Why Customer Support Is the Key to Building a Successful Programmatic Business

Customer Support in a Programmatic Business

Today, the advertising technology industry is full of thousands of technology providers. And this means that customers have the opportunity to compare and choose the best options for themselves.

The quality of service is now as important as the quality of the advertising technologies themselves. Furthermore, the development of social networks makes the role of reviews and customer experience even more important. Therefore, the advertising business needs to optimize and develop customer support, which is the key to building a successful software business today.

What is the importance of customer care for business?

Companies worldwide make it an important task to maintain a high level of customer service. This task allows not only to retain existing customers but also to attract new ones.

Statistics show that acquiring a new customer is five times more expensive than retaining an existing one. In addition, the average customer churn rate in global markets is above 30%, which means that in 2022 the importance of customer retention has increased.

In addition, if a company improves customer service, it also increases customer satisfaction and encourages more purchases in the long run. For example, if a company’s product isn’t top-of-the-line, excellent customer service can play a significant role in customer retention, as the statistics confirm.

Here’s what other statistics say about the importance of customer support:

  • 3 out of 5 respondents agreed that good customer service is crucial in maintaining their brand loyalty.
  • 73% of respondents said they changed the company in case of a negative attitude towards customers.
  • 78% of those surveyed are willing to forgive a brand for mistakes if that company has excellent customer service.
  • 91% of people said they usually buy again if they are satisfied with the customer service.

Source: https://financesonline.com/customer-retention-statistics/

It is essential to understand that the primary goal of customer service is strategic and, in most cases, goes far beyond simple customer support.

For example, customer service professionals should not only be able to help technically deal with customer problems. You also need to be able to simplify software user interfaces and extend customer service beyond support.

Clear explanations and advice about business promotion are also essential tasks for customer service professionals, making this service quality and value.

What are the challenges companies face when serving customers?

Automation imperfections

The further machine learning and artificial intelligence penetrate all areas of human life, the more often we hear that machines will replace people in their jobs. However, this will not happen with service support.

Yes, proper routing of incoming calls without human intervention is possible with AI-powered assistants and answering common questions is possible with chatbots. Today, more than 85% of customer support interactions are automated. Yet, at the same time, 30% of consumers who cannot connect with real people during such interactions consider this problem the most annoying and rank it as a bad customer service experience.

For this reason, artificial intelligence is limited in this matter because customers may have non-standard questions or problems. However, human interaction can also play a critical role.

Lack of expertise

Building relationships with a client is a long and multi-level process. Customer service professionals must have excellent communication skills. In addition, they must advise the client on how to use the technology platform so that it can bring the best results for the business.

Many employees are intimidated by the abundance of terms and features they need to master. Moreover, different companies may have other processes and cycles, so companies often experience a shortage of qualified personnel.

​​Three Pillars of Quality Customer Support: The SmartHub Experience

Roman Vrublivsky, Head of SmartHub, spoke about the three pillars on which their ad exchange service rests:

  1. People. Product managers, full developer support, advertising operations and training support team. They know digital advertising operations inside out and provide comprehensive tailoring and ongoing support, advice and guidance to help companies achieve peak performance.
  2. Technology. Rapid deployment of an open market solution based on RTB in less than 7 days.
  3. Innovational tech stack.

“People come first. As the head of an advertising technology company, I can confidently say that account management and customer support are key advantages in the advertising business. In my experience, the customer support team solves any business challenges of deploying, supporting and scaling a new ad network platform from scratch. This is not just about maintaining a streamlined advertising workflow but about building more trusted partnerships,” Roman Vrublivsky says.

How to practice a customer-centric approach

A client-oriented approach is the ability to determine the client’s real needs and, on this basis, provide him with the most relevant and effective service. This approach is a mandatory minimum for every company.

Clear and timely assistance and guidance are essential but it is equally important to always do a little more for your customers than initially expected. This creates additional value that motivates them and makes them happy to work with you for a long time.

Building honest, trusting relationships with the client from the beginning is essential, based on openness and humanity. It is also important to consider their business’s experience and characteristics to better understand their needs.

Here are some tips to help you with this:

Remember the history of communication with the client

Today, communication with a client can take place in various messengers. However, all communication history should always be kept in a CRM or other system that makes it easy to retrieve information when needed.

Specialized software also helps personalize communication and track the progress of a client’s problem.

Go Beyond Support

It’s essential to help customers understand your product’s work, set up campaigns and troubleshoot. However, you must also show a genuine interest in the client’s business and be proactive in offering additional advice that can positively impact the client’s business results.

Analyze the result

If the client does not complain or write anything, this does not mean he has nothing to say and you cannot improve your interaction. Conduct surveys, ask for feedback on individual features and the service, launch loyalty programs and figure out how to speed up and simplify customer service.

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