We recently spent some time with Thaiis Pedroso, who offers insight from her time as a Senior Customer Support Specialist for Internet Creations, having worked thousands of cases for IC’s AppExchange products, and maintaining one of the highest survey averages in IC’s history. We also asked IC’s Product Director (and Thais’ manager), Howard Yermish, to provide a manager’s perspective on Thais’ tips.
Customer support is not for the faint-hearted. Each day presents a fresh batch of customer cases that can include complex problems. In fact, “57% of customers say COVID-19 has raised their standards for customer service.” According to the 2021 Salesforce Trends in Workflow Automation report. At the end of the day, though, most support agents express a similar sentiment: “I want to have a stress-free work environment where I can manage cases in a productive and timely manner.” Support teams struggle when they only see the chaos directly in front of them.
The best support agents also share a keen sense of efficiency. Often, agents must address critical issues according to different priorities or service agreements, and agents must be organized to stay productive. So how do the best agents manage workload and workflow?
“It’s all about the process,” says Thais. When we asked what “proactive support” means for her, Thais said she addresses customers’ issues before they occur. “By anticipating issues in advance,” she said, “I can resolve future problems.” The most critical part of keeping agents productive is to keep the work seamless and to keep your agents happy. Learn how Thais utilized the tools in Service Cloud to streamline the customer support process to stay productive and happy.
Much like making a recipe, you want to have your ingredients properly set out, like mise en place for case management. To stay productive, Thais orders cases in Salesforce to resolve customer’s issues by priority.
Howard’s Note: We’ve added two custom fields to our org: Next Steps (text) and Follow-up On (Date/Time). The Next Steps field is a simple reminder when the Agent opens up the case. As a manager, I can easily report whether agents populate this field and coach them to stay organized. Using simple local automation, the Follow-up On field will set the flag in Case Flags, resurfacing the case in the future if we haven’t received a reply from the customer. This prevents cases from getting stale and ensures a consistent follow-up process.
Knowing where to look for information when troubleshooting cases is crucial. Below, Thais shares her troubleshooting know-how.
Before finishing her work, Thais reflects on the day while preparing for the next. Setting herself up for success, she outlines precisely what must be done next, assuring she works on all outstanding cases and has any necessary information to continue work through the upcoming days. Proactive organization is Thais’ key to success.
Howard’s Note: Don’t underestimate the value of “finish your day and be done with it.” When you know you’ve closed out the day properly, you can mentally relax and recharge.
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
To evaluate your company’s tools and processes, take the Service Experience Assessment, which offers an acute view of your team’s capacity to deliver memorable customer service.