{"id":25544,"date":"2021-03-16T10:26:31","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T10:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=25544"},"modified":"2022-03-21T17:53:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T17:53:12","slug":"proactive-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/proactive-support\/","title":{"rendered":"The support leader\u2019s guide to proactive support: Provide help before it\u2019s needed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, customer expectations are at an all-time high. Simultaneously, support teams are struggling with spikes in conversation volumes. A proactive customer support approach is the key to regaining control.<\/p>\n

The typical support \u201cstrategy\u201d is to let common issues roll in for your support team to address. But this approach not only overwhelms your team, it also means customers frequently have to wait hours or even days to get the help they need. This is costly not just for your team\u2019s bandwidth and budget \u2013 but also for your customers\u2019 satisfaction and overall perception of your brand.<\/p>\n

Instead of deflecting conversations, your team can prevent common issues from occurring in the first place. With the right strategy and proactive support tools \u2013 think Outbound Messages<\/a>, Product Tours<\/a>, Mobile Carousels<\/a>, and Banners<\/a> \u2013 you can alert customers to known issues, like delivery delays, bugs in your product, and website downtime.<\/p>\n

You can also onboard and educate new customers so they\u2019re set up for success with your product from day one and have all of the information they need to get started and overcome common hurdles, such as configuring your app or installing it on mobile.<\/p>\n

Proactive support can drastically reduce the number of conversations that reach your support team, all while increasing customer satisfaction and retention. Below, we share the latest and greatest proactive support strategies \u2013 including how to automatically identify recurring customer issues, preemptively resolve customer queries with targeted messages, and ultimately, position support as a core value driver<\/a> for your business.<\/p>\n

Why proactive support is your first line of defense<\/h2>\n

At Intercom, we use a framework called the Support Funnel<\/a> to deliver fast, personal support to our customers. Proactive support is at the top of the Support Funnel<\/a> for a reason \u2013 it\u2019s your first line of defense.<\/p>\n

With the funnel, you can combine proactive, self-serve, and human support capabilities to get ahead of known problems before they arise, automatically answer repetitive queries, and quickly resolve complex issues.<\/p>\n

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Armed with the right proactive support approach, you can significantly reduce the number of queries that reach your support team’s inbox, all while keeping your customers satisfied. Proactive support has a positive knock-on effect on every layer of the funnel \u2013 for instance, when most of your customers\u2019 queries are resolved proactively, it frees up your support team to focus on your most pressing, complex, and VIP support queries. They’ll have more time and headspace to help top tier customers solve their thorny problems in a truly personal way.<\/p>\n

“78% of support leaders want to move to a more proactive support approach, but only 26% are sure they have the knowledge and tools to do so”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With proactive support leading the charge, not only will you take pressure off your team, you can also demonstrate how support is impacting your business\u2019 bottom line with positive customer loyalty and retention figures.<\/p>\n

With all of these powerful benefits, it\u2019s no surprise that a survey<\/a> we ran with almost 600 support leaders revealed that 78%<\/strong> of support leaders<\/a> want to move to a more proactive support approach. However, only\u00a026%<\/strong>\u00a0are sure they have the knowledge and tools to do so.
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Preemptively identify recurring customer issues<\/h2>\n

By now, you may be thinking, \u201cProactive support sounds great \u2013 it\u2019s the Holy Grail of support!\u201d But when your team is so busy managing day-to-day reactive conversations you may be wondering how you\u2019ll find time to identify recurring customer questions and pain points, so you can begin proactively resolving issues.<\/p>\n

“A modern conversational support tool will automatically surface your customers\u2019 most common issues to your team”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The right tools will automatically do a lot of the groundwork for you, preventing unnecessary headaches for your support team and helping them reclaim valuable time. Armed with these insights, you can pinpoint exactly how to improve your team\u2019s effectiveness, improve resolution times, and enhance customer satisfaction. Here are our tips:<\/p>\n

Gather valuable conversation data fast<\/h3>\n

A modern customer communications platform<\/a> like Intercom<\/a>\u00a0will automatically surface your customers\u2019 most common issues and pressing questions to your team \u2013 removing the need to manually tag conversations or go digging for details. You\u2019ll also be able to quickly see how effective your team is at resolving these issues at a glance.<\/p>\n

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For example, with Intercom you can:<\/p>\n