As the year comes to an end, let’s look back at all you’ve accomplished. This year, maybe you embraced customer-centricity and delivered solid products and services to your clientele – but did you deliver customer support that left them feeling as bubbly as a glass of champagne on New Year’s?

If not, don’t fret! You can usher in the new year with customer support software. There are hundreds of platforms that provide solid set of tools to help you assist your clients. Here at BrainSell, we use Zendesk to turn every interaction with clients into lasting relationships through frictionless customer experience.

Before you start searching for options, it’s important to know what to look for first. Customer support platforms should have these two major features: omnichannel functionality and integration tools for your CRM.

Omnichannel Functionality

Omnichannel is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but what exactly is it?

Simply put, an omnichannel platform is a system that pours disparate data from multiple sources into one place. This allows you to weave customer support into each aspect of your business, from the accounting team to website developers to your call center.

Ensuring a consistently positive customer experience requires an efficient and engaged customer support service, so allowing all aspects of your business access to your customer support platform is crucial. With omnichannel support, you can serve your customers in multiple channels.

For example, Zendesk allows you to interact with customers through your website chat window, your support ticket system, or your self-service knowledge base. Behind the scenes, support information is compiled by Zendesk no matter where you interact with your customer, giving representatives insight on how they can further develop each channel. This allows you to optimize communication with your clients and improve relationships at every touch point.

CRM Integration

If you’re convinced that an omnichannel approach to customer support is best, then you’ll need to tie your platform to your one-true customer database: CRM. Most customer support platforms can integrate with your CRM, but not all. It’s important to be aware of this while selecting a platform. In BrainSell’s case, we chose Zendesk because it seamlessly integrates with our CRM, SugarCRM. It also integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365, SalesForce, and HubSpot, to name a few.

So let’s look at Zendesk/SugarCRM integration as an example. No longer do you have to toggle between your CRM and support platform to see relevant customer information. This integration allows you to see your SugarCRM contact, lead, account, and opportunity data right from within the Zendesk interface. It also allows you to view your Zendesk support tickets and comments from the team right from within SugarCRM as well. Check it out:

SugarCRM View

Immediately after installing the integration module and adding the Zendesk Tickets dashlet, you can see all the associated Zendesk Tickets in the module of your choosing.

You can filter and sort to get to exactly what you need to see right from within SugarCRM. You can click the arrow to open the ticket in Zendesk or click into the Ticket Subject and see all the details, including all public and private comments, without ever having to leave Sugar.

Zendesk View

Likewise, in Zendesk you will be able to see all the associated SugarCRM data associated with the contact who opened the ticket in both Zendesk Support and Zendesk Chat. Additionally, Zendesk can be configured to work with your custom modules, custom fields, and workflows.

The Bottom Line

Don’t let another year of sub-par customer support pass you by. Let’s chat about your customer support goals and come up with an approach that’s best for your business.

Did something about Zendesk peak your interest? It peaked ours too! watch this on-demand webinar to learn how taking an omnichannel approach to customer support will result in more valuable, lasting relationships with your customers.