Published on 12th September 2013 by Gemma Harding

Last week’s customer service blunder for British Airways on Twitter has really highlighted the importance of customer service to large corporations today.

More and more customers expect not only a positive response, but an immediate one, especially from companies that they perceive to have the resources to be able to support 24 hour customer service operations.

We’ve come up with a list of the best customer service apps to help large businesses stay on top of their customer services.

Parature

UPDATE: Parature is now owned by Microsoft – Find out more

With Parature, you can keep on top of all your customer service channels, all on one platform. From monitoring your social media, to live chat, to email, Parature keeps you informed when you receive customer questions and problems.

It means that you effectively already are where your customers are. With their live chat feature you can even provide live customer support from in-game or in-application. It stops your customers from receiving just a reactive service, so that you can provide a more innovative, engaging customer service style.

 ZenDesk

Zendesk organises agents’ ticket activity into meaningful categories, helping your agents keep a close eye on incoming queries. You can set up automatic responses to the most frequently asked questions, or even set up online communities where your customers can ask questions and benefit from helpful dialogues with each other.

You benefit from these shared ideas because you can see what your customers really want from your business.

With ZenDesk’s mobile app, your agents can view their support ticket activity on their mobile as it would appear on their desktop. So they can provide your customers with support they need, from anywhere at any time.

 Fonolo

Great for call centre customer service. It integrates with your existing infrastructure, for minimum disruption to the way you run your contact centres.

Fonolo eliminates call waiting time for your customers, offering them the option for a call-back if hold times are too long. They choose the time that works best for them, and they can even select their preferred medium, from web, to live chat, to mobile, to IVR/ACD.

Ultimately, when you provide better customer service, with less call-waiting time, you increase customer loyalty to your brand, and even reduce costs.

 Service Cloud

Service Cloud supports your call centre. Like ZenDesk, you can set up communities to improve customer engagement with your brand by encouraging them to help each other. And, with Salesforce Chatter, bringing together your staffs’ social media pages, your team can exchange helpful knowledge and advice with each other, so your company can respond quickly to inquiries.

Your agents can access customer information instantly, to view questions they have asked before. With live chat and social media channels streamlining service, your agents will be able to provide your customers with the relevant information quickly.

Long term solutions

These apps help streamline your customer service operations. They’re more than just a fad, as people thought only a year ago. Contact centres are an important part of your customer service operations, and it is important to keep your customer support as painless and effective as possible.