Woman behind a register in a retail store working with a Help Desk

Scalability & Customer Satisfaction: How and Why to Invest in a Help Desk

In recent years, a high percentage of store closures have been partly due to a lack of loyal repeat customers and the ability to service customers to meet ever-changing expectations. At the rate businesses are closing, it’s in retailers’ best interests to create a seamless, scaleable customer experience. How does a quality Help Desk affect that, and how can BTM Global help? President and CEO, Kimberly Berneck, discusses the necessity of a Help Desk and how BTM Global approaches the service differently. 

What’s in a Help Desk?

The space between a company and its end consumer has gotten tighter over the last 10-15 years. Customers expect to receive the right product or services and quality responses if they contact them with a problem. They want high-quality, efficient customer service. These increased customer expectations have driven a new demand for a well-run Help Desk.

“Over the last five years, we’ve seen that if you don’t build a loyal customer base and respond quickly to their needs, you’ll be out of business,” says Kimberly Berneck, President and CEO. “What else can you do to continually make it a pleasing process for your customers to do business with you? That’s the name of the game and keeps people in business.”

What’s at Stake if Retailers Don’t Utilize a Help Desk? 

With so many choices, retailers must offer solid products or services that are easy,  convenient, and efficient to address customer expectations or risk losing them. To that end, investing in a quality Help Desk is crucial for several reasons:

  • Enhanced Customer Support. A centralized platform for managing customer inquiries, concerns, and issues, ensuring timely and efficient responses, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty, and providing scale and stability to address problems promptly.
  • Increased Customer Retention. A responsive and effective Help Desk contributes to a positive customer experience by supporting your team in dealing with consumers on the front lines. Satisfied customers are more likely to return for future purchases, fostering customer retention.
  • Improved Efficiency. Retailers can manage and prioritize inquiries more effectively, leading to quicker issue resolution and reduced customer service response times.
  • Better Tracking and Analytics. Tools for tracking customer interactions, collecting feedback, and analyzing support issues are valuable for understanding customer needs, identifying trends, and continuously improving the quality of service and system stability.
  • Scalability. As your business grows, the volume of customer inquiries will likely increase. A robust system with complementary team members can scale alongside your team, allowing system experts to handle issues and resolve them efficiently while allowing your team members to handle front-end customer interactions more effectively.
  • Proactive Issue Resolution. Features help proactively resolve issues, such as tracking and addressing common customer pain points. This can prevent recurring problems and enhance the overall service quality.

The BTM Global Difference 

Some companies like the idea of internally managing their Help Desk because they think it saves them money. But often, they don’t have the capacity, resources, or knowledge to execute the service up to today’s standards. Plus, pulling internal resources means taking them from other strategic items where they’re often better served. 

“People think a Help Desk should be a low-cost commoditized service,” notes Berneck. “But you get what you pay for in certain areas. If you want to outsource it, you need a service that compliments your brand, your team, and how you treat your customers.” 

It makes sense to hire a company with the background, tools, and processes for external customer service needs.

The BTM Global approach to Help Desk creation and implementation differs from other companies offering a similar service. Because we have expertise in retail software implementations, consulting, and support, we’re deeply knowledgeable about the industry and well-versed in topic areas that may come up. 

Furthermore, BTM consciously hires team members in North America who are native English, French, and Spanish speakers and work within similar hours as their customers to provide the most efficient, high-quality service.

“One of the biggest roadblocks or misconceptions we see is companies hiring very low-cost organizations with team members who are not in the same location as their customers,” says Berneck. “The value of the customer service they provide is indicative of the cost they pay.”

One of the most significant benefits of installing a cohesive system is identifying and assessing data about recurring issues. Over time, that data smooths the customer journey, resulting in fewer calls. With a background in support, implementation, and customization software lifecycle, the BTM Global team helps brands get more value from their solutions.

“Because of our background, we can help brands identify recurring problems, fix the core issue, and resolve it quicker so that they can be easily solved long term,” says Berneck.

Success in Action

One BTM Global client saw their customer service system yield great results in a short time frame. About eight months after implementation, a “how do you think it’s going” poll was sent to the team, including questions rating professionalism, knowledge, timeliness, and overall satisfaction.   

The results? 90+% of respondents said things were significantly better and had positive comments across the poll.

How to Get Started

First, figure out how you are serving your customers. Are your brand values reflected in the customer service experience you’re providing? Are you seeing loyal, repeat customers? How are customer service surveys performing? 

Conversely, is the feedback showing that your customer service directly contrasts with who you want to be? If they’re not indicative of the brand or how you want people to perceive you, and if you’re losing customers, it’s time to make a change. 

Next, conduct an honest self-assessment: 

  • Do you have resources within your organization to change or fix the issues? 
  • Do your team members have the right knowledge to resolve customer service issues? 
  • Do you have enough time to provide quality customer service?
  • Do you have roadblocks where you can’t organically set up a Help Desk, and do you need someone to help you build it? 

Simply put, do you want to add value and capability to your customer journey? This service offers long-term value and better quality and can still be cost-effective with your desired ROI.

How Our Process Works

We’ll begin with a series of initial meetings to understand your business drivers, constraints, blockers, and goals. We build each Help Desk service on a common foundation of initial constructs. However, since each client is unique, BTM offers personalized capability, processes, and other requirements that fit your organization’s needs. 

Once that is aligned, we’ll collaborate on the new service and timing, getting things set up so they can start running smoothly. 

Give Your Customers the Experience They Want

Investing in a Help Desk boosts customer satisfaction and enables your team to focus on the business strategies you need them to, directly impacting your success and growth as an online retail business.

If this solution sounds like something your brand needs, contact us to schedule a meeting with the BTM Global team to elevate your customer service experience