A Day in the Life of a Customer Service Rep

Customer service is often seen as the beating heart of any business. They’re on the frontlines of a company, acting as the face, eyes, and hands that interact directly with the people that keep the lights on and the doors open. As the job title implies, a Customer Service Rep assists customers. But what exactly does this mean?

We connected with Workbooks’ Customer Support Manager Alix to learn more about what her team does all day and how they use Workbooks CRM in real-time. Here’s what she had to share:

Track and Respond to All Customer Cases

Most customer service engagement begin with inbound requests from the customers themselves. They might reach out to us with questions about how to use the software or how to do a specific task: they may have questions about the order processing features, or they might have trouble with giving team members access to their Workbooks CRM or they may struggle with launching a new marketing campaign, for example.

Once a request from a customer is received, no matter what it is, it is logged into CRM and we track its progress all the way to a resolution. This allows the team to stay on top of every case without anyone slipping through the cracks. All cases are tracked in one place, regardless of whether they came from email, phone, website, or the customer portal.”

This centralised process makes it easier for the team to take accountability for every case. The visibility offered by Workbooks CRM lets her see who has responded to each case rather than potentially having multiple people respond to the same email, for example. Each team member can maximise their time while ensuring all customers receive the service and support they need.

Make Progress Toward KPIs

The performance of a customer service rep is measured by Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Looking at KPIs helps understand how effective the customer service team is at helping customers and lets management identify areas that might need improvement.

“For example, one of the KPIs that matters in customer service is how quickly we respond to emails. The shorter the time, the better the KPI. We automatically flag emails that need a response and can use Workbooks CRM to track and report on the average response and resolution times. We can also track our responses against SLAs and ensure adherence.”

Find Common Denominators Between Cases

Having been in the customer service department for many years, Alix has had the benefit of seeing many different types of cases and customer requests and their resolution. Having the information logged centrally means that each individual agent (even those who have not been in the business for long) can benefit from the knowledge accumulated overtime. They can search the knowledge base and the previous resolutions and jump into action quickly to help the customer gain immediate resolution.

As a manager, she has the advantage of seeing similar cases pop up over time, which can help customer service have meaningful conversations with research and development teams on how to improve features moving forward.

“Because we have such a powerful tracking system, we can report on frequently raised cases. This allows us to be more proactive about making product changes, improving documentation, and creating a better overall user experience.”

Something else that she and her team look for is the frequency at which certain customers may be raising cases. When the same customers’ names keep coming up in cases, this is a clear signal that that particular customer needs more attention than the average user.

“Our customers use Workbooks CRM in different ways and come to us with all kinds of different needs. For customers that raise a lot of cases, it tells us that we might need to get their account manager involved to provide extra training, resources, or something else that will make their experience better. We see this as an opportunity to really show how invested we are in our customers’ success.”

Identify Customer Needs

Along the same vein as identifying customers that may need more guidance than others, Alix also uses cases to get more insight into how customers are using Workbooks CRM tools and anticipate what else they might need. Being proactive is a key part of every customer service role, and Alix feels they can raise the bar if they can personalise their interactions and guide customers before they reach out.

“One of the things I love about Workbooks CRM is the broad and narrow layers of visibility it gives us into our customers’ needs. For example, I can see all cases open at a glance with very high-level detail. But then, I can look deeper into each one. I can see all the interactions occurring with a single customer from the same platform, regardless of who is communicating with them. I can see if they have other support cases open, if there’s an ongoing project, if maybe they’ve brought new people into their business and are learning how to use our tools, if they’ve bought a new product, and more. All of these details can help us to know our customers better. And knowing them better allows us to offer only the best service.”

Collaborate with Account Managers and Other CSRs

One of the inherent benefits of using a cloud-based company-wide platform like Workbooks CRM is having all relevant data in a single system. Users across departments are working with the same set of information. This eliminates the dreaded siloes that used to stifle progress and communication and can allow departments and team members to help each other toward a common goal.

“Workbooks CRM is a very fluid system. I can pass cases between team members if someone calls in sick or goes on holiday, or I can escalate cases to higher management if necessary. A full history of every case is stored in the CRM, so even the customer’s account manager can see how our customer service team is taking care of them. It really feels like we’re all working as a team, and that’s exactly what successful customer service should be.”

Using Workbooks CRM to drive Customer Service Success

Having detailed visibility and the ability to collaborate and share information allows Alix and her team to stay informed and serve customers in a timely manner – ulitmately driving the best customer experience possible.