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The Coffee Booth: October 18 | Scrappy, Not Crappy

  • 13 October 2022
  • 65 replies
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The Coffee Booth: October 18 | Scrappy, Not Crappy
bharath.chakravarthy
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The Coffee Booth is now OPEN! 

 

✅ New Host

✅✅ Topic of conversation 

✅✅✅ Date & Time

 

A little bit about me

Been with Freshworks for 7.5 years, starting in Chennai in the FD support team and since then moved to Berlin to be the first full time onboarding specialist. Currently, I lead a team in the CAA function in Berlin and work currently as both an Engagement Manager and also a Solution Architect for the CX product suite.

I’m a keen photographer who loves to travel, hunting for that perfect frame (the Budapest Parliament building was one such frame); also a cricket purist who loves watching the longest format of the game and plays professionally here in Berlin.

Excited to speak with you all and host MY first coffee chat - show some love in the comments!

 

Here’s the low-down:

🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?

🎄With the holiday season looming, how have you and your org made it easier for agents to deal with several customers at a time on a regular basis?

➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

😀 Effectively categorizing your support teams can help set a strong foundation to the overall support experience (and thereby, customer experience)- what are the ways in which you would categorize your support teams?

🌈Great service experiences are likelier to lead to repeat customers. But if your agents aren’t equipped well to delight customers, it’s a moot point. What are some innovative ways in which you would facilitate training for your support team?

 

Date: October 18

Time: 6 PM BST | 10 AM PT

Duration: 60 minutes

Event link: Right here - this is a TEXT-BASED conversation!

RSVP and we’ll send you a calendar invite!

 

65 replies

alyssia.correa
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

This conversation is the need of the hour, especially with the holiday season beginning! Can’t wait to read all the insights during this coffee chat! ☕️

Alyssia, Freshworks Community
rashmi.nag
Userlevel 7
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Excited for the Coffee Chat session today! Looking forward to hearing from @bharath.chakravarthy and the rest of our community! 🤩

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Refresh Community
A
Userlevel 5
Badge +6

To all our academy members who registered, thank you! The Coffee Chat begins in 35 minutes from now (6 PM BST/ 10:30 PM IST/ 10:00 AM PT)

Come join us!

@amandal  @jobelleyu 
@tze @Julia 
@harshaa.sridhar @jasmin 
@jaideep @Giovanna Carvalho 
@fmaka @waitingroom 
@theguru_clozano @berniesbest 
@finn @Amberdawne 
@JHarris @justin.mitchell 
@Michael.Seaman 
@carsonautri @Always Learning 
@AudreyStaton @vp25 
@TheHoff @vishaal.pinisetti 
@Bernburgerin 

 

 

A
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@manns @zach Would love to hear from you and join Bharath too 🙂 Thank you and looking forward to learning from you as always. 

bharath.chakravarthy
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Hello, everyone.

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, or as is it said conveniently here in Germany, Guten Tag :)

Welcome to this super exciting coffee chat titled - Scrappy, not crappy: Creative ways to address customer challenges

I'm your host, Bharath, signing in from Berlin, Germany

bharath.chakravarthy
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While we wait for everyone to join in, let’s start with some representation to see how global our audience is today. 

Drop in a message to show which part of the world you’re joining in from and if possible, teach us how to say “Hello” in your language 

jasmin
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I am near Frankfurt in Germany. So, we say “Hallo” 👋

rhea.desouza
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Hello @bharath.chakravarthy and Community

Looking forward to the next hour --- I am joining in from India🎉

Cheers | Team Freshworks Community
S
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Guten Tag to you, Bharath! Hallo, @jasmin :) 
We say “Namaste” here in India!

Looking forward to this

bharath.chakravarthy
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Great, so here’s the first question for the day

Q1: 🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?
 

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option
Giovanna Carvalho
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Guten Tag everyone!

I’m in Brazil and here we say “Oi”

rashmi.nag
Userlevel 7
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Hey everyone! Lovely to be a part of this Coffee Chat. I’m from India as well and we say “Vanakam” in Tamil (the language I speak) :)

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Refresh Community
Bernburgerin
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I am an hour south of Frankfurt. So it is Jou in kurpfälzisch 😉

S
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Great, so here’s the first question for the day

Q1: 🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?
 

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option

I think having a constantly updated Knowledge Base will obviously help in making these scenarios as infrequent as possible.

But when they do happen, I would think transparency from the support agent would be appreciated by most customers.

I know I would always appreciate it, as a customer, if I’m told that an immediate answer isn’t available but the support team is doing their best to resolve my query/ problem soon as reasonably possible!

jamesallnutt
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Userlevel 2

Howdy @bharath.chakravarthy @jasmin from the US 🖐🏻

Looking forward to seeing what’s going on. 

Global Platform Support Manager @ Opus2. All opinions are my own. Occasional Mini Painter.
bharath.chakravarthy
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Great, so here’s the first question for the day

Q1: 🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?
 

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option


A1: Personally, I’ve always felt an internal Knowledge Base is indeed the best way to ensure that an agent has an answer at their finger tips. Having said that, a KBase can’t be built overnight and will have to be laid, brick by brick, article by article.

During the implementations, especially for customers who don’t have a KBase yet, I’ve always recommended the agents contributing to the KBase on the fly, by just converting their replies automatically to drafts under the Solutions tab.For queries not on the KBase, the agents can always the Freshconnect (Threads) feature inside a ticket to have a quick collaboration with others agents with the context of the ticket.

 

I
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Great, so here’s the first question for the day

Q1: 🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?
 

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option


A1: Personally, I’ve always felt an internal Knowledge Base is indeed the best way to ensure that an agent has an answer at their finger tips. Having said that, a KBase can’t be built overnight and will have to be laid, brick by brick, article by article.

During the implementations, especially for customers who don’t have a KBase yet, I’ve always recommended the agents contributing to the KBase on the fly, by just converting their replies automatically to drafts under the Solutions tab.For queries not on the KBase, the agents can always the Freshconnect (Threads) feature inside a ticket to have a quick collaboration with others agents with the context of the ticket.

 

What about while in direct communication with a customer on call or otherwise? 

bharath.chakravarthy
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Userlevel 5
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Great, so here’s the first question for the day

Q1: 🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?
 

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option

I think having a constantly updated Knowledge Base will obviously help in making these scenarios as infrequent as possible.

But when they do happen, I would think transparency from the support agent would be appreciated by most customers.

I know I would always appreciate it, as a customer, if I’m told that an immediate answer isn’t available but the support team is doing their best to resolve my query/ problem soon as reasonably possible!

I definitely would second that. Honesty, combined with the effort shown by the agent to solve the issue at the earliest will please most customers out there 🙂.

Thanks, Sanjana for your valuable inputs. 

 

K
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Great, so here’s the first question for the day

Q1: 🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?
 

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option

 

A1. I believe most customer support representatives are trained to give certain responses and sometimes they are limited to almost a script. Most often, in my experience customer support doesn’t take the initiative to find the right answer.

It helps to say you don’t know the answer and you will get back or that you will follow up and get back. That extra mile always helps and is a welcome change.

A
Userlevel 5
Badge +6

Great, so here’s the first question for the day

Q1: 🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?
 

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option


A1: Personally, I’ve always felt an internal Knowledge Base is indeed the best way to ensure that an agent has an answer at their finger tips. Having said that, a KBase can’t be built overnight and will have to be laid, brick by brick, article by article.

During the implementations, especially for customers who don’t have a KBase yet, I’ve always recommended the agents contributing to the KBase on the fly, by just converting their replies automatically to drafts under the Solutions tab.For queries not on the KBase, the agents can always the Freshconnect (Threads) feature inside a ticket to have a quick collaboration with others agents with the context of the ticket.

 

That’s a nice workaround in the absence of a thorough Kbase  🙂 As you rightly said of course, nothing quite like having a Kbase set up! 

K
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Userlevel 2
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Great, so here’s the first question for the day

Q1: 🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?
 

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option


A1: Personally, I’ve always felt an internal Knowledge Base is indeed the best way to ensure that an agent has an answer at their finger tips. Having said that, a KBase can’t be built overnight and will have to be laid, brick by brick, article by article.

During the implementations, especially for customers who don’t have a KBase yet, I’ve always recommended the agents contributing to the KBase on the fly, by just converting their replies automatically to drafts under the Solutions tab.For queries not on the KBase, the agents can always the Freshconnect (Threads) feature inside a ticket to have a quick collaboration with others agents with the context of the ticket.

 

What about while in direct communication with a customer on call or otherwise? 

This is a really important point you bring up @Ishan 

jamesallnutt
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Q1: 🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?

 

A1: A clear escalation path to either a senior technical team member or senior customer success manager who would have the answer required. We use Scenario Automations for this. This allows us to seamlessly hand the ticket to another agent to provide a feedback on what we should be saying. It also means we have the ability to pull a report on escalated tickets - and learn where the team does not have answers and setup appropriate training to fill these gaps. 

Global Platform Support Manager @ Opus2. All opinions are my own. Occasional Mini Painter.
bharath.chakravarthy
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Userlevel 5
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Great, so here’s the first question for the day

Q1: 🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?
 

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option


A1: Personally, I’ve always felt an internal Knowledge Base is indeed the best way to ensure that an agent has an answer at their finger tips. Having said that, a KBase can’t be built overnight and will have to be laid, brick by brick, article by article.

During the implementations, especially for customers who don’t have a KBase yet, I’ve always recommended the agents contributing to the KBase on the fly, by just converting their replies automatically to drafts under the Solutions tab.For queries not on the KBase, the agents can always the Freshconnect (Threads) feature inside a ticket to have a quick collaboration with others agents with the context of the ticket.

 

What about while in direct communication with a customer on call or otherwise? 

That’s a great question. Typically, on channels, a KBase / FAQ link can still be sent, but for telephony, I’d definitely suggest to take the decision based on the severity of the issue.

An important skill for an agent is to also know how to buy time, thereby to be able find the right resources internally to get the answer. We’ve all been on those 1 hour long support troubleshooting calls trying to debug the issue on a remote session as well, but even then, I’d say, communication is key from the agent, with a proper L2 process in the background that the agent can leverage. 

 

Bernburgerin
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Great, so here’s the first question for the day

Q1: 🎧 A common challenge faced by many customer support representatives is not having an answer to a query. What processes do you have in place to ensure situations such as these are handled in the best manner?
 

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option

A1: I can fully second what others have written here already: develop and use a knowledge base is crucial. Analyse on how it is used to see whether your agents contribute to it, use it, find it helpful.

bharath.chakravarthy
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Keep those comments coming in for all the questions, folks. This is great :) 

Here’s the second question

Q2: 🎄With the holiday season looming, how have you and your org made it easier for agents to deal with several customers at a time on a regular basis?

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option

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