Customer Centricity: 4 Ways to Upgrade Your Customer Support Experience

Today's customers demand seamless, personalized service across all channels. Their loyalty hinges on the quality of support and overall experience they receive. Even a single poor interaction can prompt them to switch brands. 

As customer expectations rise, delivering exceptional service and support at every stage of the customer journey becomes increasingly challenging. Companies scaling across multiple products and platforms face varied and diverse customer interactions.

Support requests funnel in through fragmented channels—phone, email, chat, self-service portals, social media, and more. Transitioning from assisted to self-service channels can lead to confusion, long resolution times, and high churn rates.

Gartner survey finds 62% of customer service channel transitions are “high-effort,” and transitions between self-service and assisted channels lead to worse customer experience outcomes. —Gartner survey

Focus on the fundamentals

While delivering seamless interactions can be challenging, the basics of a good customer experience are clear. According to PWC, nearly 80 percent of Americans believe it comes down to speed, convenience, knowledgeable help, and friendly service.

For businesses selling technology products or services—whether SaaS, mobility, IoT, connectivity, or more—having the right support structure is crucial. It drives product adoption, enhances customer satisfaction, fosters loyalty, and boosts upsell and cross-sell potential.

Nearly 90% of buyers say experience matters as much as products or services. —Salesforce

Upgrade your customer support

Enhancing your customer support experience often involves the decision between keeping support internal or seeking external expertise. The challenge of building a strong customer support program in-house comes down to high labor and infrastructure costs, and often includes long timelines to develop expert teams. To avoid costly investments in labor and infrastructure while speeding up deployment time, working with an experienced third-party support provider, or adopting a white-label support solution can be the better option.

Real-world insights: A global telecom brand

Let's explore how a global telecom provider overcame its challenge to deliver premium support by outsourcing support and integrating AppHelp, the AppDirect support solution.

As a leading telecom provider, the company faced an unsustainable volume of support requests, many unrelated to their core services. Lacking adequate internal resources and customer service experts, they directed customers to third-party solutions like local repair shops. This approach resulted in a fragmented customer experience, often leading to confusion and abandoned support processes.

Read the full AppHelp case study

The Challenge: Out-of-scope support requests led to referring customers to local repair shops, resulting in customer confusion and poor experiences.

Premium support creates stickier customers

Today with AppHelp, the telecom provider can now deliver direct support for their digital services sold via their marketplace. By entrusting the support experience to AppDirect, internal resources are freed for other critical responsibilities. This not only guarantees exceptional customer experiences but also creates more loyal, stickier customers.

Business impact:

• Increased revenue with a support bundle—Since launching the bundle, the company has doubled its subscribers to 100,000 in just 12 months

• Monthly subscriber increase—Currently subscribers jumped to 175,000 monthly subscribers

• Reduced churn rates by 25 percent—Thanks to a unified and a prompt support experience, customers are 25 percent less likely to fully churn

• Accelerated problem resolution—Most requests are resolved in one hour or less

Key considerations to enhance customer support:

Keep in mind that successful outsourcing requires careful consideration and strategic planning to ensure optimal results. Here are key strategies to upgrade your support experience:

1. Identify a knowledgeable, certified technical staff—Ensure any support partner you work with has a team with appropriate certifications and knowledge of your products and services. The right training is essentially in supporting the sale, deployment, and ongoing support of technology products.

2. Maximize operational efficiencies—Select a third-party provider with years of experience and investment in technology to develop operational best practices. This capability allows them to service the entire customer lifecycle, building stronger, more profitable customer relationships.

3. Integrate multiple channels for omnichannel support—An experienced provider will integrate multiple channels—call center resources, billing, CRM—into one solution. This approach ensures a seamless experience, enhances brand value, and provides end-to-end service delivery.

4. Create a support experience blueprint for your brand—When customers reach out, delivering outstanding service that embodies your brand and company values is essential. While domain expertise is critical, the real key lies in talent that balances interpersonal skills with technical know-how. A great customer experience fosters loyalty, repeat business, and drives renewals while reducing churn—to ultimately enhance your brand.

Gain your competitive edge

Elevate your support strategy to drive unparalleled customer value and gain a competitive edge in your industry. By providing cohesive support experiences that foster loyalty and address customer issues efficiently, you can build brand equity and reduce churn, ultimately boosting overall satisfaction and revenue.

Top benefits of optimizing support:

• Build brand equity—Deliver cohesive support experiences, fostering loyalty and containing customer issues within a single platform

• Earn greater customer loyalty—Reduce churn with superior support, boosting overall satisfaction

• Drive revenue through a high-margin model—Expand wallet share with elevated customer experiences

Read the full case study to learn insights how the global telecom provider has upgraded its support experience with AppHelp. Also, schedule a demo to learn more.