
Create the business case for text-based support.
Key Benefits Achieved
A clear direction on the drivers and value proposition of text-based customer support for your organization.
Activities
1.1 Identify customer personas.
1.2 Define business and IT drivers.
Outputs
Identification of IT and business drivers.
Project framework and guiding principles for the project.
2 Create a Technology Enablement Framework for Text-Based Support
The Purpose
Create a technology enablement framework for text-based support.
Key Benefits Achieved
Prioritized requirements for text-based support and a vetted shortlist of the technologies needed to enable it.
Activities
2.1 Determine the correct migration strategy based on the current version of Exchange.
2.2 Plan the user groups for a gradual deployment.
Outputs
Exchange migration strategy.
User group organization by priority of migration.
3 Create Service Workflows for Text-Based Support
The Purpose
Create service workflows for text-based support.
Key Benefits Achieved
Customer service workflows and escalation policies, as well as risk mitigation considerations.
Present final deliverable to key stakeholders.
Activities
3.1 Review the text channel matrix.
3.2 Build the inventory of customer service applications that are needed to support text-based service.
Outputs
Extract requirements for text-based customer support.
4 Finalize Your Text Service Strategy
The Purpose
Finalize the text service strategy.
Key Benefits Achieved
Resource and risk mitigation plan.
Activities
4.1 Build core customer service workflows for text-based support.
4.2 Identify text-centric risks and create a mitigation plan.
4.3 Identify metrics for text-based support.
Outputs
Business process models assigned to text-based support.
Formulation of risk mitigation plan.
Key metrics for text-based support.