What Does Your Customer Service Roadmap Look Like?

For some businesses, customer service is as simple as answering calls and emails – at least when you’re starting up. But what happens when the business starts to grow? You may invest in new staff members, as well as new routes to market and service distribution methods. Every one of these small changes introduces new ways for customers to interact with you, which means new questions and (potentially) new complaints. This is where your customer service roadmap comes in.

Plan for new business channels

One of the first steps you should take when building out a customer service roadmap is to look at your channels. For example, are you actively engaging with customers on Facebook and Twitter? Perhaps you have showrooms and staff are engaging in person there? No matter what the channel may be, you need to have a support plan for each and every one. Whether a customer is complaining via Twitter or by ranting and raving at your reception desk, you need to have systems in place to deal with this feedback. Your customer service roadmap will help you allocate resources in advance.

Will your business go global?

Most companies don’t plan to expand to other countries, especially not in those early days. But it’s always a possibility, and that’s why it should feature on your customer service roadmap. If you start to receive customer communication via other countries – and in other languages – you need to have measures in place to answer these. If you fail to be prepared for a potential international presence, you could end up missing out on valuable opportunities. Your customer service roadmap should always include at least a contingency for international presence – even if that’s something as simple as employing a bilingual customer service rep.

Make sure systems can talk to each other

Software solutions are one of the first additions that a business makes. And whether that’s our very own AutoVu CRM system, a bespoke stock ordering system, or anything else, there may be times in the future when integration is essential. For example, if a customer query comes in, your staff may need to quickly check on specific data which is housed in another system. Without the right integration and access, this whole process can be stalled. When developing a customer service roadmap, always consider your existing systems and the ways in which they can communicate with potential future additions. This way, you can optimise your processes before they’re even deployed. Pretty cool, eh?

Great customer service begins with great customer management, and that’s where AutoVu can be a huge help. Explore our site today and learn how your business could become more responsive, more forward-thinking, and more profitable.