Future of CX

How to Build Customer Service Workflows? + 5 Actual Examples

Parichehr Parsi
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last edited on
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October 25, 2023
4-5 mins

Table of contents

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Customer Service Workflows

Want to know how to build customer service workflows? Here in this article, you will learn about the process of solving an issue for your dissatisfied customer and know workflow examples as well as how to build a workflow to meet your customers’ satisfaction.

What is a Customer Service Workflow?

First of all, you should check whether you know about the concept of workflow. Workflow, as its name suggests, concerns a series of actions. One action happens and leads to a second action, which leads to another action(s). So, workflow is a process that leads to an outcome. Customer service workflow involves a sequence of actions as well.

No matter which channels you choose to generate leads, you should provide customer service for them as soon as they become your customers.

A workflow example for customer service would be when an unhappy customer makes a phone call or sends a message; agent answers; agent apologizes and provides a solution; customer accepts/denies; customer churns.

What are workflow processes?

A workflow process is essentially a series of activities or tasks that need to be completed sequentially or in parallel with each other in order to achieve a business outcome. In most cases, the process is linear and proceeds in a sequence that is determined by actions or pre-defined business rules. When you want to ensure that you are meeting customer requirements, corrective and preventive actions can be developed and implemented with an automated workflow management software or using an APQP checklist.

Why is building a customer service workflow important?

A customer service workflow such as the one described above is frequently implicit. The process is never defined or streamlined. This is a shortage, both in terms of increasing efficiency and increasing consumer happiness. As a result, talking about workflow automation as a service is beneficial. This will assist you in the following ways: 

  • Recognize and document the customer service scenario questions that your company needs.
  • Maintain consistency in how things are done, especially in instances where customers are involved.
  • Make it simple for new team members and customers to get started.
  • Determine whether steps may be automated using the appropriate technologies.

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What is a customer service workflow diagram?

A customer service workflow diagram is a type of process flow diagram that offers you a graphic overview of your customer service processes - starting even before your customer on-boarding process. The workflow diagram would use standardized symbols and shapes to give you a step by step breakdown of how your customer service tasks are completed from start to finish.

These workflows will help the members of your customer service team understand their roles and the order in which work is completed, thus increasing your team’s efficiency substantially.

5 Customer Service Workflow Examples

Keep in mind that if you add data specific to your firm, your customer workflow will likely get more complicated – but the workflow process examples will help you avoid unnecessary processes. Take a look at these customer service workflow examples and draw your own customer workflow diagram.


Source: Unsplash

1. Customer Support Workflow

Issue resolution is the most common customer service situation that everyone thinks of when an unhappy customer calls in, sends a message with a specific query, or requests troubleshooting.

Because time matters a lot, it is critical to give a rapid and satisfactory response through a call center workflow. 

Consider this process workflow example:

Customer dials a number; automated voice assistant asks for contact information; customer waits on hold until an agent is available; agent picks up and asks how they can assist; customer describes their problem; agent asks for more precise information; agent opens a ticket; agent offers a remedy or refers the matter to the appropriate person.

2. Chatbot Workflow

Companies may provide many assistance channels. One of these channels is a chatbot, which can also be utilized to generate leads. Its advantages include 24-hour service and effective issue recognition. 

You will render customer interactions with your chatbot more effective if you have a customer service workflow. Consider what would happen if the chatbot kept posing the same questions to customers or misunderstands them. The long-term effects of an inefficient chatbot are hard to compensate for. 

Look at this chatbot process workflow examples:

Customer types something; chatbot responds by offering its services; customer asks a query; chatbot matches questions to its database; chatbot presents a list of questions to choose from; customer chooses; chatbot responds.

3. Product Feedback Loop

The product feedback loop refers to how companies log and react to customer feedback.

Even though it is essentially an internal operation, it has far-reaching implications for the customer. 

Here is a sample workflow:

The customer provides feedback; agent expresses gratitude; agent creates a ticket for the problem and assigns it to the appropriate individual; the product team thinks about it; the product team will either patch it or file it away for later; the agent is kept up to date; if necessary, the agent follows up with the client.

4. Customer Order Workflow

Customer orders are one of the most critical customer service workflows, mainly if you sell physical goods. Creating a customer order workflow will aid you in streamlining delivery and returns, coordinating billings with the finance department, and determining what went wrong when a customer does not get the correct product.

Look at this workflow service:

Customer orders; invoice is automatically generated; invoice is sent to the customer and the finance department; order is verified; warehouse receives the order and checks inventory; warehouse updates inventory and website; the product is shipped; tracking number is generated and sent to the customer; the customer receives the package.

5. Shopping Cart Workflow

Shopping cart abandonment is when consumers come so close to making a purchase and abandon it at the last moment. If your abandonment rate is high, a workflow will help you fix it. 

Here is a workflow sample:

Customer adds items to a shopping cart; clicks on ‘proceed’ or whatever CTA; adds contact details; adds promo codes if they have; pays via a secure system; receives a confirmation email.


How to Build a Customer Service Workflow?

how to build Customer service workflows

Here is a guide to building a customer service workflow for almost every business's customer service processes:

1. Understand the Process

Review and examine your customer support function (e.g., the daily tasks of your team members). Check every procedure and insist that your customer support team has to keep documents for every complaint. This is how you can keep track of your customer service workflow process.

2. Discover the Challenges

Look for the causes of your customers’ dissatisfaction. It can be your customer service KPIs that are not functioning well, insufficiency of your resources, technical issues, etc. Whatever the customer issue is, you should find it out and fix it in the quickest time possible. 

3. Use Workflow Making Tools

In the modern age of technology, there is an automation tool for almost any task. You should optimize your customer service using machine learning. You can use a tool like Invision or Microsoft Visio to visualize the workflows as well as Excel or Google Sheets. That is how you can get a workflow within a short time and put it into practice efficiently. 

4. Choose the Most Efficient Way

Your customer support workflow may need to be improved from time to time. The reason is that perhaps the sequences in your workflow do not contain the most efficient clue. Therefore, you need to always do research and find better alternatives for your workflow process.

5. Test Your Workflow 

The workflow examples above may mislead you into thinking that setting a customer service workflow process is easy. However, you should practically see whether your workflow is viable or not. This is called testing, which makes you understand how to build an efficient workflow.

Conclusion

It may sound challenging to create a workflow for your customer service; however, you will understand that you can organize your customer service tasks effectively and efficiently if you look deeply into the matter. The workflow examples above can help you in creating your own customer service workflow and improving your customer experience. Wish you the best of luck with your customer service workflow management!

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Parichehr Parsi

I am Parichehr Parsi, a born writer and a freelance copywriter in the fields of travel, fashion, and Instagram marketing. I currently write for DMPro, Realtormate, and online magazines in Italy, and I love reading, writing, and researching. Find me on LinkedIn!

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