What to Expect, When It’s Unexpected: How We Deal With Complicated Requests

Very often customer support consultants have to deal with a huge workload. Their chats, emails and phones are oozing customer complaints that have to be resolved in a timely and polite manner. And very often doing that is hard, as there may simply be too many requests from the customers who need assistance. 

But, what to do if there is only one request, and it is very difficult or it is going to take a lot of time, patience and knowledge to be resolved? How does SupportYourApp deal with such requests? 

Mission Difficult doesn’t mean Mission Impossible

Difficult requests are not rare. As there is no way to precisely predict, what the end users are going to need from customer support, it is likely that your team has already come across a ticket that they found too difficult to be resolved by helpdesk support consultants. Such tickets most likely required escalation. 

But what if we said that setting up good communication flow and cultivating customer centric corporate habits can help escape escalation and in the long run are going to ensure that your team is going to take ownership?

✔️ Yes, it is possible. 

SupportYourApp and ticket solving

Being an outsourced customer support company, one could say that we wrote a book on dealing with difficult tickets. We have been developing the best ticket solving practices since SupportYourApp was established a decade, ago and the process goes on and on with every ticket that we close. 

What are our major steps?

🏄‍♀️ Step 1 — hire and onboard the right people

We cannot stress enough, how important it is to hire the people right for the job. A perfect team is going to make all the difference for internal communication flow which, in its turn, will help set up and maintain the right attitude towards dealing with difficulties. 

In its turn, a dedicated onboarding department can not only welcome the newcomers and provide them with the information needed to operate within your company structure, but also to select the right people for the right positions. Some might be a bit more tech-savvy, some might deal with difficulties faster and some might be better at multitasking. All the candidates have a spot that they are going to be perfect for. 

The task here is to connect the dots and to put the newcomers right into their places. 

🤩 Step 2 — motivation comes from the inside

As was proven by countless studies and books, it is impossible to motivate someone from the outside. True motivation comes from within. This is exactly what we at SupportYourApp are promoting: “If you want to become a real pro and be the best at what you do, you are going to have to motivate yourself to find improvement when it comes to resolving difficult and challenging cases.” 

And we are proud that SupportYourAppers all share this vision of motivation and productivity. 

💼 Step 3 — ensure that you have team management

Who sets up the tone and communication flow inside the team? Team lead, of course. SupportYourApp has dedicated Delivery Managers who oversee the processes inside each team and check whether the consultants are dealing with difficult tasks as they should on their own or whether they require some help.

💬 Step 4 — set clear communication channels

Every single member of the support team should not only understand the correct approach to solving helpdesk tickets, but also have clear channels of communication with both — a Delivery Manager and a representative of a vendor, in case a very difficult case needs to be escalated. 

Moreover, for 24/7 support service, like the one provided by SupportYourApp, a Delivery Manager must always be prepared to answer an inquiry from a consultant, no matter whether it is out of their business hours or not. 

💻 Step 5 — establish quality assurance process

No matter how much we would like to escape monitoring and controlling, it is a necessary part of becoming the best, when it comes to dealing with unexpected and difficult requests from the customers. We at SupportYourApp prefer randomizing the process — there is no way for the consultant to know which email, chat or phone inquiry is going to be up for a review. This means that they are resolving each one of them as if they are being watched. 

That might sound harsh, but this helps us provide superb customer service to clients all over the world.

📈 Step 6 — do not think about the difficulty

Surely, difficult requests are time- and effort-consuming. But focusing on the fact that the request is difficult is only going to slow down the process of resolving it. Looking at it as if nothing special is happening, on the other hand, ensures that there is no big fuss and that the inquiry is treated like any other issue: fast, efficient and with a large amount of personalization. 

Results

If you put all the above-mentioned steps together, you will get a very clear flow of difficult requests resolution. The consultants are ready to deal with different end users and different requests from the get go. A smooth communication flow as well as sharing the same values with the entire management team makes sure that we all speak the same language and that we all understand each other.

As a result, consultants feel free to talk to their supervisors when the situation gets too complicated, but they also have room to conduct their own research and resolve the most difficult and unexpected inquiries all by themselves when they feel capable of doing so.

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