Phone vs. Email

Hi!

Today’s post is about the eternal question that every executive asks himself when it comes to providing quality customer support:

"what’s better – phone call or email?"

Have you decided what works better for your company? And why?

So, here at SupportYourApp we’ve dedicated quite time for clarifying this dilemma and conducted a tiny survey. Every topic usually has its CONS & PROS, so I’ve prepared 2 cases for your observation.

#1. Let’s imagine that your customer support star receives a call. That’s great! S/he can easily make the communication more personal, & it’s an opportunity to get loyal customers, show them how much you care as a representative of this company.

You can adjust your voice & speech, do it in a unique way & apply it to different customers. If it’s an urgent technical case, a customer can find more ways to describe the issue. At the same time, the support star can use more ways to describe the solution and provide immediate assistance, in case something goes wrong.

We often use TeamViewer or join.me in order to help customers.

+ “Get human” is also a very essential part of the service.

If there are pre-sales questions, it’s easier to handle them by phone as well. Your support star quickly explains to the customer some features, technical requirements, and walks them through payment steps.

Only 2 phone call’s cons can be highlighted: no time to think if the issue is not basic & direct speech affects emotions. But having experience helps handle complicated situations.

… For those who didn’t know – first impression is crucial, and that’s why everyone’s phone call must be answered.

#2. And on other hand we have the Email. By replying via email – you have more time to do research for an uncommon issue, you can describe a solution with precise steps. Provide screenshots or video. With emails, you also have enough time to think over a difficult issue, but occasionally there’s a need to clarify information, which requires the customer’s time to respond, whereas a phone call would have clarified this in a few seconds. It also may happen that your support star needs to read an e-mail more than 2 times, in order to understand the issue.

So, let’s sum it up!

According to our PROS and CONS mentioned above – having phone support will bring more personal attitude & increase the loyalty.

If your company is sales oriented or has a sophisticated product, it’s essential to build a phone system & give an option for your customers to reach you.

In case you’re not able to make a 24/7 working phone system, for instance if customer wants to reach you & reaches only a voice-mail, it’s better to stick to email support instead.

Daria @SupportYourApp

#MakeYourCustomersHappy