An ideal support operations team will include members with varied expertise and responsibilities, and the team will be responsible for a group of collective responsibilities. Their primary responsibility is to ensure that the company's goal is met and performance expectations are exceeded. Support team members' duties typically include performing administrative tasks, familiarising themselves with the company's policies, and adhering to its procedures. Therefore, a support team member must possess strong time-management skills and be able to support daily operations. Here in Part 2, we will share roles and responsibilities of the operation team.
Roles:
#1 Operational Manager
Operations managers play the most important and strategic roles in customer operations. They are responsible for managing the workforce, forecasting, shift management, reporting, benchmarking, and addressing customer service quality. This role requires tactical decisions based on variables such as daily workloads, support metrics, agent numbers, etc., to drive the support team forward.
#2 Operational Analyst
Several tasks are assigned to the operations analyst, including shift assignment and load balancing. As part of their duties, they are also responsible for monitoring critical metrics and managing the ticket queue.
#3 Trainer
Trainers and operational analysts may overlap depending on the organisation's structure. However, agent onboarding and training are the primary duties of a trainer. It also involves creating the training materials and organising new hire sessions.
Responsibilities:
#1. Recruiting and Coaching
The customer service operations team ensures that the customer support team is scaled correctly and that agents are well-rested. To achieve this, it is necessary to build a comprehensive hiring plan and an in-depth forecasting report. Additionally, training materials, upskilling programs, and forecasting reports should be designed around customer support and processes.
#2 Team management
The support operations team needs to assign shifts and breaks based on the type of business and frequency of customer complaints throughout the day. Creating a good shift schedule involves balancing workloads and breaks while ensuring enough agents during the busiest hours. As part of shift management, your team needs to choose the right type of schedule and ensure that it aligns with your customer support model.
#3. Enhancing workflows
Enhancing existing processes and implementing workflows where necessary requires an understanding of customer operations. It is possible to clearly define who is responsible for what responsibilities through a system such as tiered support. By streamlining your support, the team can focus on delivering an exceptional experience rather than wasting time searching for information or needing clarification on what steps to take.
#4 Performance Metrics
Customer support KPIs and performance metrics are important to monitor by the support operations team. These numbers enable decision-makers to make better decisions and ensure that the right support areas are being improved.
Final Thoughts
Invest in quality-enhancing tools.
Every business function relies on tools and technology. With the right tools, tasks can be accomplished at a much faster pace, and the quality of the output can also be significantly enhanced. The helpdesk is commonly used to manage requests and track support team issues. Specific automation tools like chatbots can also assist agents in deflecting tickets.
Customer support software, like our DSM 2.0+ Omnichannel Support (powered by Zendesk), can help get your team started, enabling them to collaborate and seamlessly improve customer experiences across chats, messages, and support tickets. It also integrates seamlessly with your eCommerce site, CRM, and ERP, so you'll have a complete digital solution all in one place. Alternatively, if you want to start immediately (without integration), you can use Zendesk Suite (Support, Chat, Talk & Guide). Our partnership with Zendesk allows us to assist you with everything from sales to implementation support and integration. Please get in touch with us at sales@zooloo.asia.
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- Looking closer at e-Marketplace Strategies
Tags: #zendesk #omnichannel #digitaltransformation #digitalintegration #digitalsolutions #smestrategy #ecommercestrategy #emarketplace #customerengagement #customerretention #customersuccess #edg #psg
