{"id":23253,"date":"2020-03-10T10:44:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T10:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=23253"},"modified":"2024-09-24T15:06:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T14:06:20","slug":"remote-customer-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/remote-customer-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping from afar: Running customer support remotely"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/global-customer-support\/\">Global customer support<\/a> teams are used to working across different offices. But how do you shift from a regional team model to a fully remote one \u2013 one where team members work on their own?<\/p>\n<p>Lots of teams are now working remotely and we&#8217;re also taking this approach for now with our own operations. We\u2019re a team of 80+ across 4 offices, so working with people in different locations is not new for us. But as we take our customer support fully remote, we are rethinking our workflows, automation tools, and day-to-day rituals to protect our team dynamics and productivity. More importantly, we&#8217;re thinking about ways to uphold the caliber of our support in a remote world.<\/p>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/fast.wistia.com\/embed\/medias\/yz2kg6c3gz.jsonp\" async><\/script><script src=\"https:\/\/fast.wistia.com\/assets\/external\/E-v1.js\" async><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"wistia_responsive_padding\" style=\"padding: 56.25% 0 0 0; position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"wistia_responsive_wrapper\" style=\"height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;\">\n<div class=\"wistia_embed wistia_async_yz2kg6c3gz videoFoam=true\" style=\"height: 100%; position: relative; width: 100%;\">\n<div class=\"wistia_swatch\" style=\"height: 100%; left: 0; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 0; transition: opacity 200ms; width: 100%;\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"filter: blur(5px); height: 100%; object-fit: contain; width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/fast.wistia.com\/embed\/medias\/yz2kg6c3gz\/swatch\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>If you&#8217;re in the same boat as us, here are some steps we&#8217;ve taken.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"1-double-down-on-teamwork-best-practices\">1. Double down on teamwork best practices<\/h2>\n<p>As a global team, we\u2019ve built up robust workflows and systems over the years to help us provide a consistent customer experience. Even when it&#8217;s business as usual, team members have the flexibility to work from home once a week, and we\u2019ve developed best practices to enable that setup.<\/p>\n<p>If your team isn\u2019t used to working in different locations, here are three tips that have been indispensable to our team operations. They&#8217;re not unique to remote work but they are especially <a href=\"https:\/\/monday.com\/blog\/remote-work\/remote-work-virtual-teams\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">useful for distributed teams<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Implement a smart meeting strategy<\/h3>\n<p>When you don\u2019t have the luxury of face to face interactions, meetings become a crucial tool for information sharing and discussion. But have too many meetings and you waste people&#8217;s time. We&#8217;ve found these three meetings are what we need to stay aligned \u2013 efficiently.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Remote-customer-support-meetings.png\" alt=\"A smart meeting strategy for remote support teams\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Remote or not, you\u2019ll always want to share key info through multiple channels, so we also send out a weekly newsletter that contains important updates, product news, project highlights, and team achievements.<\/p>\n<h3>Remind your team of your team values<\/h3>\n<p>Many teams espouse values, but I\u2019d argue few actively apply them to daily work.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-two\"><p>&#8220;A customer experience that isn\u2019t anchored on a single set of values will quickly start to feel fragmented&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As we transition the team to remote work, we&#8217;ll be leaning on their ability to apply shared values. A customer experience that isn\u2019t anchored on a single set of values will quickly start to feel fragmented \u2013 especially when team members can\u2019t readily consult one another when issues come up. Along with metrics, our values will help the team keep a positive \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d mindset.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m proud that our team treats values as actual living, breathing principles. How do I know this? Ask any team member in any office how they approach a customer situation and 10 times out of 10 you\u2019ll hear them talk about values like \u201cTreat the problem, not the symptom\u201d and \u201cConnect personally with empathy.\u201d These values are our North Star for how our team works globally and they underpin the approach we take to customer support.<\/p>\n<h3>Invest in tools for collaboration and knowledge sharing<\/h3>\n<p>The bigger the team, the more you\u2019ll need sturdy communication tools in your support tech stack that help you easily share information no matter where team members are located.<\/p>\n<p>We rely heavily on a shared team inbox, so people are used to looping in others through mentions and notes as well as passing conversations with ease and context to the best owners. Of course, we like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/inbox\">Intercom Inbox<\/a> the most, but a shared inbox should be a non-negotiable feature in any modern support software.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><video autoplay=\"autoplay\" loop=\"loop\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\"><source src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/shared-inbox.mp4\" type=\"video\/mp4\" \/><source src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/shared-inbox.mp4\" type=\"video\/mp4\" \/><\/video><\/div>\n<p>Like many other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/how-the-support-team-improves-the-product\/\">support teams<\/a>, Slack, Zapier, and a knowledge management tool (Guru in our case) are also staples in our toolkit. Here are some tips on using them to manage the team remotely.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Slack:<\/strong> Set up a #cs-important channel where you post handover updates as one support shift ends and another begins.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Zapier:<\/strong> Use Zapier or other workflow automation tools to push relevant comments from your support conversations to a Slack channel so that others internally can readily see customer feedback.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Guru:<\/strong> If your support inbox integrates with other apps, build an app that lets your team easily search your knowledge base as they support customers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"2-bring-in-support-automation-and-self-service\">2. Bring in support automation and self-service<\/h2>\n<p>The shift to remote work is a good time to re-evaluate your workflows and see how you can automate more of them to drive greater efficiency. Automation is ideal for repetitive tasks like routing, tagging conversations, and answering common questions.<\/p>\n<p>More importantly, the gains we\u2019ve seen in our productivity since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/automated-customer-service\/\">implementing support automation<\/a> have translated directly into cost savings for the business. Here&#8217;s what we use.<\/p>\n<h3>Assignment rules<\/h3>\n<p>Well-structured <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/help\/en\/articles\/199-assign-conversations-to-teammates-and-teams\">assignment rules<\/a> get conversations automatically to the right team, reducing response time and increasing CSAT. If you offer chat on your website, chatbots can automatically direct customers to your support team and prospects to your sales team.<\/p>\n<h3>Automated tagging<\/h3>\n<p>Like conversation routing, manually tagging conversations is a lot of work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/help\/en\/articles\/3396331-tag-conversations-automatically-with-tag-rules\">Tagging rules<\/a> take the burden off your team and help you capture customer insights more quickly and objectively.<\/p>\n<h3>Chatbots<\/h3>\n<p>The best chatbots drastically reduce the number of questions that your team has to answer without sacrificing your customer satisfaction. Our recently launched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/automated-answers\">Resolution Bot<\/a> helps us tackle 4% of all customer issues, which translates to $400,000 saved annually.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Resolution-Bot-1.jpg\" alt=\"Resolution Bot for remote teams\" width=\"75%\" \/><br \/>\n<!--<script src=\"https:\/\/fast.wistia.com\/embed\/medias\/8q9uw4tibd.jsonp\" async><\/script><script src=\"https:\/\/fast.wistia.com\/assets\/external\/E-v1.js\" async><\/script>\n\n\n<div class=\"wistia_embed wistia_async_8q9uw4tibd aligncenter\" style=\"height: 461px; position: relative; width: 500px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n--><\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customer-support-software\/proactive-support\">Proactive support<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>This category of tools prevents questions \u2013 before they&#8217;re even asked. We send automated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/messages\">outbound messages<\/a> based on actions that the user has taken (or not). We use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/product-tours\">Product Tours<\/a> to show customers exactly how to onboard or troubleshoot.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Product-Tour.jpg\" alt=\"Proactive support product tours\" width=\"75%\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Help Center<\/h3>\n<p>You are not providing a great support experience if you don\u2019t have a great <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/articles\">knowledge base<\/a>. And if you&#8217;ve got one in place, don\u2019t keep that content siloed! The right tools (like Intercom) should give team members article suggestions when they&#8217;re helping customers, cutting down resolution time. Our chatbots also automatically suggest articles in chat conversations.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/help-article-suggestions.jpg\" alt=\"Help article suggestions in Intercom\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"3-create-a-sense-of-normalcy-and-fun\">3. Create a sense of normalcy and fun<\/h2>\n<p>Beyond equipping our team with the right tools, keeping team morale up has been top of mind for me as we\u2019ve shifted to a fully remote work setup. After all, a highly engaged and happy support team is at the root of great support experiences. So my team leaders and I have been discussing two questions in particular.<\/p>\n<h3>What habits can we maintain to help the team stay connected?<\/h3>\n<p>If your team is used to mid-day tunes in the office to boost energy, try sharing Spotify team playlists. Set up a Google Hangouts meeting room that folks can dial into if they simply need some human interaction. Just like you would at the office, remind people to take a break. It\u2019s easy to miss lunch or not leave your desk and end up sitting there all day, so encourage folks to get fresh air or go for a walk.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-one\"><p>&#8220;A highly engaged and happy support team is at the root of great support experiences&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>What new rituals can we adopt to build team cohesion \u2013 virtually?<\/h3>\n<p>Each team is different, so what works for us may not work for you, but here are some things that we are doing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Morning surveys through Slack, mid-day photo shares, end of day highlight threads<\/li>\n<li>Team challenges \u2013 for example, remote power hours or gif competitions. Of course, keep them professional, but these kinds of challenges can be great for both team camaraderie and delighting customers.<\/li>\n<li>Frequent postings of our metrics dashboard on Slack to replicate our real-time metrics monitor at the office<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Above all, recognize that a successful transition to fully remote work can take time. Set clear expectations up front as to what success looks like and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/psychological-safety\/\">maintain a culture of trust and accountability<\/a> &#8211; both of which are key to a highly productive and energetic remote team.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>If you\u2019ve been thinking about making your customer support remote, I hope these strategies are helpful. We\u2019re still learning what it means to be a remote customer support team, but we think these strategies will help us minimize any negative impact on our customer experience. They will also help us stay the course in our ongoing quest for greater efficiency. I\u2019d love to hear from you \u2013 what\u2019s worked for your support team and what strategies are you considering? You can leave a comment below.<\/p>\n<p>More resources to help your team adjust to remote work:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/deep-work-studio\/9-principles-to-improve-remote-collaboration-399ed150c463\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">9 principles to improve remote collaboration<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2018\/02\/how-to-collaborate-effectively-if-your-team-is-remote\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to collaborate effectively if your team is remote<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/doist.com\/blog\/asynchronous-communication\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Asynchronous communication: The real reason remote workers are more productive<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we make our customer support fully remote, we are rethinking how we use our workflows, automation tools, and day-to-day rituals to protect team dynamics and productivity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":319,"featured_media":23294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"category":[3],"tags":[21570,21524],"coauthors":[4548],"class_list":["post-23253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-support","tag-covid-19","tag-remote-customer-support"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.5 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Strategies for modern remote customer support - The Intercom Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Transitioning to a remote model for your customer support operations? 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