Good customer service is essential to running a successful telecom or broadband business. 89% of people will switch to your competitor after one poor customer support experience. If your call center fails to deliver quality service, you risk losing most of your customer base.
Yet many customer service challenges often stand in the way of meeting increasingly high expectations, risking a rise in customer churn. In this blog post, we’ll go over some of the top customer service challenges broadband and telecom businesses face and solutions that can help you create the tech support experience customers crave.
Three common customer service challenges (and solutions)
Call centers are facing more demands than ever before. However, many are plagued by obstacles that can make it difficult to deliver timely and efficient tech support. Below, we go over some of the most common customer service challenges and how your business can address them.
Challenge one: Long call center wait times
An Australian man holds what’s believed to be a world record for waiting 15 hours on hold. While hopefully your company comes nowhere close to that number, long wait times are bad for business.
Most customers expect your company to take no longer than five minutes to respond to them. However, you have an even shorter window for those critical-to-retain Gen Z customers. Research shows Gen Zers, also known as Zoomers, will hang up after less than a minute.
Long wait times can increase your customer churn rate. It can cost up to seven times more to acquire a new customer versus retaining a current one, meaning your company’s bottom line can take a critical hit. Customers are rather unforgiving of companies that provide poor tech support. Research shows that 96% of customers will leave after just one bad experience.
The solution: Consider using conversational AI chatbots
While there are many benefits to using chatbots in your customer service, one of the most crucial ones is their impact on customer wait times. Conversational AI chatbots can handle customers’ frequently asked questions, which can help reduce call volume.
Using chatbots also means your customers can instantly access the tech support they need 24/7. This is particularly critical to retaining Gen Z customers, who have $360 billion in spending power.
Today’s chatbots are a lot more sophisticated than those of even a few years ago. Many now use large language models (LLMs), which allow them to understand nuance in customer queries and provide more accurate troubleshooting. These newer chatbots can provide detailed tutorials based on a customer’s device, such as how to set up an eSIM for their iPhone 15.
Thanks to advancements in AI, chatbots can provide an effective tech support experience that reduces call center volume and customer churn rates.
Challenge two: The quality of your tech support varies by channel
Imagine your customer reaches out to your company via chat because they're having trouble connecting to their internet router. However, the responses they're getting aren't relevant or helping them get back online, so they call.
When an agent answers the phone, they have to start the whole process all over again. They have to give their name, account number, and the issue and then walk through solutions they have already tried with the chat support agent.
Multichannel tech support allows customers to contact your business through various channels like email, phone or chat. However, multichannel support is siloed, which can lead to a lot of customer frustration. It means they have to repeat themselves, and the quality of their experience can vary depending on the channel they choose.
As a result, customer rage may increase, as they may need to contact you multiple times via various channels to resolve an issue. This rise in customer frustration also puts your company at risk for higher churn rates.
The solution: Implement an omnichannel customer service strategy
Omnichannel customer service creates a unified customer service experience across all touchpoints. Customers have a consistent support experience across email, chat, or any platform they choose.
Omnichannel support platforms also retain critical context across channels, so customers don’t have to repeat themselves. For example, if that same customer calls in because they can’t connect to their router, an agent could send an interactive tutorial via SMS within a single interaction. This creates a smoother customer service experience and can lead to faster issue resolution.
Omnichannel support can be a critical tool for streamlining the tech support experience. As customers can get the resolutions they need faster, companies can reap the benefits of increased first-call resolution and improved net promoter scores (NPS).
Challenge three: Complex tech support issues lead to repeat calls
Tech support issues are becoming increasingly complex. Customers may need help setting up their devices, configuring their wifi connectivity or resolving billing errors.
Sometimes, customers struggle to convey the exact issue over the phone or via chat, leaving agents scrambling to identify the problem. This makes it challenging to determine the appropriate solution.
It can also be challenging for agents to remotely coach customers through troubleshooting when they can’t see the device or have no idea where the router is. Maybe the customer can’t find the right button to press, but without looking at their screen or environment, an agent may be unable to provide more specific guidance.
Complex tech support issues require more involved solutions, which can be difficult if your agent can’t actually see what’s occurring. The customer may also not know how to describe their problem. Both parties potentially lack context, which leads to miscommunication. As a result, frustration can increase and your company may have to resort to costly truck rolls. But truck rolls aren’t a cost-effective solution when you have thousands, or even millions, of customers.
The solution: consider leveraging live video support
Live video support is a powerful way to enhance your customer service strategy. It can streamline the tech support experience for both customers and agents.
For example, let’s revisit the scenario of a customer having an issue connecting with their router. With chat or phone support, the customer has to try to describe the location of the router. In turn, the agent has to try to picture the inside of a home or business they’ve never been to and troubleshoot based on that. This can create a lot of back-and-forth and lead to longer resolution timelines.
Implementing live video support helps eliminate potential miscommunication. Instead of describing where the router is located, the customer can show the agent. This allows the agent to provide more accurate and tailored tech support, decreasing issue resolution times. As a result, agents can also help more customers in less time.
Live video support also reduces the need for truck rolls, which can average over $1,000 each. By providing remote video support, you don’t have to spend the time or money to send a team to a customer’s location, allowing you to allocate those valuable resources elsewhere.
Adopting live video support tools can transform the customer experience for the better. 90% of customers say live video creates a positive service interaction. It also allows your tech support team to create a more personalized customer support experience, which can boost your company’s profits. The bottom line? Live video is a win-win for your business and customers.
Provide proactive customer support
A positive customer service experience is critical to improving customer retention and reducing churn. Yet common customer service challenges make it difficult for broadband and telecom companies to retain a loyal customer base.
Companies that want to stop churn should be proactive in addressing these challenges before they become a widespread problem. By using the tips in this post, you can get ahead of these issues and streamline the customer service experience while saving valuable time and money.
Are you looking to improve your first-call resolution rates and other key metrics with comprehensive customer support? Learn how Verizon Wireless, the recipient of 32 J.D. Power Awards, uses Ozmo for Agents to save millions of dollars each year.
