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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

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: 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.

 

@bharath.chakravarthy - that’s very true and an important point. How often do you recommend updating the Kbase? and how do you resolve for urgent issues that the agents don’t have knowledge to? 

bharath.chakravarthy
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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. 

That’s bang on right, James. I think you’ve also answered Ishan’s question partly there. A proper escalation process, especially on call, that is continuously adapted based on feedback via frequent trainings.  

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.

 

@bharath.chakravarthy - that’s very true and an important point. How often do you recommend updating the Kbase? and how do you resolve for urgent issues that the agents don’t have knowledge to? 

It’s one of those where there isn’t one right  answer, but honestly, I think a review once a quarter is good. 

The content contribution should be a continuous process, but the review and publishing of the articles can happen once or twice a quarter, I’d say. 

A
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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. 

That sounds like such a great way to handle this- especially your point about using this intel to fill training gaps.

Small follow up question- how frequently would you recommend these escalations be reviewed? 

Thanks so much for sharing, James. 

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

My two cents:

Ticket deflection is the best way to answer tickets :)

Having a good customer support portal, with proper messaging and expectation setting through automated email notifications will allow us to buy some time for the agents (mostly operating on limited staffing owing to the holiday season).

bharath.chakravarthy
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So, keeping up the momentum, here’s the next one.

Q3: ➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

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 

S
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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

My two cents:

Ticket deflection is the best way to answer tickets :)

Having a good customer support portal, with proper messaging and expectation setting through automated email notifications will allow us to buy some time for the agents (mostly operating on limited staffing owing to the holiday season).

Makes total sense! Also feel a well thought out FAQ page and overcommunication on websites/ product/ shipments can go a long way in reducing number of tickets.

I truly appreciate all agents supporting customers through the holidays- such champs

Bernburgerin
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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

A2: @bharath.chakravarthy Do you refer to deflecting tickets over a portal or additional temporary agents?

bharath.chakravarthy
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So, keeping up the momentum, here’s the next one.

Q3: ➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

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 

So, keeping up the momentum, here’s the next one.

Q3: ➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

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 

 

Honestly, during downtimes, I’ve always felt that the first thing we need to address is the ‘emotion’ of the customer as opposed to the ‘issue’ of the customer. Letting the customer finish their point, not interrupting them and making sure they feel heard solves most of the troubles.

Once that’s done, we can get to actually providing a solution / ETA for the issue itself, and if you need more information from the customer, now would be the best time to ask it.

If the issue takes longer than expected, using a bulk reply option to all tickets connected a the bug (tracker) can be used to keep the customer updated periodically. A company wide status page can also help in such situations

rashmi.nag
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Such great learnings from you all! 

My question would be - how to ensure that your Kbase is not just yet another place with ‘content overwhelm’ (lot of information which is either not structured in the best way or doesn’t have good search functionalities) for both agents and customers?

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Refresh Community
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

A2: @bharath.chakravarthy Do you refer to deflecting tickets over a portal or additional temporary agents?

That’s an interesting, question.

I’d actually pick the former. Actually deflecting tickets using a bot or a good FAQ portal is more cost effective, especially for those WISMO (Where is my Order) kinda questions. 

Not having to have an agent answer a ticket and still keep a customer happy, that’s a win-win right? 

Bernburgerin
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So, keeping up the momentum, here’s the next one.

Q3: ➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

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 

A3: 

  1. Listen to them and ensure they are feeling understood.
  2. Open a ticket.
  3. See whether others have reported the same.
  4. In that case create a tracker ticket.
bharath.chakravarthy
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@Giovanna Carvalho 
@finn -

Would love to hear your thoughts too 

A
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So, keeping up the momentum, here’s the next one.

Q3: ➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

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 

So, keeping up the momentum, here’s the next one.

Q3: ➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

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 

 

Honestly, during downtimes, I’ve always felt that the first thing we need to address is the ‘emotion’ of the customer as opposed to the ‘issue’ of the customer. Letting the customer finish their point, not interrupting them and making sure they feel heard solves most of the troubles.

Once that’s done, we can get to actually providing a solution / ETA for the issue itself, and if you need more information from the customer, now would be the best time to ask it.

If the issue takes longer than expected, using a bulk reply option to all tickets connected a the bug (tracker) can be used to keep the customer updated periodically. A company wide status page can also help in such situations

The first point is often understated- although I completely understand it’s easier said than done when we consider the volume of tickets and how overwhelming it can get for agents too.

bharath.chakravarthy
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Userlevel 5
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Such great learnings from you all! 

My question would be - how to ensure that your Kbase is not just yet another place with ‘content overwhelm’ (lot of information which is either not structured in the best way or doesn’t have good search functionalities) for both agents and customers?

That’s a good question. 

I’d actually suggest a simple first step - differentiate between a Knowledge Base and an FAQ page.

Often, people misunderstand the difference between the two. A KBase is meant to have long ‘how to setup XYZ’ sort of one-page instruction sets, whereas, an FAQ is meant to be short and in a Q&A format. 

That way, customers can have that mini-sized bytes, and agents can use that in chats as well. 

 

bharath.chakravarthy
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My favourite question of the session and I’m sure @jamesallnutt has heard me say this a number of times on our calls 

Q4: 😀 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?

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 

Bernburgerin
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So, keeping up the momentum, here’s the next one.

Q3: ➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

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 

So, keeping up the momentum, here’s the next one.

Q3: ➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

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 

 

Honestly, during downtimes, I’ve always felt that the first thing we need to address is the ‘emotion’ of the customer as opposed to the ‘issue’ of the customer. Letting the customer finish their point, not interrupting them and making sure they feel heard solves most of the troubles.

Once that’s done, we can get to actually providing a solution / ETA for the issue itself, and if you need more information from the customer, now would be the best time to ask it.

If the issue takes longer than expected, using a bulk reply option to all tickets connected a the bug (tracker) can be used to keep the customer updated periodically. A company wide status page can also help in such situations

The first point is often understated- although I completely understand it’s easier said than done when we consider the volume of tickets and how overwhelming it can get for agents too.

We are all humans and feelings are important. Yes, for mundane tasks (ro)bots can take over, but if you feel really distressed you want to talk, cry, whatever...

bharath.chakravarthy
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Userlevel 5
Badge +3

So, keeping up the momentum, here’s the next one.

Q3: ➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

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 

A3: 

  1. Listen to them and ensure they are feeling understood.
  2. Open a ticket.
  3. See whether others have reported the same.
  4. In that case create a tracker ticket.

I cannot agree more. 

Especially, on calls, it is so crucial to be able to create the ticket during the conversation and have another team work on it in parallel, as opposed to wait until the end of the call to pass it on.

That way, the agent can keep the customer engaged, while the respective team works on fixing the issue in the background. And if it is a global issue, nothing better than that tracker you were referring to. 

S
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My favourite question of the session and I’m sure @jamesallnutt has heard me say this a number of times on our calls 

Q4: 😀 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?

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 

Wow great question. Looking forward to your answers and @jamesallnutt others too. Would love to hear

Bernburgerin
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My favourite question of the session and I’m sure @jamesallnutt has heard me say this a number of times on our calls 

Q4: 😀 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?

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 

The way your customers understands it. If your customers for instance should fill in fields on a portal these fields should make sense to them (not only to your agents). Otherwise, they will need to be recategorize later.

bharath.chakravarthy
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So, keeping up the momentum, here’s the next one.

Q3: ➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

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 

So, keeping up the momentum, here’s the next one.

Q3: ➡️ Service outages are bound to happen time-to-time. What is your 3 (etc) step process to handle panicked customers who come knocking?

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 

 

Honestly, during downtimes, I’ve always felt that the first thing we need to address is the ‘emotion’ of the customer as opposed to the ‘issue’ of the customer. Letting the customer finish their point, not interrupting them and making sure they feel heard solves most of the troubles.

Once that’s done, we can get to actually providing a solution / ETA for the issue itself, and if you need more information from the customer, now would be the best time to ask it.

If the issue takes longer than expected, using a bulk reply option to all tickets connected a the bug (tracker) can be used to keep the customer updated periodically. A company wide status page can also help in such situations

The first point is often understated- although I completely understand it’s easier said than done when we consider the volume of tickets and how overwhelming it can get for agents too.

We are all humans and feelings are important. Yes, for mundane tasks (ro)bots can take over, but if you feel really distressed you want to talk, cry, whatever...


Products, automations, bots and everything aside, we are ultimately in a people business :)

My experience in Customer support surely has made me much better human (hopefully my friends and family can vouch for that 😃 )

bharath.chakravarthy
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My favourite question of the session and I’m sure @jamesallnutt has heard me say this a number of times on our calls 

Q4: 😀 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?

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 

This is for sure, one of my favourite topics during the implementation phase where our customers are in process of deciding the groups.

The support team can be categorised in a number of ways, but I think it eventually boils down to how you want to report on it.

Some examples are categories by Level, like L1, L2, escalations, etc. OR by Geography, thereby allowing tickets to go into the right team, especially if you have a single team working in shifts. Some customers, just end up having one single big group, and use features like Agent Shifts and Skill based assignment to ensure the ticket reaches the right agent within that group

A
Userlevel 5
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My favourite question of the session and I’m sure @jamesallnutt has heard me say this a number of times on our calls 

Q4: 😀 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?

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’d start with effectively categorising the questions that come in- what is “effective” could really differ for different businesses. 

Could be based on region, product, complexities etc- is this a good starting point?

bharath.chakravarthy
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Aaaaaannnnd, the last one for the day: 

Q5: 🌈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?

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 

Bernburgerin
Rank
Userlevel 3
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My favourite question of the session and I’m sure @jamesallnutt has heard me say this a number of times on our calls 

Q4: 😀 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?

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 

This is for sure, one of my favourite topics during the implementation phase where our customers are in process of deciding the groups.

The support team can be categorised in a number of ways, but I think it eventually boils down to how you want to report on it.

Some examples are categories by Level, like L1, L2, escalations, etc. OR by Geography, thereby allowing tickets to go into the right team, especially if you have a single team working in shifts. Some customers, just end up having one single big group, and use features like Agent Shifts and Skill based assignment to ensure the ticket reaches the right agent within that group

Or by language.

Or for calls by overflow groups (starting with a small group that has the same people plus additional people in the overflow group.

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