How To Use Microsoft Teams For Customer Service: The Key to Success
November 21, 2022
Time:
6
mins
Whatever your business or industry, quality customer service is fundamental for success.
It's an essential part of attracting customers, maintaining a positive public image, and cultivating brand loyalty.
Case in point, 90% of American consumers consider customer service an important factor when deciding whether or not to purchase from a business.
And, 61% of customers will switch to another brand after just one experience of poor customer service.
Unfortunately, the task of providing exceptional digital customer service can be challenging.
The demands of today's consumers are constantly rising and, thanks to the internet, they now have more choice of brands than ever before.
In order to meet these demands and beat the competition, businesses need a forward-thinking approach to customer service. One that can unite employees and consistently deliver positive experiences.
And that's where incorporating Microsoft Teams comes in. In this article, we'll cover:
- Why incorporate Microsoft Teams into your customer service strategy
- The benefits of utilizing Microsoft Teams for customer service
- How to provide a superior digital customer experience with Microsoft Teams and Talkative
Why use Microsoft Teams for customer service?
Let's start off with the reasons why Microsoft Teams can be a valuable part of your customer service strategy.
1. Teams is ubiquitous
Nowadays, Microsoft Teams is everywhere.
The number of users skyrocketed from 145 million in 2021 to 270 million in 2022. And, over a million businesses now use Teams as their default messaging platform.
The overwhelming popularity of Teams means that it's likely your customer advisors already have experience using it, either within your organization or through a previous role.
It makes sense to incorporate customer support into a platform that your advisors are already familiar with, as they'll require less training and feel more comfortable using it.
Consequently, they acquire the ability to provide fantastic customer experiences with greater speed and ease.
2. Teams is versatile
One of the reasons why so many brands already work with Teams is because of its versatility.
It's a user-friendly platform that can be used by any business, of any size, across all industries.
Whether you're a small start-up or an established corporation with thousands of employees, Teams can be scaled to suit your individual business needs.
This range of use cases means that it can be incorporated into the customer service strategy of any brand - regardless of your size and goals.
3. Teams is efficient
The ability to connect with customers and resolve their issues efficiently is essential for quality customer service.
Incorporating customer service into your Microsoft Teams infrastructure will empower your advisors to provide support without switching between platforms.
This will improve both efficiency and speed, as everything you need for both internal communication and customer conversations will be in one place.
Plus, the efficiency of Teams has been shown to improve workplace productivity - it can decrease the amount of time users spend on tasks by up to 75%.
The benefits of using Microsoft Teams for customer support
Incorporating Teams into your customer service strategy comes with a number of advantages - take a look at the following key benefits.
Increase workplace collaboration
If you're trying to optimize customer service, you cannot overlook the importance of collaboration and the workplace environment.
In fact, digital collaboration has been shown to increase workplace productivity by up to 30%.
And, 77% of consumers want brands' internal teams to communicate and collaborate effectively so that they don't have to repeat themselves throughout their digital journey.
So, making sure that your customer advisors are connected, engaged, and empowered is crucial both for facilitating business success and for providing exceptional customer experiences.
This is especially true in a post-Covid era, where remote working has become commonplace - many employees are no longer working in the same location as their colleagues. Ensuring that your advisors are equipped to collaborate and work consistently as a team in a digital space has never been more important.
Microsoft Teams on its own is an excellent tool for facilitating the collaboration of different departments as well as members of the same team.
It allows your entire organization to come together through internal conferencing, instant messaging, and file sharing.
And if you add customer service to that space, the result is a complete digital workplace where all of your employees can work together to creatively solve customer issues quickly and efficiently.
Unify your workflow
If your customer advisors are using Microsoft Teams to collaborate with each other, switching to a separate platform for customer communication seems like an unnecessary hassle.
The time spent changing between different systems and managing multiple sets of notifications can cause delays, complications, and inconvenience.
Why risk this potential decrease in productivity when you can have a unified workflow and one dashboard?
With this approach, all the tools your customer advisors need to collaborate and communicate with customers will be embedded and readily accessible. And, a single set of notifications creates a smoother workflow that's easier to manage.
By embedding a customer experience solution within your Microsoft Teams infrastructure, you can improve efficiency and team communication as well as optimize customer service.
Outshine your competitors
In today's increasingly competitive market, customer experience is a key brand differentiator.
Your customer service is a key part of the overall experience your brand provides - and it's crucial for standing out from the crowd.
A customer service strategy that includes Teams will unite your customer advisors, improve their performance, and empower them to maintain consistency throughout customer journeys.
You'll be able to deliver a fresh and seamless customer experience fuelled by collaboration and efficiency.
This will enable you to outshine your competitors by providing exceptional service and a better overall experience for your customers.
How to use Microsoft Teams for Customer Service
It's clear that utilizing Microsoft Teams for customer service can benefit both your business and your customers.
But although Teams alone is great for digital communication, it was designed for workplace collaboration - not for the delivery of premium digital customer service.
So how exactly can you achieve optimum customer engagement through a workplace Teams infrastructure?
The answer lies in integration.
With the Talkative platform, you can fully integrate with Microsoft Teams - allowing you to deliver a superior customer service and sales experience from a single screen.
You'll be able to deploy a complete suite of customer contact channels, all within Teams and without interrupting your established workflows. These include:
What's more, you'll have a unified dashboard, one set of notifications to manage, and presence syncing across channels.
In short, you'll be able to enjoy all the benefits of Teams plus the power of an unrivaled customer engagement solution.
Interested in integrating Talkative with Microsoft Teams? Check out our Microsoft Teams Integration page to find out more.
The takeaway: Combine the power of Teams and Talkative
Undoubtedly, Microsoft Teams is a powerful collaborative tool that provides a workflow framework for countless businesses.
But, Microsoft Teams alone is not enough for the delivery of optimal customer service and enhanced digital experiences.
You also need a platform specifically designed to effortlessly connect with customers, via the right channel, at the right time.
And that's where Talkative comes in.
With the power of Talkative and Teams combined, your customer advisors will be empowered to provide a truly bespoke and personalized experience.
And, they'll be able to achieve this without leaving their established digital workspace. Everything they need for both collaboration and exceptional service will be readily accessible, all in one place.
By integrating Teams with Talkative, you can transform your customer experience strategy and use it to delight customers and supercharge revenue.
Want to see for yourself?
Book a demo today, and discover how your brand can increase both satisfaction and sales with a Teams integration.
