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How Levels of Escalations are Being Handled in the E-commerce Industry with Great Customer Support

What is an Escalation?

When a company promises a customer a certain service and the buyer feels he’s got a raw deal, an escalation is raised. When this buyer raises the escalation, he just doesn’t want to talk to any old support agent, he wants to talk to the guys who call the shots, to give them a piece of his mind

According to a survey by Impact Communications the most common reasons for escalations being raised include;

  1. The agent is not equipped with the knowledge necessary to resolve the ticket.
  2. The company uses a poorly update Knowledge Base
  3. The agent has a poor attitude towards the customer

According to Conversion, 52% of baby boomers and 48% of Gen Xers stopped doing business with a company because of poor customer service.

Poor customer service stems from a poorly designed escalation matrix.

Either way when a customer gets in touch with you and if your team is unable to close the ticket within a set period of time (usually 24-48 Hours) an escalation is raised.

When an escalation is raised – the support ticket is reassigned to higher management – who can take effective action to close the ticket.

Ideally, to prevent large escalation rates your team should get access to a Knowledge Base. The Knowledge Base should be equipped with articles and FAQ’S on the different types of escalations and how they can deal with it.

It is recommended to give your team permission to stray off script when it comes to dealing with escalations.

Give them the ability to offer vouchers or refunds on purchases. This will help you achieve a First Call Resolution Rate rather than leading to escalations

How to design an Escalation Matrix that offers great customer support experience

If you are using a CRM for the e-commerce industry, you can configure specific SLA’S or time frames within which tickets should be solved.

Each time an SLA is breached, an SMS or an email should be forwarded to the next level which looks like this;

  1. A ticket has crossed the SLA (24 Hrs) with ticket ID 12345. Kindly Login to the CRM for more details. 
  2. A ticket has crossed the SLA (48 Hrs) with ticket ID 12345. Kindly Login to the CRM for more details. 
  3. A ticket has crossed the SLA (72 Hrs ) with ticket ID 12345. Kindly Login to the CRM for more details.

Once these messages have been triggered, you need to have set protocols to solve specific escalations like damaged products or request for refunds, or any other common escalations raised in your industry.

Conclusion

These escalation levels can be designed for a department of any size. From a startup where you have the founder doing every task, to being a full-time employer, an escalation matrix will help you boost your sales, manage leads easily and service your customers.

To ensure that your support team is available across multiple contact channels you need to integrate the following channels of support into your system.

  1. A Live chat software
  2. A Toll-Free Phone Number
  3. A Support Email Address

You would also need to set clear SLA’S for your team. This would give them a strict deadline by which they can achieve a First Call Resolution and drop the escalations.

Written By

Josh has 10 years of experience in IT industry as a web developer and cloud computing expert researching heavily for techendo.com. He frequently writes about IT and branding efforts. In his free time, you will often find him taking a walk, or playing video games.

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