Unlike increasing throughput on a production line (making 10% more product is usually fairly simple), the move to 24/7 support is not so linear: one day your coverage may be 8, 12, or perhaps 16 hours, the next it’s 24 (depending on the number of inquiries). By doing “more of the same,” the cost of the support function in your business will go up by 60%-100%.
Key Benefits of providing 24/7 Customer Service
Without a doubt about it, implementing a 24/7 customer service system is a huge financial investment, and we understand if you’re still hesitant. However, these seven 24/7 customer service benefits will convince you.
Fulfill customers’ expectations
Have you ever found yourself waiting several hours for a response from a customer service team on an urgent issue? How did that make you feel? At that moment, you were a customer in need of help, and we bet you wanted effective, easy, and quick customer service. This is a universal feeling backed up by facts. Offering 24/7 customer support helps to meet up with customer expectations of instant service, no matter the time.
Improved sales conversions
Businesses last longer when there is an impressive level of sales conversions. When you’re not having customers pay for your products or services as they should, there’s something wrong. Sometimes, it can be due to how difficult it is to reach an effective customer service team. However, 24/7 customer support can fix this. Customers will also be encouraged to spend more on premium services.
Increases client satisfaction
When customers put in a lot of extra effort when they need to reach you, this automatically translates to abysmal satisfaction levels. If you want to increase client satisfaction, building an efficient 24/7 customer support process is the way to go.
Foster consumer loyalty
One of the best ways to show your customers that you truly care is by offering 24/7 customer support. With this, they’ll be convinced that you prioritize their needs, which translates to customer loyalty. We all know that loyalty is essential for business growth as customers will be willing to stick with you long-term and even refer your brand to others.
Acquire a competitive edge
What sets you apart from every other business in your industry? It’s always best to stay ahead of your competitors so that your customers and potential clients will see a better reason to stick with your brand compared to others in the same sphere. 24/7 customer service gives you a competitive edge that has become increasingly relevant in today’s digital world.
Serve your worldwide customers
Time zone differences can be very uncomfortable. One of your customers in a different time zone may require urgent assistance, but things can get really confusing without 24/7 customer support. However, you can serve your worldwide customers with 24/7 customer service with tools like an AI chatbot that never sleeps.
Though offering 24-hour customer service may appear to be a massive effort and expense, it is a long-term investment in creating client relationships. If done correctly, it will not only provide prompt customer care, but for this, you can choose to invest in a customer support knowledge base or a self-service knowledge base. This will also enhance client retention and present your company with a competitive advantage that few brands can match.
Improves ROI
Exceptional customer service can directly translate into a higher ROI for your business. Most customers are willing to keep patronizing companies that have excellent customer service. This means that they will spend more on companies with personalized customer experience centers that provide answers to their inquiries as fast as they want them.
Automation technology is responsible for high ROI in a lot of businesses that offer 24/7 customer support.
To provide support in local time zones
Most obviously, you may want to provide support in local time zones.
Your growth market may already have an on-the-ground team; in which case you’re lucky.
Most businesses, however, must seed new markets by providing great support and building a reputation without the paying customer base in place.
And it matters: a European Commission report found that 42% of consumers said they never purchase products and services with sales and support in other languages.
To offer support as a component of a premium product
You may want to offer support as a component of a premium product, often the case with mid-and high-priced B2B services.
This is moderately easy to handle, as support becomes a profit center: customers are explicitly prepared to pay for the effort of delivering it.
To meet customer expectations in a digital-first world
Most challenging of all, though, is sheer customer expectation.
In today’s digital-first world, customers demand instant service day and night; and that expectation is not tied in their minds to the cost of the product or service delivered.
We have the same expectation of support on a $10-a-month cloud service as we do to the $100 a month we pay for home utilities or the $1000 a month for a high-end B2B service.
At scale, support is a manageable and predictable business cost. Indeed, smart businesses today treat it as a business driver: a way to differentiate from the competition and feed ideas back into the product roadmap.
The challenge is minimizing costs during the transition from a small business with one HQ or one customer community to something more substantial.
And the most effective businesses see this transition not just as a challenge, but a chance to optimize their support function for the future.