The difference between reactive and proactive service
Proactive customer service is an approach where the business (not the customer) takes the first step to solve a problem. Proactive customer service identifies potential problems and provides clients with the working tools to resolve those problems. Even if they have not yet contacted the company. It’s like getting vaccinated or eating healthy: we don’t take action when we already have a problem (flu or gastritis), but to prevent the problem from occurring.
Proactive customer service, also called proactive support, at first glance seems more time-consuming than reactive. Why carry out an analysis, look for a solution, deliver it to customers, if the client doesn’t even have this problem?! But in fact, putting out a fire is much more difficult than initially observing fire safety rules and preventing it.
It turns out that companies with proactive customer service don’t wait until their customers face difficulties. Proactive companies strive to prevent mistakes and problems at the earliest possible stage.
Using a proactive approach to customer service depends on customer needs and your specific business model. Explore your customers with analytics and direct feedback. Their most common problems are the first thing to start with. Identify any sore points that your customers are experiencing, as resolving them should be your main concern. Take a look at the different tools and methods used by other companies to ensure a proactive approach. Then you can determine which tools meet customer needs.
Proactive ticket support
If your business is in the field of e-commerce, then you have regular communication with support customers and their tickets. As a result, ticketing is a big part of customer support that needs to be improved, made proactive.
Reactive service is when a customer contacts via email or chat to resolve a technical request. Waits for a response within 8 hours (if the company doesn’t work around the clock). And after some time, the client receives an answer about the ticket opening. Then the customer is forced to contact support each time to know the ticket status.
Proactive service is when a customer has a request and creates a ticket in the ticket portal, even during non-working hours. It is good practice when the portal provides a solution as soon as the customer creates a ticket (as in the helpdesk). And most importantly, the customer has access to monitoring and ticket management.
CliPlace Ticket Portal is one of the ways to make the service proactive because it is a full-fledged customer self-service portal for tickets. This tool syncs perfectly with the HubSpot CRM. CliPlace is an ideal tool for companies whose customers have a long ticket life cycle or customers often open tickets. With CliPlace Ticket Portal you provide customers with tickets around the clock. So customers can view old tickets or open new ones, reply and add attachments. Managing the individual portal, the client is informed and aware of the case.
The self-service ticket portal helps to improve the customer experience, increase customer loyalty and their desire to buy again. It is also in your best interest to be as transparent as possible. Customers want to know what’s going on and why their experience isn’t optimal.
Conclusion
Proactive customer service is proactive, where the team’s job is to reach out to the customer before the customer needs to reach out to the team. Everything else – software, tools, tactics, and strategies – is needed to help ensure proactivity. The main idea of proactive service is customer focus, and hence the ways to build such a service in your company. To get started, set up workflows in the company, do not forget to optimize your knowledge base and FAQ, implement chatbots, a self-service portal, and operational support based on the actions of visitors on the site. Train your team, experiment with different methodologies, find the best practices and tools just for you – and you are ready to succeed! More useful tips on creating a proactive service you will find in the guide.