AWS Lambda Function costs are directly related with how much memory and

How to Reduce AWS Lambda Cost with Golang Profiling | DevRev

Building customer loyalty and increasing retention are integral to the success of any business today. Customers also have higher expectations from businesses and value personalized interactions. One way that businesses can meet these expectations is by investing in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. CRMs can improve customer loyalty, increase customer lifetime value, and help businesses expand rapidly. In this article, we examine the exact role of a CRM and the multiple advantages it can offer your business. 


## Understanding customer loyalty and retention

Before we dive into how CRM can help with customer loyalty and retention, let's define these terms. Customer loyalty is the tendency of customers to continue doing business with a company over time. Customer retention is the ability of a company to maintain their customer base and prevent customers from switching to a competitor. Both customer loyalty and retention are essential for business success. They lead to increased revenue, reduced costs, and improved brand reputation. However, customer loyalty and retention are ongoing challenges for companies. The business landscape is constantly evolving with respect to changing competitors and evolving customer preferences. 


## What is CRM and how does it help with customer loyalty and retention?

CRM is a software system that helps businesses manage interactions with their customers. It enables businesses to store customer data, track interactions, and analyze customer behavior. A CRM system typically includes the following components:



- **Contact management:** This component helps businesses store and organize customer data, such as contact information and purchase history.
- **Sales management:** This component helps businesses manage their sales pipeline and track customer interactions throughout the sales process.
- **Marketing automation:** This component helps businesses automate their marketing efforts, such as email campaigns and social media posts.
- **Customer service and support:** This component helps businesses manage customer inquiries and complaints.

 

CRMs provide a 360-degree view of the customer, empowering teams to build stronger relationships with customers through more meaningful contextual interactions. 


## Benefits of CRM in customer loyalty and retention

Here are some of the ways CRM software can help businesses improve customer loyalty and retention:


### Improved customer insights

A CRM software creates unique profiles for each customer, which includes their contact details, purchase history, past interactions, etc. This data can help businesses personalize their offerings for each customer, enabling them to increase likelihood of conversions. 


### Personalized customer interactions

CRM software allows businesses to personalize their interactions with customers by providing relevant information, offers, and recommendations. Personalization plays a big role in customer satisfaction and can increase customer loyalty and revenue per customer. 


### Streamlined communication

Businesses today need to provide a seamless omnichannel experience for their customers. A customer reaching out to a company through social media often expects the company to be aware of any past interactions they’ve had with the company on other platforms such as email as well. CRMs provide a single integrated platform that can help sales and support teams to access the entire history of a customer’s interactions. This can help them respond to customer inquiries and concerns more efficiently and effectively.


### Efficient customer service

CRM software can automate routine customer service tasks, such as ticket creation and routing, enabling businesses to respond to customer inquiries and concerns more quickly.


## Strategies for using CRM to improve customer loyalty and retention

To effectively use CRM to improve customer loyalty and retention, businesses should consider the following strategies:


### Collecting and analyzing customer data

Inorder to provide personalized interactions and tailored products and services, businesses need to collect and analyze customer data. Customer surveys, feedback forms and past purchases provide a wealth of data that can enrich the quality of customer insights generated by a CRM. 


### Segmentation and targeting

CRM software can help businesses segment their customers based on demographics, behavior, and preferences. This enables businesses to target their marketing efforts more effectively and provide personalized interactions.


### Implementing a loyalty program

A loyalty program can incentivize customers to continue doing business with a company by providing rewards and benefits for repeat purchases.


### Providing exceptional customer service

Exceptional customer service can help businesses build lasting relationships with their customers. CRMs help businesses respond quickly and efficiently to customer queries, which improves customer satisfaction and loyalty. 


## The importance of communication in building lasting relationships

The key advantage of a CRM solution is that it improves the quality of customer interactions. But why is this so critical to business success? Here are some reasons why effective communication can help businesses build lasting relationships with customers. 


### Communicating consistently 

Businesses should focus on increasing the quality of their interactions with customers. Segmenting customers can help businesses provide relevant offers and updates to customers through various channels that their customers are present on, such as social media and phone. This improves customer engagement and is far more effective than blast messaging tactics used in the past. 


### Building trust and credibility

Maintaining honesty and transparency is critical to building customer loyalty and earning their trust. This can be achieved by avoiding hidden costs, offering clear product descriptions, and addressing customer complaints promptly and honestly. 


### Responding to feedback and complaints

Listening to customer feedback and complaints and taking appropriate action is essential for building customer loyalty and retention. Speed is of the essence when resolving customer issues as delayed responses can directly impact customer satisfaction. 


### Measuring and evaluating customer loyalty and retention

To effectively manage customer loyalty and retention, businesses need to measure and evaluate their performance. Here are some key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider:


### Customer lifetime value

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is an estimation of the total revenue each customer is expected to generate for the business over their entire lifetime. The key objective of a business is to increase CLV. Tracking this metric can help businesses tailor their marketing efforts accordingly and determine which customer segments to focus on.


### Measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty

CSAT surveys and sentiment analysis can help businesses understand the efficacy of their customer service and identify areas for improvement. This can help them deliver more impactful customer communication and increase satisfaction. 


### Analyzing customer feedback

Analyzing customer feedback can help gauge business insights and identify trends and patterns in customer behavior. This can inform their product development and marketing strategies to meet customer requirements.


## Common challenges in implementing CRM for customer loyalty and retention

Implementing CRM for customer loyalty and retention can be challenging. Here are some common hurdles that companies may face:


### Resistance to change

Employees may be resistant to change. So, it becomes important to train them on how to use the new CRM system effectively.


### Data quality and accuracy

CRM software needs accurate and complete data in order to generate valuable insights for a business. Therefore, companies need to ensure that their data is up-to-date to get the most value out of their CRM system. 


### Integration with other systems

CRM software may need to be integrated with other systems, such as accounting or inventory management software. This can be a complicated process and should be done carefully so that there is no data loss during the migration. 


### Lack of training and adoption

Employees need to be trained to use the CRM system to ensure high adoption of the software. Without adequate training, the quality of data might be compromised and employees could revert to previous systems. 


## Overcoming implementation challenges

To overcome implementation challenges, businesses should consider the following strategies:


### Communicating the benefits of CRM

Employees need to understand the benefits of the CRM and exactly why the company has decided to implement one. This is important to get their buy-in and ensure the software is properly utilized. 


### Ensuring data accuracy and completeness

Businesses need to prioritize data accuracy and completeness to get the most out of their CRM system. This may involve data cleansing and standardization.


### Providing adequate training and support

Businesses should provide ongoing training and support to ensure the successful adoption of CRM software.


## Emerging trends in CRM for customer loyalty and retention

Here are some emerging trends in CRM for customer loyalty and retention:


### Greater use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being increasingly used in CRM software to provide personalized interactions and streamline communication with customers.


### Integrating social media and other channels

CRM software is being integrated with social media and other channels to provide a more comprehensive view of customer interactions and behavior.


### Ethics and responsibility in CRM

CRM software collects and analyzes customer data, which raises concerns about privacy. Businesses need to use customer data ethically and maintain transparency and trust with their customers.


### Privacy concerns

Various privacy laws like GDPR have strict guidelines about the collection and usage of customer data. Businesses need to ensure that their CRM systems are in compliance with these laws. 


### Using data ethically

Businesses need to ensure that they do not violate a customer’s trust by acquiring or selling their data without explicit consent. 


### Maintaining transparency and trust

Businesses need to clearly communicate exactly what data they collect from customers and how they plan to use it. There should also be strict guidelines in place about how they remove customer data from their systems in case a customer requests it. 


## Best practices for CRM and customer loyalty and retention

Here are some best practices for using CRM to improve customer loyalty and retention:


### Establishing clear goals and objectives

Businesses should list clear goals from their CRM systems and align them with their overall business objectives. This can set the expectations from the CRM software and measure performance.


### Providing exceptional customer service

Providing exceptional customer service is essential for building customer loyalty and retention. Businesses should prioritize customer service initiatives and respond to customer inquiries and complaints promptly.


### Ensuring data accuracy and completeness

Data accuracy and completeness are essential for getting the most out of CRM software. Businesses should prioritize data cleansing and standardization to ensure the effectiveness of their CRM system.


### Continuously measuring and evaluating performance

Measuring and evaluating performance is essential for improving customer loyalty and retention. Businesses should continuously monitor their KPIs and customer feedback to identify areas for improvement.


## The future of CRM and customer loyalty and retention

The future of CRM and customer loyalty and retention is characterized by greater personalization, automation, and integration with other systems.


### Importance of personalization

The wealth of information available on CRMs will enable businesses to provide customized products and services to their customers. 


### Greater use of automation and AI

Automation and AI will be increasingly used in CRM software to streamline communication with customers and improve the customer experience.


### Integration with other systems

To provide a truly holistic view of the customer, CRM software will have to be integrated with other software used in accounting, inventory management and marketing. This can help businesses have more meaningful interactions with customers. 


## Final thoughts

Customers today are more informed and empowered than ever before. CRM software allows companies to exceed customer expectations by integrating various customer touchpoints and creating detailed profiles of each customer. To effectively use CRM to improve customer loyalty and retention, businesses must collect and analyze customer data, segment and target their customers, implement a loyalty program, and provide exceptional customer service. Overcoming implementation challenges involves communicating the benefits of CRM, ensuring data accuracy and completeness, and providing adequate training and support.

The Role of CRM in Customer Loyalty and Retention

TechCrunch

Former Nutanix execs launch new startup with $50M seed round

Just like a lion ruling the CRM jungle, Salesforce has dominated the market for ages. But as industries evolve, so do their needs. It's time for tailored CRM solutions that fit like a glove. A generic CRM won’t make the cut, and the 

 have a similar opinion too. If you are looking to maximize your customer relationship management and revenue.

In this article, we will delve into the top [Salesforce alternatives](https://devrev.ai/blog/salesforce-alternatives) based on industry, providing businesses with a roadmap to revolutionize their CRM solutions and maximize their efficiency and effectiveness.


## Healthcare industry alternative

One of the top alternatives for healthcare providers is "Cerner HealtheCRM." This CRM platform offers specialized features and functionalities designed specifically for healthcare professionals.

It seamlessly integrates with electronic health records (EHR), enabling personalized care, efficient appointment management, and follow-up coordination.

Cerner HealtheCRM showcases case studies and success stories highlighting its effectiveness in improving patient outcomes and streamlining healthcare operations.


## Retail industry alternative

"Elastic Path Commerce" is a powerful alternative CRM solution for e-commerce businesses. It has deep integrations with popular e-commerce platforms that make gathering and analyzing of customer data, segmenting the audience, and delivering personalized marketing campaigns an absolute breeze.

Elastic Path Commerce offers features such as customer behavior tracking, personalized recommendations, and automated marketing workflows, contributing to enhancing the customer experience and driving sales growth.


## Financial services industry alternative

Creatio is a CRM platform that offers comprehensive tools for lead and contact management, deal tracking, customer service and support, account and portfolio management, workflow automation, reporting and analytics, integration, and customization.

With Creatio, banks can efficiently manage customer interactions, track sales pipelines, provide personalized support, analyze financial performance, automate processes, and gain valuable insights. The platform's industry-specific features make it a suitable CRM solution for banks aiming to enhance customer relationships, streamline operations, and drive business growth.


## Manufacturing industry alternative

"Oracle SCM Cloud" is a comprehensive CRM solution for supply chain management in the manufacturing industry. This platform focuses on demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and vendor relationship management.

Oracle SCM Cloud provides real-time analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling manufacturers to make data-driven decisions. These insights help manufacturing companies improve supplier collaboration and streamline their supply chain processes.


## Education industry alternative

"Anthology Engage" is a powerful CRM solution for higher education institutions. This platform provides features for student recruitment, enrollment management, and alumni engagement.

Anthology Engage facilitates personalized communication, academic advising, and student support services. With Anthology Engage, educational institutions can enhance student recruitment efforts, improve student retention rates, and foster alumni engagement and fundraising.


## Final thoughts

In this article, we explored a range of 

 based on various industries. We highlighted industry-specific CRM solutions designed to meet the unique challenges and demands of the healthcare, retail, financial services, manufacturing, professional services, and education sectors. These alternatives offer tailored features and functionalities that empower businesses to streamline operations, enhance customer relationships, and drive growth. By selecting a CRM solution based on industry, businesses can optimize their CRM strategy and achieve greater efficiency and success.


Just like a lion ruling the CRM jungle, Salesforce has dominated the market for ages. But as industries evolve, so do their needs. It's time for tailored CRM solutions that fit like a glove. A generic CRM won’t make the cut if you are looking to maximize your customer relationship management and revenue.

In this article, we will delve into the top [Salesforce alternatives](https://devrev.ai/blog/salesforce-alternatives) based on industry, providing businesses with a roadmap to revolutionize their CRM solutions and maximize their efficiency and effectiveness.


## Healthcare industry alternative

One of the top alternatives for healthcare providers is "Cerner HealtheCRM." This CRM platform offers specialized features and functionalities designed specifically for healthcare professionals. 

It seamlessly integrates with electronic health records (EHR), enabling personalized care, efficient appointment management, and follow-up coordination. 

Cerner HealtheCRM showcases case studies and success stories highlighting its effectiveness in improving patient outcomes and streamlining healthcare operations.


## Retail industry alternative

"Elastic Path Commerce" is a powerful alternative CRM solution for e-commerce businesses. It has deep integrations with popular e-commerce platforms that make gathering and analyzing of customer data, segmenting the audience, and delivering personalized marketing campaigns an absolute breeze.

Elastic Path Commerce offers features such as customer behavior tracking, personalized recommendations, and automated marketing workflows, contributing to enhancing the customer experience and driving sales growth.


## Financial services industry alternative

Creatio is a CRM platform that offers comprehensive tools for lead and contact management, deal tracking, customer service and support, account and portfolio management, workflow automation, reporting and analytics, integration, and customization. 

With Creatio, banks can efficiently manage customer interactions, track sales pipelines, provide personalized support, analyze financial performance, automate processes, and gain valuable insights. The platform's industry-specific features make it a suitable CRM solution for banks aiming to enhance customer relationships, streamline operations, and drive business growth.


## Manufacturing industry alternative

"Oracle SCM Cloud" is a comprehensive CRM solution for supply chain management in the manufacturing industry. This platform focuses on demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and vendor relationship management. 

Oracle SCM Cloud provides real-time analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling manufacturers to make data-driven decisions. These insights help manufacturing companies improve supplier collaboration and streamline their supply chain processes.


## Education industry alternative

"Anthology Engage" is a powerful CRM solution for higher education institutions. This platform provides features for student recruitment, enrollment management, and alumni engagement. 

Anthology Engage facilitates personalized communication, academic advising, and student support services. With Anthology Engage, educational institutions can enhance student recruitment efforts, improve student retention rates, and foster alumni engagement and fundraising.


## Final thoughts

In this article, we explored a range of Salesforce alternatives based on various industries. We highlighted industry-specific CRM solutions designed to meet the unique challenges and demands of the healthcare, retail, financial services, manufacturing, professional services, and education sectors. These alternatives offer tailored features and functionalities that empower businesses to streamline operations, enhance customer relationships, and drive growth. By selecting a CRM solution based on industry, businesses can optimize their CRM strategy and achieve greater efficiency and success.


Industry-focused Innovation: Discovering Tools Like Salesforce Tailored to Your Needs

Every business strives to provide excellent customer support. So, in order to differentiate from the competition, just excellence in customer support won’t make the cut. It is imperative to personalize customer support in order to truly stand out. It involves tailoring customer interactions to meet individual needs and preferences.

We’ll explore tips and strategies for better results, including the steps to take to accomplish it, common mistakes to avoid, benefits of personalization, real-world examples, ethics, and privacy concerns, and the future of personalized customer support.

## Understand your customers

To provide personalized customer support, you need to understand your customers. This involves creating customer personas, collecting and analyzing customer feedback, identifying pain points, 

, and opportunities for personalization.

### How to create an ideal customer persona?

To create a persona, you’ll need to collect information on demographics, interests, behaviors, and pain points. This will help you understand your customers thoroughly and gain context to deliver top-notch support.

### Collecting and analyzing customer feedback

Customer feedback is essential for identifying areas for improvement. Customer feedback can be curated through social media, surveys, and other channels. Analyze feedback to identify common issues and opportunities for personalization.

### Identifying pain points and opportunities

Pain points are areas where customers experience frustration or difficulty in their interactions with your business. Identifying pain points allows you to address them through personalized customer support. Opportunities for personalization include areas where you can tailor your interactions to meet individual needs and preferences.

### Implement personalization strategies

Once you understand your customers, you can implement personalization strategies. This involves offering communication channels, using customer data to personalize interactions, and providing personalized solutions to common issues.

### Offering personalized communication channels

Offering a variety of communication channels allows customers to choose their preferred method of communication.

### Using customer data to personalize interactions

This can include using their name, addressing their specific issue or question, and offering personalized recommendations or solutions.

### Providing  solutions to common issues

If customers frequently ask about product specifications, you can provide personalized product recommendations based on their preferences.

## Empower your support team

To provide personalized customer support, you need a team that is trained and equipped to offer excellent customer support. This involves training customer support representatives on personalization, providing tools for personalized customer support, and encouraging creative problem-solving.

### Training customer support representatives on personalization

Training is essential for ensuring that customer support representatives understand the importance. They must also be trained on all the essential skills to deliver personalized customer support effectively.

### Providing tools for personalized customer support

Providing tools such as customer relationship management (CRM) software and knowledge bases allows support representatives to access customer data and provide personalized solutions.

### Encouraging creative problem-solving

Encouraging creative problem-solving allows support representatives to think outside the box and offer personalized solutions to unique issues.

## Measure and optimize your results

Measuring and optimizing your results is essential for ensuring that your strategies are effective. This involves tracking and analyzing personalized interactions for making data-driven decisions.

### Tracking and analyzing personalized interactions

Tracking and analyzing personalized interactions allows you to understand how customers are responding to your personalization strategies.

### Identifying areas for improvement

Identifying areas for improvement allows you to refine your strategies and improve 

.

### Making data-driven decisions

Making data-driven decisions ensures that you are optimizing your strategies based on customer feedback and data rather than assumptions or guesswork.

### Common mistakes to avoid

While personalization can be effective, there are common mistakes that businesses should avoid.

### Generic communication and support

Generic communication and support can make customers feel like they are just a number. Personalize your interactions to show customers that you value them as individuals.

### Increased reliance on automation

While automation can be useful, you should not completely rely on it.

Make sure to balance automation with human interaction to provide a personalized touch.

### Inconsistent and sporadic personalization

Inconsistent and sporadic personalization can lead to confusion and frustration for customers. Make sure to provide personalized support consistently across all channels.

## Why do you need personalized customer support?

Personalized customer support helps businesses connect meaningfully with their customers and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Personalized support also helps in retaining customers, improving lifetime value, and boosting brand reputation.

### Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty

Personalized customer support shows customers that you value their business and care about their needs. This can lead to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

### Improved customer retention and lifetime value

By providing personalized solutions and recommendations, you can improve customer retention and lifetime value.

### Positive word-of-mouth and brand reputation

Customers who receive personalized support amplify your brand value by sharing their experiences with others either through reviews, recommendations, or word-of-mouth. This leads to positive word-of-mouth and improved brand reputation.

## Real-world examples of personalized customer support

There are many businesses successfully implementing personalization strategies. Here are a few examples:

### Amazon

Amazon uses customer data to provide personalized recommendations for products and services.

### Spotify

Spotify provides personalized playlists and recommendations based on listening history and preferences.

### Starbucks

Starbucks offers a mobile app that allows customers to order and pay for drinks ahead of time, personalizing the ordering experience. It also personalizes the customer experience by writing the names of the customers on the drink.

## Ethics and privacy concerns

It must be balanced with customer privacy and data protection laws. Here are some key considerations:

### Balancing personalization with customer privacy

It should not come at the expense of customer privacy. Businesses must protect the privacy of their customers by letting them know how they collect the data.

### Avoiding Invasive Personalization Tactics

Businesses should avoid invasive tactics that make customers uncomfortable, such as using sensitive personal information without consent.

### Staying compliant with data protection laws

Businesses must stay compliant with data protection laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

### Future of personalized customer support

As technology continues to evolve, the future of personalized customer support looks promising. Here are a few innovations and technologies shaping the future:

### Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI can help businesses analyze customer data and provide personalized recommendations and solutions.

### Chatbots

Chatbots can provide personalized support 24/7, answering customer questions and providing recommendations.

### Voice Assistants

Voice assistants, such as Alexa and Google Assistant, can provide personalized support through voice interactions.

## Conclusion

Providing 

 is essential for businesses looking to differentiate themselves in a competitive market and retain customers. It involves tailoring customer interactions to meet individual needs and preferences.

Following the steps outlined in this guide, businesses can effectively personalize their customer support, including understanding their customers, implementing strategies, empowering their support team, measuring and optimizing results, avoiding common mistakes, and considering ethics and privacy concerns.

Satisfied customers also spread positive word-of-mouth, and this, in turn, boosts the brand reputation. Real-world examples of these strategies include Amazon, Spotify, and Starbucks. Technology like AI, chatbots, and voice assistants will continue to shape the future of customer support.

However, it’s important to balance it with customer privacy and data protection laws.

By implementing these strategies effectively, businesses can improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, retention, and lifetime value, leading to long-term success.

Every business strives to provide excellent customer support. So, in order to differentiate from the competition, just excellence in customer support won’t make the cut. It is imperative to personalize customer support in order to truly standout. Personalization involves tailoring customer interactions to meet individual needs and preferences.

We’ll explore tips and strategies on personalizing your customer support for better results, including the steps to take to accomplish it, common mistakes to avoid, benefits of personalization, real-world examples, ethics, and privacy concerns, and the future of personalized customer support.

## Understand your customers

To provide personalized customer support, you need to understand your customers. This involves creating customer personas, collecting and analyzing customer feedback, and identifying pain points and opportunities for personalization.

### How to create an ideal customer persona?

To create a persona, you’ll need to collect information on demographics, interests, behaviors, and pain points. This will help you understand your customers thoroughly and gain context to deliver top-notch support.

### Collecting and analyzing customer feedback

Customer feedback is essential for identifying areas for improvement and personalization. Customer feedback can be curated through social media, surveys, and other channels. Analyze feedback to identify common issues and opportunities for personalization.

### Identifying pain points and opportunities for personalization

Pain points are areas where customers experience frustration or difficulty in their interactions with your business. Identifying pain points allows you to address them through personalized customer support. Opportunities for personalization include areas where you can tailor your interactions to meet individual needs and preferences.

### Implement personalization strategies

Once you understand your customers, you can implement personalization strategies. This involves offering personalized communication channels, using customer data to personalize interactions, and providing personalized solutions to common issues.

### Offering personalized communication channels

Offering a variety of communication channels allows customers to choose their preferred method of communication. 

### Using customer data to personalize interactions

Use customer data to personalize interactions. This can include using their name, addressing their specific issue or question, and offering personalized recommendations or solutions.

### Providing personalized solutions to common issues

Identify common issues and offer personalized solutions. For example, if customers frequently ask about product specifications, you can provide personalized product recommendations based on their preferences.

## Empower your support team

To provide personalized customer support, you need a team that is trained and equipped to offer excellent customer support. This involves training customer support representatives on personalization, providing tools for personalized customer support, and encouraging creative problem-solving.

### Training customer support representatives on personalization

Training is essential for ensuring that customer support representatives understand the importance of personalization. They must also be trained on all the essential skills to deliver personalized customer support effectively.

### Providing tools for personalized customer support

Providing tools such as customer relationship management (CRM) software and knowledge bases allows support representatives to access customer data and provide personalized solutions.

### Encouraging creative problem-solving

Encouraging creative problem-solving allows support representatives to think outside the box and offer personalized solutions to unique issues.

## Measure and optimize your results

Measuring and optimizing your results is essential for ensuring that your personalization strategies are effective. This involves tracking and analyzing personalized interactions for making data-driven decisions.

### Tracking and analyzing personalized interactions**

Tracking and analyzing personalized interactions allows you to understand how customers are responding to your personalization strategies.

### Identifying areas for improvement

Identifying areas for improvement allows you to refine your personalization strategies and improve customer satisfaction.

### Making data-driven decisions

Making data-driven decisions ensures that you are optimizing your personalization strategies based on customer feedback and data, rather than assumptions or guesswork.

### Common mistakes to avoid

While personalization can be effective, there are common mistakes that businesses should avoid.

### Generic communication and support

Generic communication and support can make customers feel like they are just a number. Personalize your interactions to show customers that you value them as individuals.

### Increased reliance on automation

While automation can be useful, you should not completely rely on it for personalization. Make sure to balance automation with human interaction to provide a personalized touch.

### Inconsistent and sporadic personalization

Inconsistent and sporadic personalization can lead to confusion and frustration for customers. Make sure to provide personalized support consistently across all channels.

## Why do you need personalized customer support?

Personalized customer support helps businesses connect meaningfully with their customers and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Personalized support also helps in retaining customers, improve lifetime value, and boost brand reputation.

### Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty

Personalized customer support shows customers that you value their business and care about their needs. This can lead to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

### Improved customer retention and lifetime value

By providing personalized solutions and recommendations, you can improve customer retention and lifetime value.

### Positive word-of-mouth and brand reputation

Customers who receive personalized support amplify your brand value by sharing their experiences with others either through reviews, recommendations, or word-of-mouth. This leads to positive word-of-mouth and improved brand reputation.

## Real-world examples of personalized customer support

There are many businesses successfully implementing personalization strategies. Here are a few examples:

### Amazon

Amazon uses customer data to provide personalized recommendations for products and services.

### Spotify

Spotify provides personalized playlists and recommendations based on listening history and preferences.

### Starbucks

Starbucks offers a mobile app that allows customers to order and pay for drinks ahead of time, personalizing the ordering experience. It also personalizes the customer experience by writing the names of the customers on the drink.

## Ethics and privacy concerns

Personalization must be balanced with customer privacy and data protection laws. Here are some key considerations:

### Balancing personalization with customer privacy

Personalization should not come at the expense of customer privacy. Businesses must protect the privacy of the customers by letting them know how they collect the data.

### Avoiding Invasive Personalization Tactics

Businesses should avoid invasive personalization tactics that make customers uncomfortable, such as using sensitive personal information without consent.

### Staying compliant with data protection laws

Businesses must stay compliant with data protection laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

### Future of personalized customer support

As technology continues to evolve, the future of personalized customer support looks promising. Here are a few innovations and technologies shaping the future:

### Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI can help businesses analyze customer data and provide personalized recommendations and solutions.

### Chatbots

Chatbots can provide personalized support 24/7, answering customer questions and providing recommendations.

### Voice Assistants

Voice assistants, such as Alexa and Google Assistant, can provide personalized support through voice interactions.

## Conclusion

Providing personalized customer support is essential for businesses looking to differentiate themselves in a competitive market and retain customers. Personalization involves tailoring customer interactions to meet individual needs and preferences. 

Following the steps outlined in this guide, businesses can effectively personalize their customer support, including understanding their customers, implementing personalization strategies, empowering their support team, measuring and optimizing results, avoiding common mistakes, and considering ethics and privacy concerns.

Satisfied customers also spread positive word-of-mouth, and this, in turn, boosts the brand reputation. Real-world examples of successful personalization strategies include Amazon, Spotify, and Starbucks. Technology like  AI, chatbots, and voice assistants will continue to shape the future of personalized customer support.

However, it’s important to balance personalization with customer privacy and data protection laws. 

By implementing personalization strategies effectively, businesses can improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, retention, and lifetime value, leading to long-term success.

Personalizing Your Customer Support: A Guide to Better Results

She brought a whole new meaning to living in harmony with nature. Following ancient tradition and making the most of each season’s giving, she grew her own food, crafted furniture, dyed clothes, and redefined ‘from scratch’. She mastered the art of sustainable living and brought her stories to millions around the world. She made everything and could be anyone — a chef, an engineer, a farmer, a carpenter, a gardener, and a creator.

As I watched [Li Ziqi](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoC47do520os_4DBMEFGg4A) over the years, experiencing an ideal lifestyle with nature in the deep countryside of rural Sichuan, I appreciated The Simple Life, and found peace and greatness. She bolsters my belief that the individual, as a creator, holds more power than any time in the past. The rise of the individual is real.

**The rise of the Developer**

Li Ziqi is among many creators in the New Renaissance — Anthony from [Ace of Clay](https://www.aceofclay.com/), John Plant from Primitive Technology are other examples. In the new era, human relevance, purpose and self-realization are at the forefront. Technology has made this shift real, more than any time in the past, helping bring creative minds together and where our future is more human, not less.

In this article, let’s explore ‘the developer’ creator and how she may build products and run businesses. Most developers, like Li Ziqi, love deep silent work and an unconstrained creation of awesome software. And software development is that grounded profession where you can make money if you solve people’s problems well and make them happy!

So how do we empower developers to deliver creativity at their best? How can we enable developers to do deep silent work, while bringing the human element, the customer into their creation? Such would be running your business with code. Let’s explore how we may do this with 

and DevRev.

**Building software with GitHub and DevRev**

There’s a lot to love about [GitHub](https://github.com/). It is where millions of developers and organizations are building, shipping and maintaining their software. The reason GitHub is so indispensable today is that it addressed problems that every software developer struggled with regardless of operating system, programming language and role. It has democratized coding and made it -
<ul>
<li>easy to use Git
<li>easy to collaborate on code
<li>easy to host (and find) open source projects
</ul>

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/102dfdd023fefa6e17fecf140408e4d60c9d7291-1400x733.jpg?w=1400)

DevRev heart GitHub

GitHub has forever changed how people write and share code, and is now an essential platform for every developer. In this article, let’s discuss how DevRev can extend the awesome GitHub experience, and empower developers to build great software and run a long term sustainable business.

**Bring the human, the Customer**

[DevRev](https://devrev.ai/) is focused on bringing developers closer to customers and revenue. We strive to fill the missing seat, that of the customer as developers write and collaborate on code. The first step to writing awesome software and building a business is solving problems. Typical questions are — shall we solve problems that are highly specific experienced by a small group of customers, or are they big, ambitious products with a great potential market? Are we continuously solving painful problems and are we building sticky and impactful products?

Discovering customer wants and needs, and prioritizing against company goals, is still a complex problem today. It is difficult to distill signal from noise, and information typically gets lost across multiple systems and functions. Decisions on what to build may happen in isolation, with poor correlation to customer value and business impact. Product managers may source feature requests in a time consuming process, collating ideas from many disparate sources, in the form of customer support tickets, community discussions, user experience feedback, and also from internal sources, such as new market opportunities, platform refactoring plans and technical debt. Some may prioritize based on instinct, without a full understanding of impact and the right information on hand.


![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/d8488b443c27315abf53fc05116fdda63ab9bab6-7680x4320.png?w=7680)
Connecting Developers with Customers on One Platform

As code gets built into software that is operated in the cloud and delivered to customers, DevRev brings the context of the customer when developers build new features, fix bugs or address test regressions. When there is clear visibility of value chain from writing code, deploying microservices and delivering features that customers consume, we unlock -


**prioritization**: build what’s most valuable with issues prioritized against customer impact along with relevant customer records, eliminating subjective reasoning on what to work on

**attribution**: triage customer defects, along with context such as cloud environment, logs and events and attribute to relevant microservices and libraries


**impact**: bring honest visibility on engagement and churn, so developers see impact and avoid building shelfware

*“Maintenance typically consumes 40 to 80 percent (average, 60 percent) of software costs.” Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, Robert Glass*

In a world where developers spend an average of 60% of their time maintaining software, diagnosing issues, triangulating between data — logs, metrics, stack traces, source code repositories and tribal knowledge, GitHub and DevRev integration will automate tasks, leaving developers to focus on higher-order problems and get closer to their customers.

**Develop products with agility**

There is incredible power in seeing the world through the lens of products, as opposed to simply projects and agile methodologies. Projects represent activities an organization performs to achieve an objective and are typically ephemeral, and sometimes disconnect you from the macro objective, their customer. Alternatively, products are what connect the user with the developer — they bust organizational silos and provide a true north.

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/32d6ce36d1afbb18cb2c62221226556c92cafcd6-7680x4320.png?w=7680)
Connect code & microservices with customer-centric features, capabilities and products

GitHub and DevRev integration enables meaningful organization of code from the developer-centric world of libraries and microservices to customer-centric world of features, capabilities and products, empowering developers with a new way to work -

**products, not projects:** where developers build, operate, and support a shared asset, the product that binds everyone together


**agility, not agile (methodology)**: where developers and customers engage and respond to change, while understanding relationships between micro services and customer consumables, such as APIs and features


**catalog thinking**: where developers appreciate the economics of pricing, inventory, supply, demand, cost, capital and nurture business-thinking
‘Product-centricity’ fundamentally changes how developers may work with their peers and how they organize their work. Converging data across the software supply chain, starting with GitHub correlates code with products and meaningfully connects to customers.


**Enable deep silent work**

Creativity comes from deep work and achieving deep work time i.e., focused, distraction-free time for development, can be challenging! Fortunately, by organizing around code, the possibilities to let machines take care of shallow work are endless

<li>spend less time in meetings: eliminate manual updates to issues, by connecting GitHub pull requests and commits with DevRev, and providing stakeholders visibility of exactly what is being worked on
<li>easy access to data: let developer be in charge through /commands that answer questions and access data from GitHub without going to multiple places
<li>integrate your tech stack: remove silos by integrating with your entire tech stack and tie alerts, customer usage and metrics back to code, saving time and bringing code to the center of your decision making
</ul>

**GitHub and DevRev, better together**

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/c4a8a28285d655d396323a21341255f31088683e-863x478.png?w=863)

Just as Li Ziqi found peace and meaning, every developer deserves a deep silent space, and an avenue to unleash her creativity. This future, that of bringing developers to the pace and empathy of front office, will empower developers to not only write awesome software but also become entrepreneurs. If you are excited about this future — Get Started with [DevRev](https://devrev.ai/).

She brought a whole new meaning to living in harmony with nature. Following ancient tradition and making the most of each season’s givings, she grew her own food, crafted furniture, dyed clothes, and redefined ‘from scratch’. She mastered the art of sustainable living and brought her stories to millions around the world. She made everything and could be anyone — a chef, an engineer, a farmer, a carpenter, a gardener, and a creator.

As I watched [Li Ziqi](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoC47do520os_4DBMEFGg4A) over the years, experiencing an ideal lifestyle with nature in the deep countryside of rural Sichuan, I appreciated The Simple Life, and found peace and greatness. She bolsters my belief that the individual, as a creator, holds more power than any time in the past. The rise of the individual is real.

**The rise of the Developer**

Li Ziqi is among many creators in the New Renaissance — Anthony from [Ace of Clay](https://www.aceofclay.com/), John Plant from Primitive Technology are other examples. In the new era, human relevance, purpose and self-realization are at the forefront. Technology has made this shift real, more than any time in the past, helping bring creative minds together and where our future is more human, not less.

In this article, let’s explore ‘the developer’ creator and how she may build products and run businesses. Most developers, like Li Ziqi, love deep silent work and an unconstrained creation of awesome software. And software development is that grounded profession where you can make money if you solve people’s problems well and make them happy!

So how do we empower developers to deliver creativity at their best? How can we enable developers to do deep silent work, while bringing the human element, the customer into their creation? Such would be running your business with code. Let’s explore how we may do this with GitHub and DevRev.

**Building software with GitHub and DevRev**

There’s a lot to love about [GitHub](https://github.com/). It is where millions of developers and organizations are building, shipping and maintaining their software. The reason GitHub is so indispensable today is that it addressed problems that every software developer struggled with regardless of operating system, programming language and role. It has democratized coding and made it -
<ul>
 <li>easy to use Git
<li>easy to collaborate on code
<li>easy to host (and find) open source projects
</ul>

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/102dfdd023fefa6e17fecf140408e4d60c9d7291-1400x733.jpg?w=1400)

DevRev heart GitHub

GitHub has forever changed how people write and share code, and is now an essential platform for every developer. In this article, let’s discuss how DevRev can extend the awesome GitHub experience, and empower developers to build great software and run a long term sustainable business.

**Bring the human, the Customer**

[DevRev](https://devrev.ai/) is focused on bringing developers closer to customers and revenue. We strive to fill the missing seat, that of the customer as developers write and collaborate on code. The first step to writing awesome software and building a business is solving problems. Typical questions are — shall we solve problems that are highly specific experienced by a small group of customers, or are they big, ambitious products with a great potential market? Are we continuously solving painful problems and are we building sticky and impactful products?

Discovering customer wants and needs, and prioritizing against company goals, is still a complex problem today. It is difficult to distill signal from noise, and information typically gets lost across multiple systems and functions. Decisions on what to build may happen in isolation, with poor correlation to customer value and business impact. Product managers may source feature requests in a time consuming process, collating ideas from many disparate sources, in the form of customer support tickets, community discussions, user experience feedback, and also from internal sources, such as new market opportunities, platform refactoring plans and technical debt. Some may prioritize based on instinct, without a full understanding of impact and the right information on hand.


![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/d8488b443c27315abf53fc05116fdda63ab9bab6-7680x4320.png?w=7680)
Connecting Developers with Customers on One Platform

As code gets built into software that is operated in the cloud and delivered to customers, DevRev brings the context of the customer when developers build new features, fix bugs or address test regressions. When there is clear visibility of value chain from writing code, deploying microservices and delivering features that customers consume, we unlock -


**prioritization**: build what’s most valuable with issues prioritized against customer impact along with relevant customer records, eliminating subjective reasoning on what to work on

**attribution**: triage customer defects, along with context such as cloud environment, logs and events and attribute to relevant microservices and libraries


**impact**: bring honest visibility on engagement and churn, so developers see impact and avoid building shelfware

*“Maintenance typically consumes 40 to 80 percent (average, 60 percent) of software costs.” Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, Robert Glass*

In a world where developers spend an average of 60% of their time maintaining software, diagnosing issues, triangulating between data — logs, metrics, stack traces, source code repositories and tribal knowledge, GitHub and DevRev integration will automate tasks, leaving developers to focus on higher-order problems and get closer to their customers.

**Develop products with agility**

There is incredible power in seeing the world through the lens of products, as opposed to simply projects and agile methodologies. Projects represent activities an organization performs to achieve an objective and are typically ephemeral, and sometimes disconnect you from the macro objective, their customer. Alternatively, products are what connect the user with the developer — they bust organizational silos and provide a true north.

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/32d6ce36d1afbb18cb2c62221226556c92cafcd6-7680x4320.png?w=7680)
Connect code & microservices with customer-centric features, capabilities and products

GitHub and DevRev integration enables meaningful organization of code from the developer-centric world of libraries and microservices to customer-centric world of features, capabilities and products, empowering developers with a new way to work -

**products, not projects:** where developers build, operate, and support a shared asset, the product that binds everyone together


**agility, not agile (methodology)**: where developers and customers engage and respond to change, while understanding relationships between micro services and customer consumables, such as APIs and features


**catalog thinking**: where developers appreciate the economics of pricing, inventory, supply, demand, cost, capital and nurture business-thinking
‘Product-centricity’ fundamentally changes how developers may work with their peers and how they organize their work. Converging data across the software supply chain, starting with GitHub correlates code with products and meaningfully connects to customers.


**Enable deep silent work**

Creativity comes from deep work and achieving deep work time i.e., focused, distraction-free time for development, can be challenging! Fortunately, by organizing around code, the possibilities to let machines take care of shallow work are endless

<li>spend less time in meetings: eliminate manual updates to issues, by connecting GitHub pull requests and commits with DevRev, and providing stakeholders visibility of exactly what is being worked on
<li>easy access to data: let developer be in charge through /commands that answer questions and access data from GitHub without going to multiple places
<li>integrate your tech stack: remove silos by integrating with your entire tech stack and tie alerts, customer usage and metrics back to code, saving time and bringing code to the center of your decision making
</ul>

**GitHub and DevRev, better together**

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/c4a8a28285d655d396323a21341255f31088683e-863x478.png?w=863)

Just as Li Ziqi found peace and meaning, every developer deserves a deep silent space, and an avenue to unleash her creativity. This future, that of bringing developers to the pace and empathy of front office, will empower developers to not only write awesome software but also become entrepreneurs. If you are excited about this future — Get Started with [DevRev](https://devrev.ai/).

GitHub with DevRev, creativity at its best

Let’s clear the air first… CRM? What is it?  \
 \
CRM stands for Customer relationship management (more fancy jargon, I know). \
 \
CRM is a strategy that companies use to manage their interactions with customers and improve their relationships. The CRM process involves a series of steps that businesses can follow to optimize their customer relationships. In this article, we will explore the five key steps of the CRM process.


## Planning

The planning stage is where businesses define their objectives and develop a plan to achieve them. This involves identifying stakeholders, establishing metrics, and defining objectives.


### Defining objectives

Defining objectives is essential to the success of the CRM process. Businesses need to define their goals and the outcomes they hope to achieve through the CRM process. This could be anything from increasing customer satisfaction to boosting sales revenue.

Clear and measurable objectives that can be tracked and evaluated over time is essential. This will help businesses identify where they are succeeding and where they need to make adjustments to their CRM strategy.


### Identifying stakeholders

Identifying stakeholders is another critical step in the planning process. Stakeholders are individuals or groups that have an interest in the CRM process, such as customers, employees, and investors. Understanding their needs and expectations is essential to developing an effective CRM strategy.

Businesses need to identify all of the stakeholders involved in the CRM process and consider their needs and expectations:  internal stakeholders, external stakeholders, potential customers, active customers, and more.


### Establishing metrics

Establishing metrics is necessary to measure the success of the CRM process. Metrics could include customer satisfaction ratings, customer retention rates, and sales revenue. These metrics help businesses track their progress and make data-driven decisions.

It is essential to establish the right metrics that align with the objectives of the CRM process. This ensures that businesses are tracking the right metrics and making informed decisions based on the data.


## Data collection

The data collection stage is where businesses gather and organize customer data. This data provides insights into customer behavior, preferences, and needs. This stage involves gathering customer information, organizing customer information, and managing customer data.


### Gathering customer information

Gathering customer information involves collecting data on customer behavior, preferences, and needs. This could include information such as demographic data, purchase history, and customer interactions. For us, we’ve utilized online interactions,  in-person interactions, the Instagram comment section, you name it. 😉


### Organizing customer information

This involves categorizing customer data into relevant groups and identifying patterns and trends. Ideally, through a system for organizing customer data that is intuitive and easy to use, this ensures that the data can be analyzed effectively to gain insights into customer behavior.


### Managing customer data

Managing customer data is critical to ensuring data accuracy and security. This involves establishing data management processes, such as data backups and access controls- helping your organization build trust with customers.


## Analysis

The analysis stage is where businesses use customer data to gain insights into customer behavior and identify opportunities for improvement. This stage involves analyzing customer needs, segmenting customers, and predicting customer behavior.


### Analyzing customer needs

Analyzing customer needs involves identifying customer pain points and areas for improvement. This could include analyzing customer complaints and feedback to identify common themes.


### Reflecting on proper customer segmentation

Segmenting customers involves categorizing customers into groups based on common characteristics, such as demographics or purchasing behavior. This helps businesses tailor their marketing and customer service efforts to specific customer groups.


### Predicting customer behavior

By predicting customer behavior, businesses can anticipate their customers' needs and preferences, and offer customized products or services that meet those needs.


## Strategy

The strategy stage is where businesses develop a plan to use the insights gained from the analysis stage to improve their customer relationships. This stage involves developing a customer strategy, identifying opportunities, and creating a customer journey map.


### Developing a customer strategy

Developing a customer strategy involves creating a plan to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. This could involve strategies such as improving customer service, providing personalized recommendations, and optimizing the customer journey - essentially prioritizing goals based on where your organization currently stands.


### Identifying opportunities

Evaluate where the business can improve its customer relationships. Could you develop new products or services? Should you improve existing products or services? Should we completely target new customer segments?

Identifying opportunities helps businesses stay competitive and meet the changing needs of their customers. By identifying areas for improvement, businesses can continue to evolve and grow their customer relationships over time.


### Creating a customer journey map

Creating a customer journey map involves visualizing the customer's journey from initial contact to post-purchase. By creating a customer journey map, you’re essentially putting yourself in their shoes to fully grasp their needs and preferences at each stage of their journey. 


### Execution

The execution stage is where businesses implement their CRM strategy. This involves implementing CRM technology, integrating with other tools, and training the team.


### Implementing CRM technology

Implementing CRM technology involves selecting and deploying a CRM system that aligns with the business's objectives and requirements. This could involve customizing the CRM system to meet the business's specific needs and integrating it with other tools and systems.

## Conclusion

In conclusion, the CRM process is a vital component of modern business operations. These 5 steps of planning, data collection, analysis, strategy, and execution businesses were mentioned because I truly do believe in the importance of an organization’s being customer-centric. To impact those for the better, just like someone you want to be friends with, you have gained a deeper understanding of who you’re talking to. Then and only then will there be a real improvement in your team operations and relationships both internally within your organization and externally with your customers.


The CRM Process: 5 Steps To Being Truly Customer-centric  🗣

## The end-user era

Software is an integral part of modern life. It powers our devices, connects us to everyone and everything, and has changed the way we live, work, and compete in the market. This makes it an exciting time for end-users, doesn't it?

- **Plenty of choices:** Building a software company is ten times faster today than at any time in the past. In the previous decade, SaaS companies had only two competitors, while today they have [nine](https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/30/getting-to-50-million-how-to-avoid-the-saas-valley-of-death/).
- **User experience:** Users expect SaaS tools to be as easy to use as consumer applications. If they are unhappy with a tool, they may consider switching to a competitor.
- **Flexible economics**: Consumption-based and subscription-based pricing models that make it easier for customers to switch SaaS tools.

So, what does this mean for software companies? It is much harder to survive and thrive in this environment, where end-user expectations have never been higher. At DevRev, we believe that software companies must fundamentally revisit the definition of customer relationships, also known as CRM.

## Customer relationship

Customer relationship is everything. It doesn't start and end with the sales, marketing, or support teams. Your relationship with the customer spans your entire company. It's defined by how you write code, document, build internal processes, connect tools, and most importantly, the culture of customer success across your company.

Unfortunately, this is not how customer relationship management (CRM) tools have approached customer relationships over the past two decades. The voice of the customer has been difficult to make pervasive across the company. Product teams have relied on customer support and sales to summarize customer conversations so they can prioritize their work and build products that cater to end-user needs. However, with the pace at which companies need to move in the market, the customer-to-product cycle has to be super connected and fast. CRMs that have been around for over two decades are known for being expensive, complex, and difficult to use. Why should licenses and access to departmental tools be limited to a chosen few? What if the voice of the customer were pervasive across the company?

## OneCRM

We believe that every company, regardless of its size, has a simple fundamental goal: to grow efficiently. Most companies start with a tech stack consisting of GitHub, Google Suite, and Slack, as well as work management tools like Jira. As teams and specializations begin to form, they often bring in departmental tools such as HubSpot, Zendesk, and Salesforce. While these tools can be connected, the process can become frustrating, with users having to switch between multiple tools and yet encountering difficulties in answering key questions.

Data analytics teams begin to form, but often struggle to keep up with the pace of change. Dashboards quickly become stale and fail to answer the most pressing questions. This fundamentally slows down the business, making it difficult to stay competitive in the market. What if we rethought how companies and tools are architected for success?

Our vision is to eliminate limitations on data access by providing a platform that every team can use to collaborate and work, regardless of their specialization in product and software development, or customer-facing roles such as support, sales, and marketing. The platform is integrated with all your favorite apps, facilitating teamwork across all teams. Built-in analytics that combines people, product, and customer data provide key insights to address important questions and make every team more impactful. Customer support serves as a copilot to product teams, and product teams serve as a copilot to customer support teams. And with DevRev's AI, you have your own personal copilot.

We are currently in an era where AI has greatly impacted the way we work. When data from people, products, and customers can be connected, a copilot can now autonomously do your job or act as your assistant. By combining design with artificial intelligence, you can intelligently route, classify, cluster, summarize and prioritize all work, including conversations, tickets, issues, enhancements, and opportunities, ultimately resulting in increased productivity, reduced customer churn and revenue growth.

This is OneCRM: Connected. Intelligent. Agile.

DevRev's OneCRM platform currently powers two primary use cases: customer support and software development. It caters to customer support engineers, support managers, and product and software development teams, such as developers, engineering managers, and product managers. As we continue to evolve, the platform will expand to address more use cases and personas. We began this journey with a singular focus on powering the core transactions of your business, capturing customer feedback, their needs, and how your product addresses those needs.

## DevRev Support App

For customer support teams that require real-time communication with end-users and internal teams, such as product managers and developers, DevRev’s Support app is the perfect solution. Our highly collaborative platform leverages the latest in AI, analytics, and real-time collaboration, ensuring that your team is able to deliver exception support and effortlessly retain and grow customers.

- **In-app live chat with ticketing**: Streamline support by integrating an in-app GPT chatbot that is pre-trained with your knowledge base into support ticketing workflows. By being in-app, you can take into account the user's context and even think beyond just customer support. This can help you drive nudges for product announcements and adoption in the future.
- **Never miss a customer SLA:** Ensure confidence in all support workflows by implementing the right processes to deliver high-quality support every time. Since support and development workflows are on the same platform, SLAs are shared. Whether you connect your development issues from Jira or use our native issue tracking system, you will always be able to provide support on time. Everyone has the right context at the right time, and collaborates in real-time at the pace of the customer.
- **Scale with autonomous support**: Let machines handle your first line of support so that you can scale support around the clock and on any channel. DevRev can act on behalf of your support team or work as a great AI teammate. The idea is to provide your teams with the right answers at their fingertips and enable auto-routing, auto-triage, auto-clustering, auto-prioritization, auto-generation of summaries, knowledge base, release notes, and more.

## DevRev Build App

For software development teams that need a fresh approach to agile development, DevRev's Build app is truly agile for the end-user era. It enables development teams to manage sprints and issues by connecting them to customer tickets and user identity. For the first time, there is a product system that is connected to work and reflects the product hierarchy and its lifecycle, and is able to answer key questions on users, your development team, and their impact so you can best plan resourcing for the greatest impact.

- **A new product system of record**: While 

 tools have been around for a while, there has never been a system that fully captures a comprehensive view of a product's capabilities and features that can unify teams and provide a shared understanding of the product. DevRev is the first system that provides a product view that is tightly connected with customer and team records.
- **Customer-focused software development:** Elevate the customer-centricity of your product teams by seamlessly linking issues, sprints, and enhancements with impacted customers. By aligning each development issue with customer support tickets, we can effortlessly determine work that is related to customer needs, as well as work that is inside-out and not necessarily driven by customer demand. Each engineering manager asks a common question: "How much investment is being made to maintain existing software, address tech debt, and fulfill customer feature requests?" Now, we have the ability to answer that question, including identifying impacted customers and closing the loop with them.
- **An AI copilot for building better products:** There are many advantages to having customer support and software development on the same platform. One powerful impact is that insights from customer interactions can automatically generate signals to help product teams identify common themes, create enhancements, prioritize them, and manage their lifecycle. This fundamentally revolutionizes the process of creating real-time connectedness between GitHub code transactions on one end and customer conversations on the other end. Now, every enhancement has a clear purpose that is connected to the customer and their business impact.

## The Outcomes: Growth and Customer Success

We believe that it's more important than ever to stay connected. We envision a world with extreme collaboration and teamwork, where analytics and AI are accessible to everyone. Each team member works towards the same goals, and everyone is invested in the company's growth and customer success.

So, when it comes to owning growth and customer success, is there one person or department that is solely responsible? With every team member working in cohesion, it's natural to ask, "Who really owns growth? Who really owns customer success?" The answer is clear: everyone. From the sales team to the developers, from the customer support engineers to the marketing team, every individual has a critical role to play in ensuring the company's growth and customer success.

Through the DevRev platform, you can empower every team member to take ownership of their work and contribute to the company's growth in their own unique way. Whether it's through innovative product development, exceptional customer service, or effective marketing strategies, everyone now has the opportunity to play their part.

## The end-user era

Software is an integral part of modern life. It powers our devices, connects us to everyone and everything, and has changed the way we live, work, and compete in the market. This makes it an exciting time for end-users, doesn't it?

- **Plenty of choices:** Building a software company is ten times faster today than at any time in the past. In the previous decade, SaaS companies had only two competitors, while today they have [nine](https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/30/getting-to-50-million-how-to-avoid-the-saas-valley-of-death/).
- **User experience:** Users expect SaaS tools to be as easy to use as consumer applications. If they are unhappy with a tool, they may consider switching to a competitor.
- **Flexible economics**: Consumption-based and subscription-based pricing models that make it easier for customers to switch SaaS tools.

So, what does this mean for software companies? It is much harder to survive and thrive in this environment, where end-user expectations have never been higher. At DevRev, we believe that software companies must fundamentally revisit the definition of customer relationships, also known as CRM.

## Customer relationship

Customer relationship is everything. It doesn't start and end with the sales, marketing, or support teams. Your relationship with the customer spans your entire company. It's defined by how you write code, document, build internal processes, connect tools, and most importantly, the culture of customer success across your company.

Unfortunately, this is not how customer relationship management (CRM) tools have approached customer relationships over the past two decades. The voice of the customer has been difficult to make pervasive across the company. Product teams have relied on customer support and sales to summarize customer conversations so they can prioritize their work and build products that cater to end-user needs. However, with the pace at which companies need to move in the market, the customer-to-product cycle has to be super connected and fast. CRMs that have been around for over two decades are known for being expensive, complex, and difficult to use. Why should licenses and access to departmental tools be limited to a chosen few? What if the voice of the customer were pervasive across the company?

## OneCRM

We believe that every company, regardless of its size, has a simple fundamental goal: to grow efficiently. Most companies start with a tech stack consisting of GitHub, Google Suite, and Slack, as well as work management tools like Jira. As teams and specializations begin to form, they often bring in departmental tools such as HubSpot, Zendesk, and Salesforce. While these tools can be connected, the process can become frustrating, with users having to switch between multiple tools and yet encountering difficulties in answering key questions.

Data analytics teams begin to form, but often struggle to keep up with the pace of change. Dashboards quickly become stale and fail to answer the most pressing questions. This fundamentally slows down the business, making it difficult to stay competitive in the market. What if we rethought how companies and tools are architected for success?

Our vision is to eliminate limitations on data access by providing a platform that every team can use to collaborate and work, regardless of their specialization in product and software development, or customer-facing roles such as support, sales, and marketing. The platform is integrated with all your favorite apps, facilitating teamwork across all teams. Built-in analytics that combines people, product, and customer data provide key insights to address important questions and make every team more impactful. Customer support serves as a copilot to product teams, and product teams serve as a copilot to customer support teams. And with DevRev's AI, you have your own personal copilot.

We are currently in an era where AI has greatly impacted the way we work. When data from people, products, and customers can be connected, a copilot can now autonomously do your job or act as your assistant. By combining design with artificial intelligence, you can intelligently route, classify, cluster, summarize and prioritize  all work, including conversations, tickets, issues, enhancements, and opportunities, ultimately resulting in increased productivity, reduced customer churn and revenue growth.

This is OneCRM: Connected. Intelligent. Agile.

DevRev's OneCRM platform currently powers two primary use cases: customer support and software development. It caters to customer support engineers, support managers, and product and software development teams, such as developers, engineering managers, and product managers. As we continue to evolve, the platform will expand to address more use cases and personas. We began this journey with a singular focus on powering the core transactions of your business, capturing customer feedback, their needs, and how your product addresses those needs.

## DevRev Support App

For customer support teams that require real-time communication with end-users and internal teams, such as product managers and developers, DevRev’s Support app is the perfect solution. Our highly collaborative platform leverages the latest in AI, analytics, and real-time collaboration, ensuring that your team is able to deliver exception support and effortlessly retain and grow customers.

- **In-app live chat with ticketing**: Streamline support by integrating an in-app GPT chatbot that is pre-trained with your knowledge base into support ticketing workflows. By being in-app, you can take into account the user's context and even think beyond just customer support. This can help you drive nudges for product announcements and adoption in the future.
- **Never miss a customer SLA:** Ensure confidence in all support workflows by implementing the right processes to deliver high-quality support every time. Since support and development workflows are on the same platform, SLAs are shared. Whether you connect your development issues from Jira or use our native issue tracking system, you will always be able to provide support on time. Everyone has the right context at the right time, and collaborates in real-time at the pace of the customer.
- **Scale with autonomous support**: Let machines handle your first line of support so that you can scale support around the clock and on any channel. DevRev can act on behalf of your support team or work as a great AI teammate. The idea is to provide your teams with the right answers at their fingertips and enable auto-routing, auto-triage, auto-clustering, auto-prioritization, auto-generation of summaries, knowledge base, release notes, and more.

## DevRev Build App

For software development teams that need a fresh approach to agile development, DevRev's Build app is truly agile for the end-user era. It enables development teams to manage sprints and issues by connecting them to customer tickets and user identity. For the first time, there is a product system that is connected to work and reflects the product hierarchy and its lifecycle, and is able to answer key questions on users, your development team, and their impact so you can best plan resourcing for the greatest impact.

- **A new product system of record**: While CRMs and software development tools have been around for a while, there has never been a system that fully captures a comprehensive view of a product's capabilities and features that can unify teams and provide a shared understanding of the product. DevRev is the first system that provides a product view that is tightly connected with customer and team records.
- **Customer-focused software development:** Elevate the customer-centricity of your product teams by seamlessly linking issues, sprints, and enhancements with impacted customers. By aligning each development issue with customer support tickets, we can effortlessly determine work that is related to customer needs, as well as work that is inside-out and not necessarily driven by customer demand. Each engineering manager asks a common question: "How much investment is being made to maintain existing software, address tech debt, and fulfill customer feature requests?" Now, we have the ability to answer that question, including identifying impacted customers and closing the loop with them.
- **An AI copilot for building better products:** There are many advantages to having customer support and software development on the same platform. One powerful impact is that insights from customer interactions can automatically generate signals to help product teams identify common themes, create enhancements, prioritize them, and manage their lifecycle. This fundamentally revolutionizes the process of creating real-time connectedness between GitHub code transactions on one end and customer conversations on the other end. Now, every enhancement has a clear purpose that is connected to the customer and their business impact.

## The Outcomes: Growth and Customer Success

We believe that it's more important than ever to stay connected. We envision a world with extreme collaboration and teamwork, where analytics and AI are accessible to everyone. Each team member works towards the same goals, and everyone is invested in the company's growth and customer success.

So, when it comes to owning growth and customer success, is there one person or department that is solely responsible? With every team member working in cohesion, it's natural to ask, "Who really owns growth? Who really owns customer success?" The answer is clear: everyone. From the sales team to the developers, from the customer support engineers to the marketing team, every individual has a critical role to play in ensuring the company's growth and customer success.

Through the DevRev platform, you can empower every team member to take ownership of their work and contribute to the company's growth in their own unique way. Whether it's through innovative product development, exceptional customer service, or effective marketing strategies, everyone now has the opportunity to play their part.

DevRev OneCRM: The Power of One

Not very long ago something seemingly trivial like making phone calls across the globe required complex processes and integrations with different phone companies. Today, you can not only make phone calls but even video calls in an on-demand fashion from anywhere.
A lot has happened since the telecom industry went digital and today we live in an era where anything, from a car to a meal, can be ordered instantaneously, with notifications and real-time tracking ensuring the user always knows its ‘status’.

A similar thing happened when it came to payments. We went from writing checks on paper to instantly paying or sending someone money across the globe using mobile apps.

One could argue that there was one big reason that caused this revolution. Our transition from physical to digital necessitated developers to translate complex and error-prone processes into code and APIs.
What was complex and proprietary in the physical world turned into &lt;code&gt; that could now talk to other systems.

## Product-led takes root
With the transition to digital, product took center stage in terms of go to market strategies. Cloud software promised a new software experience that would enable departments to quickly purchase, deploy, access, and upgrade their business apps all over the internet, which in parallel shifted buying decisions from IT to business unit managers. 20+ years later, SaaS is now the norm but a new trend will permeate business software over the next 20 years.

Just as cloud apps shifted buying decisions from IT to department units, modern SaaS apps have perfected the original promises of low cost, seamless onboarding, and rapid product development. This led to the birth of product-led motions where trials and freemium experiences put users at the center. Mirroring B2C trends, application experiences drive growth and adoption, instead of manual long-tailed sales motions.
This has further shifted software decision makers from management, to teams, and even individuals. The next decade will see the rapid adoption of Product-Led Growth (PLG) first offerings and it will transform not only how software is built, but more importantly how you build a business and organization to sell and support them.

## The true product-led era is here and now

In the product-led era, B2B starts to look a lot like B2C.
Top-down, sales motions which target buyers get replaced by grassroots, product-led motions targeting the end-user.
Big multi-year commits get replaced by usage-based micro-transactions, and
Long, consultative provisioning processes get replaced by zero-touch self-service, value driven experiences.
In this era, code is now driving all interactions across the customer lifecycle, which has put the Developers at the center of a revolution that is quietly taking shape.

## The birth of a revolution
While most companies recognize the need for developers to support go-to-market functions, the work is still prescribed as tasks. Developer work is framed as a backlog of items to deliver, with little expectation that the developer relates to the desired outcomes. By siloing developers, they get pushed further and further away from their users and customers, resulting in a product built without considering the full spectrum of solution sets available.

When it comes to the tools and systems available today for developers to do their work, they have increasingly become project-centric instead of being product-centric. In fact, some of the most used tools for ticketing and bug fixes are manager-centric instead of maker-centric.
Ten tools for a better Dev experience

When we spoke to our early adopters and design partners about how they manage their work along with product parts, what we heard was not very different from our past experiences as makers.

On average, it takes ten tools and systems to stitch together a common workflow such as triaging an incident and understanding its customer impact. Our design partners shared similar experiences as they navigated the complexities of managing data across systems like code repos, DevOps tools, project trackers, collaboration channels, ticketing systems, product analytics, and data warehouses. In this web of siloed systems, collecting the right signals to understand impact and priorities is nearly impossible.

## What if?
As developers, we imagined a system where customer interactions across conversations, tickets, and clicks, come together with the Dev interactions of collaboration, triage, and commits.
If a phone can converge, simplify and bring together hundreds of physical tools and processes into a simple interface, what if everything a developer works on can be brought under one “operating system.”
If an app could democratize specialized work and make every smartphone owner a photographer, what would happen if we brought makers closer to customers and broke down organizational silos?
The question to ask is — when it comes to Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
Where is the relationship between the user and the product?
Between the customer (Rev) and the makers (Dev)?
More importantly, with the developers at the center of it all — How will Devs define the future of CRM?
We call this DevCRM — a system that empowers makers to build, operate, support, and grow their businesses by putting their customers at the center, and this is what we shared in our live stream on Oct 20, 2021.


![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/d8488b443c27315abf53fc05116fdda63ab9bab6-7680x4320.png?w=7680)

Connecting Makers with customers on one platform

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/cdb85a137d26f7f4ae76b9b5d14126bff79b7e51-7680x4320.png?w=7680)

Collaborate across organization silos

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/9d2aeae484de625c308cd305db1daefe088fff85-7680x4320.png?w=7680)


Nurture and support in-app
As we see in the video, a fundamental part of DevCRM and 

 is the notion of product (code) connected to everything a dev creates or works on.
This is just the beginning and we are working on a number of exciting things we would love your feedback on.

Not very long ago something seemingly trivial like making phone calls across the globe required complex processes and integrations with different phone companies. Today, you can not only make phone calls but even video calls in an on-demand fashion from anywhere.
A lot has happened since the telecom industry went digital and today we live in an era where anything, from a car to a meal, can be ordered instantaneously, with notifications and real-time tracking ensuring the user always knows its ‘status’.

A similar thing happened when it came to payments. We went from writing checks on paper to instantly paying or sending someone money across the globe using mobile apps.

One could argue that there was one big reason that caused this revolution. Our transition from physical to digital necessitated developers to translate complex and error-prone processes into code and APIs.
What was complex and proprietary in the physical world turned into &lt;code&gt; that could now talk to other systems.

## Product-led takes root
With the transition to digital, product took center stage in terms of go to market strategies. Cloud software promised a new software experience that would enable departments to quickly purchase, deploy, access, and upgrade their business apps all over the internet, which in parallel shifted buying decisions from IT to business unit managers. 20+ years later, SaaS is now the norm but a new trend will permeate business software over the next 20 years.

Just as cloud apps shifted buying decisions from IT to department units, modern SaaS apps have perfected the original promises of low cost, seamless onboarding, and rapid product development. This led to the birth of product-led motions where trials and freemium experiences put users at the center. Mirroring B2C trends, application experiences drive growth and adoption, instead of manual long-tailed sales motions.
This has further shifted software decision makers from management, to teams, and even individuals. The next decade will see the rapid adoption of Product-Led Growth (PLG) first offerings and it will transform not only how software is built, but more importantly how you build a business and organization to sell and support them.

## The true product-led era is here and now

In the product-led era, B2B starts to look a lot like B2C.
Top-down, sales motions which target buyers get replaced by grassroots, product-led motions targeting the end-user.
Big multi-year commits get replaced by usage-based micro-transactions, and
Long, consultative provisioning processes get replaced by zero-touch self-service, value driven experiences.
In this era, code is now driving all interactions across the customer lifecycle, which has put the Developers at the center of a revolution that is quietly taking shape.

## The birth of a revolution
While most companies recognize the need for developers to support go-to-market functions, the work is still prescribed as tasks. Developer work is framed as a backlog of items to deliver, with little expectation that the developer relates to the desired outcomes. By siloing developers, they get pushed further and further away from their users and customers, resulting in a product built without considering the full spectrum of solution sets available.

When it comes to the tools and systems available today for developers to do their work, they have increasingly become project-centric instead of being product-centric. In fact, some of the most used tools for ticketing and bug fixes are manager-centric instead of maker-centric.
Ten tools for a better Dev experience

When we spoke to our early adopters and design partners about how they manage their work along with product parts, what we heard was not very different from our past experiences as makers.

On average, it takes ten tools and systems to stitch together a common workflow such as triaging an incident and understanding its customer impact. Our design partners shared similar experiences as they navigated the complexities of managing data across systems like code repos, DevOps tools, project trackers, collaboration channels, ticketing systems, product analytics, and data warehouses. In this web of siloed systems, collecting the right signals to understand impact and priorities is nearly impossible.

## What if?
As developers, we imagined a system where customer interactions across conversations, tickets, and clicks, come together with the Dev interactions of collaboration, triage, and commits.
If a phone can converge, simplify and bring together hundreds of physical tools and processes into a simple interface, what if everything a developer works on can be brought under one “operating system.”
If an app could democratize specialized work and make every smartphone owner a photographer, what would happen if we brought makers closer to customers and broke down organizational silos?
The question to ask is — when it comes to Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
Where is the relationship between the user and the product?
Between the customer (Rev) and the makers (Dev)?
More importantly, with the developers at the center of it all — How will Devs define the future of CRM?
We call this DevCRM — a system that empowers makers to build, operate, support, and grow their businesses by putting their customers at the center, and this is what we shared in our live stream on Oct 20, 2021.


![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/d8488b443c27315abf53fc05116fdda63ab9bab6-7680x4320.png?w=7680)

Connecting Makers with customers on one platform

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/cdb85a137d26f7f4ae76b9b5d14126bff79b7e51-7680x4320.png?w=7680)

Collaborate across organization silos

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/9d2aeae484de625c308cd305db1daefe088fff85-7680x4320.png?w=7680)


Nurture and support in-app
As we see in the video, a fundamental part of DevCRM and DevRev is the notion of product (code) connected to everything a dev creates or works on.
This is just the beginning and we are working on a number of exciting things we would love your feedback on.

The why and what of DevRev

Zendesk is a popular customer support platform that has a range of features to elevate the customer experience.

 with the tool's integration, cost, user interface, automation, and customer service.

The end-users of a product give the most valuable feedback about its usability, pricing, features, and customer service. By uncovering the feedback of real users, you can understand the real pain points.

In this blog, we will uncover the most significant Zendesk pain points by analyzing customer reviews on various platforms, such as GetApp, G2, TrustRadius, Software Advice, and Reddit. We will also give a thorough overview of different Zendesk options that tackle these issues, showing actual user experiences and other choices.

## Zendesk review from the voice of the real users

Zendesk has a plethora of apps that you can integrate with. These apps range from helping you increase agent productivity to streamline workflows, applying themes to refresh your help center, and leveraging APIs to build anything you want.

But, the downside with Zendesk integration is that it is a cumbersome, clunky, and convoluted process that makes it difficult for users to be up and running in a matter of minutes. The Zendesk community assists users in taking full advantage of these integrations by eliminating issues with data sync.

The users find that pausing data sync with no admin notification is a nightmare that has deeper ramifications for their business and customer relationships. Let’s break down these ramifications with the help of an example. Imagine you have integrated Salesforce CRM with Zendesk customer support, and the data sync has stopped for days with no notification or log of this instance.

* The issue with data sync can cause a delay in resolving customer issues and queries, as customer agents will not have access to customer information from both platforms in one place
* The sales team will not have visibility into customer conversations. This will hinder their continuous learning about the market and the target audience, leading to difficulties in closing deals
* Hinder productivity of the support agents and the sales teams as they have to keep switching between tools back and forth to get context and clarity

* Hundreds of apps
* Build anything with APIs

Zendesk is a robust customer support platform that offers a variety of features required to elevate the customer experience. However, the tool is quite expensive, and the [customers are frustrated](https://www.softwareadvice.com/call-center/zendesk-talk-profile/reviews/) with its renewal practices, cancellation policies, value for money, and more.

Zendesk has five pricing plans, and Zoho Desk has four pricing plans. Here is a quick overview:

**Zendesk:**

* Has a free trial
* No free version
* They divide the pricing plans as Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise
* The Team plan starts at $49, Growth at $79, Professional at $99, & Enterprise at $150
* No discount is available

Zoho Desk has four pricing plans, and here is a quick overview:

**Zohodesk:**

* Has a free trial
* Has a free version
* They divide the pricing plans as Standard, Professional, Enterprise
* The Standard plan starts at $14, Professional at $23, Enterprise at $40
* Discounts based on plan frequency

**Overall verdict:**

Zoho Desk offers all the features that Zendesk does, and yet you can save 59% with Zoho desk.

There are murmurs about how the UI and UX of Zendesk could be clearer to comprehend, navigate through, and use. Some alternatives are simpler and easy to work with.

Freshdesk has better ease of use and is known for its simple and intuitive UI. Customers find the [platform easy to use and navigate through](https://www.softwareadvice.com/crm/freshdesk-profile/reviews/).

The platform has curated reports, dashboards, custom reports, schedule reports, and more.

Zendesk offers a range of automation features, including macros, triggers, and automation. However, some users find Zendesk's automation capabilities do not meet their specific needs for a few reasons: it has a steep learning curve, limitations with integrations, and Zendesk's more advanced automation features can be costly.

* Customizable ticketing
* Omnichannel customer support
* Bi-directional, synchronous view
* Snap-ins to install powerful automation
* Conversational AI learns from your knowledge base
* Generative AI for live chat
* Respond to customer queries with GPT-powered replies
* Tickets routing based on smart clusters
* Auto-generate product insights

[DevRev](https://devrev.ai) is also better in terms of better pricing, customer support, integrations, and ease of use.

One of the biggest pain points of Zendesk users reported across all community forums and review sites is their 

. Quite ironic to see that a platform that helps its customer elevate customer experience does not fulfill that for its own customers.

Here are some instances where Zendesk users share their woes about lack of assistance - as on [Trustradius]

* Training webinars
* Email & chat support
* Premier Onboarding
* Premier Success
* Premier Support

Intercom has better support, as it has enterprise-grade security, advanced permissions, HIPAA support, 2-factor authentication, Google SSO, basic permissions, manual conversation restrictions, and regional data hosting.

You can also check out some [Intercom alternatives](https://devrev.ai/blog/intercom-alternatives)!

The customers of Zendesk do not particularly talk or worry about the scalability of the platform. However, if you are considering alternatives, here is a good one!

* Architecture can manage millions of users
* Built to scale
* Can accommodate the largest of teams
* Scales rapidly as the customer requires

Zendesk has a pretty good mobile app that enables users to work with support tickets from the comfort of their mobile devices. The features include sorting, filtering, creating tickets, updating tickets, getting notifications, and more. However, there are some instances where users need help navigating through and managing simple tasks on the app.

* A complete view of all the tickets
* Creation of private notes
* Read and respond to tickets
* Sort, search & filter tickets
* Monitor data

In summary, Zendesk is a powerful customer support program, but many users have reported issues on different platforms. Whether it is the cumbersome integration process, steep pricing, difficult-to-navigate UI/UX, automation limitations, or poor customer support. These pain points have led users to search for alternatives.

We have analyzed several tools like Zendesk that have better customization, better integration, pricing, UI/UX, automation, and support and highlighted their features and pricing plans. By choosing an alternative that addresses these pain points, businesses can provide a better customer experience and streamline their customer support processes.


Uncovering Zendesk Pain Points: The Voice Of Real Customers

“I love receiving feedback.” We’ve heard this… but how many times have you provided feedback and it was received poorly?
Let’s make this clear, feedback is crucial and extremely valuable. But it’s the action that’s taken afterward that makes the difference. In the scope of software development, customer support is critical in building customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue. One key factor in effective customer support is using customer feedback to continually improve the support experience.

In today’s blog, we’ll briefly talk about the importance of customer feedback strategies for collecting feedback, best practices for analyzing and acting on feedback, tools for collecting and analyzing feedback, overcoming challenges, and successful case studies.

## Understanding Customer Feedback

### The different types of customer feedback

1. Direct feedback
2. Indirect feedback
3. Solicited feedback
4. Unsolicited feedback
## The importance of customer feedback in customer support

Customer feedback is essential in customer support because it helps businesses identify areas for improvement, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, and strengthen brand reputation.

## Benefits of Using Customer Feedback in Support

### Benefit 1:  Improving customer satisfaction and loyalty

This one is self-explanatory… customers point out areas of improvement, and your team implements changes (ideally ;))

### Benefit 2: Increasing efficiency and productivity

Customer feedback can lead to increased efficiency and productivity by identifying areas for improvement and implementing changes that improve the support experience.

### Benefit 3: Strengthening brand reputation

Using customer feedback to improve support can strengthen a business’s brand reputation by demonstrating a commitment to providing excellent customer service.
Strategies for Collecting Customer Feedback

### Option 1: Surveys

Surveys can be an effective way to collect structured feedback from customers. They can be delivered through email, social media, or the company website.

### Option 2: Feedback forms and/or Customer Interviews

Feedback forms can live in different mediums. Formal vs. informal settings, digital vs. physical, verbal vs. written, etc. The choice here is what would be the easiest for your customer (think age, think attention span, think environment, etc.)

### Option 3: Social Media Monitoring

Turn your social media profiles into business accounts and utilize all the analytics provided by platforms today. Here you can see drop-off rates, click-throughs, unfollows, etc.

### Online reviews

Be cautious on this one; for me personally, I only leave a review if I am at one extreme: I love the experience, or I absolutely despise it. For a controlled setting, consider requesting these at activation events or following a positive experience!
Best Practices for Collecting Customer Feedback

### #1. Make it easy for customers to provide feedback
The choice here is what would be the easiest for your customer (think age, think attention span, think environment, etc.)

### #2. Ask the right questions

Asking the right questions is essential in collecting feedback that is actionable and useful for improving the support experience.

### #3. Offering incentives

Offering incentives can encourage customers to provide feedback, such as discounts, free products or services, or entry into a prize draw.

### #4. Ensuring anonymity and privacy

Ensuring anonymity and privacy can encourage customers to provide honest feedback without fear of repercussion.

### #5. Consistently collecting feedback

Consistently collecting feedback can help businesses identify trends and patterns over time, leading to more effective changes in the support experience.

## Analyzing and Acting on Customer Feedback

### Step 1: Identifying Patterns and Trends

Identifying patterns and trends in customer feedback can help businesses prioritize areas for improvement and develop solutions that address root causes.

### Step 2: Prioritizing Feedback

Prioritizing feedback is critical in using customer feedback effectively. Businesses should prioritize feedback that has the greatest impact on the customer experience and aligns with the company’s goals.

### Step 3: Collaborating with Other Teams

Collaborating with other teams, such as product development, marketing, and sales, can help businesses address feedback more comprehensively and holistically.

### Step 4: Implementing Changes Based on Feedback

Implementing changes based on feedback is critical in demonstrating a commitment to addressing customer concerns and improving the support experience.

### Step 5: Measuring Success

Measuring success is essential in understanding the impact of changes made based on customer feedback. Metrics such as customer satisfaction, customer retention, and customer referrals can provide insight into the effectiveness of changes made.

## Tools for Collecting and Analyzing Customer Feedback

### Customer feedback software

Customer feedback software, such as Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey, can help businesses create and distribute surveys and analyze results.

### Survey tools

Survey tools, such as Typeform and Google Forms, can help businesses create and distribute surveys quickly and easily.

### Social media monitoring tools

Social media monitoring tools, such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social, can help businesses monitor social media platforms for customer feedback and sentiment.

### CRM systems

CRM systems, such as Salesforce and HubSpot, can help businesses track and analyze customer interactions and feedback over time.

Overcoming Common Challenges in Using Customer Feedback

### Challenge #1 | Low response rates

Low response rates can be overcome by making it easy and convenient for customers to provide feedback and by offering incentives.

### Challenge #2 | Dealing with negative feedback

Dealing with negative feedback can be challenging but is essential in understanding areas for improvement and addressing customer concerns in a timely and effective manner.

### Challenge #3 | Balancing feedback with other priorities

Balancing feedback with other priorities can be challenging but is critical in providing a comprehensive and effective support experience.

### Challenge #4 | Communicating changes to customers

Communicating changes to customers is essential in demonstrating a commitment to addressing their concerns and improving the support experience.

## Here are Some Real-World Examples: Case Studies of Successful Customer Feedback Strategies

### Airbnb

Airbnb uses customer feedback to improve its support experience by regularly collecting feedback through surveys and using the results to identify and address areas for improvement.

### Starbucks

Starbucks uses customer feedback to improve its support experience by monitoring social media platforms for customer feedback and sentiment and responding in a timely and effective manner.

### Buffer

Buffer uses customer feedback to improve its support experience by prioritizing feedback based on impact and implementing changes based on customer needs and preferences.

## Conclusion

In conclusion, using customer feedback to improve the 

 is critical in building customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue. By collecting and analyzing customer feedback effectively, businesses can identify areas for improvement, prioritize feedback based on impact, and implement changes that lead to a better support experience for customers - something that we here at DevRev make our core priority.

“I love receiving feedback”. We’ve heard this… but how many times have you provided feedback and it was received poorly?  
Let’s make this clear, feedback is crucial and extremely valuable. But it’s the action that’s taken afterwards that makes the difference. In the scope of software development, customer support is critical in building customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue. One key factor in effective customer support is using customer feedback to continually improve the support experience.

In today’s blog, we’ll briefly talk about the importance of customer feedback to strategies for collecting feedback, best practices for analyzing and acting on feedback, tools for collecting and analyzing feedback, overcoming challenges, and successful case studies.

## Understanding Customer Feedback

### The different types of customer feedback

1. Direct feedback
2. Indirect feedback
3. Solicited feedback
4. Unsolicited feedback 
## The importance of customer feedback in customer support

Customer feedback is essential in customer support because it helps businesses identify areas for improvement, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, and strengthen brand reputation.

## Benefits of Using Customer Feedback in Support

### Benefit #1 | Improving customer satisfaction and loyalty

This one is self-explanatory… customers point out areas of improvement and your team implements changes (ideally ;)) 

### Benefit #2 | Increasing efficiency and productivity

Customer feedback can lead to increased efficiency and productivity by identifying areas for improvement and implementing changes that improve the support experience.

### Benefit #3| Strengthening brand reputation

Using customer feedback to improve support can strengthen a business’s brand reputation by demonstrating a commitment to providing excellent customer service.
 Strategies for Collecting Customer Feedback

### Option #1 | Surveys

Surveys can be an effective way to collect structured feedback from customers. They can be delivered through email, social media, or the company website.

### Option #2 | Feedback forms and/or Customer Interviews

Feedback forms can live in different mediums. Formal vs informal settings, digital vs physical, verbal vs written, etc. The choice here is what would be the easiest for your customer (think age, think attention span, think environment, etc.)

### Option #3 | Social Media Monitoring

Turn your social media profiles into business accounts and utilize all the analytics provided by platforms today. Here you can see drop-off rates, click throughs, unfollows, etc. 

### Online reviews

Be cautious on this one, for me personally I only leave a review if I am at one extreme: I love the experience or I absolutely despise it. For a controlled setting consider requesting these at activation events or following a positive experience!
 Best Practices for Collecting Customer Feedback

### #1. Make it easy for customers to provide feedback
 The choice here is what would be the easiest for your customer (think age, think attention span, think environment, etc.)

### #2. Ask the right questions

Asking the right questions is essential in collecting feedback that is actionable and useful for improving the support experience.

### #3. Offering incentives

Offering incentives can encourage customers to provide feedback, such as discounts, free products or services, or entry into a prize draw.

### #4. Ensuring anonymity and privacy

Ensuring anonymity and privacy can encourage customers to provide honest feedback without fear of repercussion.

### #5. Consistently collecting feedback

Consistently collecting feedback can help businesses identify trends and patterns over time, leading to more effective changes in the support experience.

## Analyzing and Acting on Customer Feedback

### Step #1 | Identifying Patterns and Trends

Identifying patterns and trends in customer feedback can help businesses prioritize areas for improvement and develop solutions that address root causes.

### Step #2 | Prioritizing Feedback

Prioritizing feedback is critical in using customer feedback effectively. Businesses should prioritize feedback that has the greatest impact on the customer experience and aligns with the company’s goals.

### Step #3 | Collaborating with Other Teams

Collaborating with other teams, such as product development, marketing, and sales, can help businesses address feedback more comprehensively and holistically.

### Step #4 | Implementing Changes Based on Feedback

Implementing changes based on feedback is critical in demonstrating a commitment to addressing customer concerns and improving the support experience.

### Step #5 | Measuring Success

Measuring success is essential in understanding the impact of changes made based on customer feedback. Metrics such as customer satisfaction, customer retention, and customer referrals can provide insight into the effectiveness of changes made.

## Tools for Collecting and Analyzing Customer Feedback

### Customer feedback software

Customer feedback software, such as Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey, can help businesses create and distribute surveys and analyze results.

### Survey tools

Survey tools, such as Typeform and Google Forms, can help businesses create and distribute surveys quickly and easily.

### Social media monitoring tools

Social media monitoring tools, such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social, can help businesses monitor social media platforms for customer feedback and sentiment.

### CRM systems

CRM systems, such as Salesforce and HubSpot, can help businesses track and analyze customer interactions and feedback over time.

 Overcoming Common Challenges in Using Customer Feedback

### Challenge #1 | Low response rates

Low response rates can be overcome by making it easy and convenient for customers to provide feedback and by offering incentives.

### Challenge #2 | Dealing with negative feedback

Dealing with negative feedback can be challenging but is essential in understanding areas for improvement and addressing customer concerns in a timely and effective manner.

### Challenge #3 | Balancing feedback with other priorities

Balancing feedback with other priorities can be challenging but is critical in providing a comprehensive and effective support experience.

### Challenge #4 | Communicating changes to customers

Communicating changes to customers is essential in demonstrating a commitment to addressing their concerns and improving the support experience.

## Here are Some Real-World Examples: Case Studies of Successful Customer Feedback Strategies

### Airbnb

Airbnb uses customer feedback to improve its support experience by regularly collecting feedback through surveys and using the results to identify and address areas for improvement.

### Starbucks

Starbucks uses customer feedback to improve its support experience by monitoring social media platforms for customer feedback and sentiment and responding in a timely and effective manner.

### Buffer

Buffer uses customer feedback to improve its support experience by prioritizing feedback based on impact and implementing changes based on customer needs and preferences.

## Conclusion

In conclusion, using customer feedback to improve the support experience is critical in building customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue. By collecting and analyzing customer feedback effectively, businesses can identify areas for improvement, prioritize feedback based on impact, and implement changes that lead to a better support experience for customers - something that we here at DevRev make our core priority.

Using Customer Feedback to Improve Your Support Experience

I've got an amazing friend named Ed. Ed is the ultimate triple threat: political organizer, successful business person and proudly gay! What do all these things have to do with being an advocate? Let me share the wisdom Ed has bestowed upon me.

When I first met Ed, he invited me to Pride, and my world got a whole lot bigger and brighter. Not only did we have a lot of fun, but he taught me being an ally isn’t enough - it’s about advocacy. Ed is out making waves in the community. A seated member at the HRC National Board of Governors outside of him killing it in his professional life at work, he’s made me realize there was so much more impact one person can have!

Here’s what I have surmised from Ed and so many others along the way:

I've experienced my fair share of cringe-worthy moments and have had my "should have spoken up" moments as well. Trust me, they haunt me. Be brave and stand up even when its wildly uncomfortable.

Advocacy means taking action, and guess what? When you get involved, you'll be amazed at the incredible networking opportunities that come your way. It's a win-win!

Work for companies you believe in and that actually walk the walk on advocacy. Don’t justify anything less than the highest level of integrity and action.

Because of Ed, I became actively involved in LGBTQIA+ organizations. I've fought for marriage equality in Minnesota with a local non-profit, and I've proudly sat on the steering committee and shaped strategy for the LGBTQ+ group at a Fortune 100 company for over a decade.

We live in an era of connectedness, you need to make the most of it. Use the information at your fingertips to your advantage, search on your own intranet/slack/etc for an advocacy group to join. If you can't find one, start your own! That’s what we are doing here at DevRev. Plus, there are countless resources out there to help us along the way. Personally, I've got so much love for the 

If you can only do one thing, get to know someone new like I did with Ed. Accept that invitation, ask them about their life, their struggles, and most importantly, have an open mind. Hopefully, you’ll be as lucky to find someone similar to the catalyst that completely changed my perspective and actions.

Raising a glass to Ed, the LGBTQIA+ community, and all the incredible advocates out there. Together, we'll create a world that's bursting with love, equality, and a whole lot of fabulousness!

Find yourself an Ed and celebrate Pride

For those reading this with a PLG (Product-Led Growth) background, the assertion that there is no meaningful difference between bug and feature request may seem like a no-brainer. Others, however, may consider this claim strange or even ridiculous. Let me attempt to change your mind.

## Utilitarianism vs Deontology
First, let's start with a brief philosophy lesson. I promise it's relevant. Those who are fans of the philosophy of Netflix's "The Good Place" may be familiar with these two ethical theories. For those that aren't, utilitarianism posits that the action that does the most good for the most people is the one that is morally just. Deontology, on the other hand, asserts that some actions are inherently good while others are inherently bad.

An important criticism of utilitarianism is that it can justify inflicting undeserving suffering on one if it will provide a positive outcome for others. For example, forcing a person with a specific set of genetic traits to undergo potentially invasive painful medical procedures to potentially help others.
Deontology also has its set of criticisms. Here the most relevant one is that it doesn't consider the outcome of the action, only the action itself. For example, a follower of deontology would be unable to lie even if it were to spare someone needless emotional distress.

## PLG vs. SLG
A quick definition of these two growth strategies provides further context to this discussion. PLG stands for Product-Led Growth, and it suggests that if a product is really good and continues to adapt to serve the needs of its users, it will find product-market fit and grow without the need for significant marketing and sales investments. On the other hand, SLG stands for Sales-Led Growth, which follows a more traditional approach, particularly for B2B software, where you have a sales team that ideally drives adoption and growth in the market.

## What is a bug?
This depends on who you ask. Most sitting on the developer's side of the screen will say something like, a bug is something that doesn't work, something that's broken.
Someone sitting on the end user's side of the screen will probably say something similar. However, they do not know the intent, so what they may see as a bug may, in fact, have been intentional.

## What is a feature request?
Again, this depends on who you ask. From the developer's side of the screen, it's likely something new that the end-user wants to be added to the product. It may also extend to a change the end-user would like made in the product.
However, from the end user's side of the screen, that change or new feature may not feel like a feature request because it is something they would have reasonably expected.

## Why does it matter?
Here's where we get to the really contentious part of this argument. Before you read on, take a moment to think about why you think differentiating between bug and feature request is important.
Here are some reasons I've been given:
- To determine priority
- To measure an individual or teams code quality
- To measure productivity
- For ticket routing

Coming from a startup that built B2C software with a team of only 12 and over a million users, some of these were foreign concepts to me due to the small size of our company. However, a business degree and lots of reading gave me some insight into where my colleagues at DevRev were coming from.

I'll address each of these but let's start with a story.

## Story Time
I've always liked being the voice of the people, happy to put myself on the line when I was sure of the right thing to do, so I ended up practicing PLG before I ever heard of it.

Still, early in my career, I was going back and forth with developers over whether something was a bug or a feature request (if you're a developer, product manager, or support engineer, you have absolutely had this argument at some point). We always put out MVPs in service of being first to market, which had greatly contributed to the company's success; however, it also meant we'd go to market without features that a reasonable end user would probably expect. This was one of those situations. As the voice of the user, I made the argument that not having it caused significant confusion, and the end-users often interpreted it as a bug and were understandably upset. I was met with the explanation that it was a feature request because we knew that it often wouldn't work and would require significant resources to make it fully operational. After 15 minutes (and countless previous conversations) of going around in circles arguing about whether it was a bug or a feature request, I finally said with a little more force and frustration than I'd intended, "It doesn't matter if it's a bug or a feature request, from the end user's point of view it is something they expected to work and doesn't!"
Unfortunately, it didn't get that item fixed during my tenure at the company, but the concept stuck and helped us start making more user-centric product development decisions.

## How does this all relate?
Great question. Referring back to the list of arguments above, let's start with Determining priority. Followers of Deontology would likely say, you should fix the bug because it's the right thing to do. However, the bug may be something that only inconveniences about 5% of your users, whereas there's a [**new feature**](https://www.chameleon.io/blog/build-features-customers-need) that would significantly improve the experience for 80% of your users. With your limited resources, followers of deontology would still fix the bug.

On the other hand, followers of utilitarianism would work on the new feature because it does the greatest good for the greatest number of users. However, utilitarianism here has its own drawbacks. Just because a feature is requested by a significant number of users doesn't mean it is the best business decision for the company, particularly in cases where it requires significant resources but does not offer leverage over competitors' offerings.

The next two arguments, To Measure Code Quality and Productivity, are difficult topics. It's very human to want to quantify everything, give it a numerical score and determine if it's moving up or down, but it's been proven this isn't an exact science. The old approach was to measure by the number of lines of code written, but that's really nonsense considering it encouraged writing verbose, complex code rather than parsimonious efficient code. Here I'd refer to an article written by one of our founders Manoj Agarwal for Forbes.

The last argument, For Ticket Routing, is especially interesting because it is something the DevRev platform essentially eliminates by separating the end-user language from what the developer specifically works on without sacrificing the important context often contained in tickets. This means routing is done by the dev area of expertise rather than whose turn it is to address tickets.

## The Cultural Shift of PLG Teams
There is an added benefit of getting rid of the distinction between bug and feature request outside of improving customer centricity, eliminating false prioritization, and minimizing sub-optimal routing of tasks. It creates a natural shift towards a more collaborative culture by minimizing the stigma that seems to come with the word "bug." By removing it from our vocabulary, you no longer have a developer say they're "just doing bug fixes" but instead talking about their work in the context of the impact it is actually having.
Calling something a bug has an implicit element of blame to it making one feel like they're stuck doing tedious cleaning work rather than impactful development (whether or not this is actually the case). On the other hand, as builders, we are always drawn to making something new as a feature request implies. To quote Anoop Dawar, "I don't want to get into the debate of a feature versus a bug, so I use the word improvement." 

## So, what do we call it?
In our ecosystem, we simply call it a ticket. Tickets describe what an end-user is experiencing without the classification of "bug" or "feature request," thereby avoiding the trap of false prioritization based on these categories allowing prioritization to be determined based on the wider business goals. These tickets are then mapped to one or more issues. Issues describe what the developer is working on. This system allows the user-facing ticket to remain user-centric in language and the developer-facing issues to remain developer-centric. It is a many-to-many relationship as well, which means that developers are working on real issues related to their area of expertise instead of trying to clear end-user tickets that may really span multiple teams. 

With this in mind, we find that the argument of bug vs. feature request is a distinction without a difference in a PLG-oriented company. To execute well on PLG, we must follow utilitarianism (within reason) to benefit as many end-users as possible in the decision-making. To that end, it doesn't matter what the work item is called. All that matters is that the end user's experience is improved.

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/d69e086782bdc00ed6754703b05f41f0ed900745-10417x5859.png?w=10417)


Bug vs feature request - A distinction without a difference

ZDNet

DevRev launches developer-focused CRM with $50M in seed funding

Customer service is crucial in today's business world. If you cannot keep your existing customers satisfied, all your efforts to acquire new ones will be in vain. It's like a leaky funnel that will continue to leak until you fix it! In this article, we will discuss how to use your CRM to provide exceptional 

.


## Understanding your customers

To provide exceptional customer service, one must have an accurate understanding of their customers. Without this understanding, everything else is meaningless—it's like spraying and praying! To achieve this understanding, you need to build the best CRM possible and make sufficient investments to ensure it includes everything necessary to charge you up for success. This includes building customer profiles, identifying their needs, and tracking their interactions with your business.


### Building customer profiles

Building customer profiles is essential for understanding your customers. These profiles should include information such as demographics, buying habits, and interests. In the world of product-led growth, it's crucial to understand how users interact with your product so you can hyper-personalize every outreach.


### Identifying customer needs

Do you understand your customers' needs, their jobs to be done, pain points, and existing solutions? Knowing their wants, needs, and desires can be a game-changer in how you communicate and serve them.


### Tracking customer interactions

Tracking customer interactions is critical to understanding your customers. By tracking their product usage and engagements, you can personalize outreach, including email nudges, in-app announcements, and more, that can help them take a journey that truly differentiates you. This can involve tracking customer complaints, analyzing feedback, and monitoring social media channels for customer comments.


### Improving customer interactions

Improving customer interactions is essential to delivering exceptional customer service. This includes personalizing customer communications, providing timely responses, and resolving customer issues quickly.


### Personalizing customer communications

Personalizing customer communications is a powerful way to improve customer interactions. This includes using the customer's name in communications, tailoring communications to their interests, and providing personalized recommendations.


### Providing timely responses

Customer service level agreements (SLAs) are crucial for many businesses. They not only ensure that business-critical functions are running smoothly, but also address the short attention spans of customers these days. If you don't respond in a timely manner, you risk losing customers and damaging their loyalty to your brand.


### Resolving customer issues quickly

Resolving customer issues quickly is a key component of delivering exceptional customer service. When customers have issues or complaints, they want them resolved promptly and effectively. Ensuring that your development team can fix bugs and address customer concerns immediately shows that your company cares. In today's world, where there is severe competition and low switching costs, customer service is everything!


## Analyzing customer data

Analyzing customer data is essential to understanding your customers and delivering exceptional customer service. This includes identifying trends and patterns, segmenting customers, and predicting customer behavior.


### Identifying trends and patterns

Identifying trends and patterns in customer data can help you understand their needs and preferences. By analyzing customer data, you can identify common pain points, trends in buying habits, and other key insights.


### Segmenting customers

Segmenting customers is another key component of analyzing customer data. Segmentation is the process of dividing a customer base into groups of individuals with similar characteristics or behaviors. By segmenting customers based on their behavior, preferences, and other factors, you can customize your marketing, customer support, and sales to better meet their needs. This can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, leading to increased revenue and growth opportunities.


### Predicting customer behavior

Predicting customer behavior is the next step in analyzing customer data. Predictive analytics is the process of using statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques to analyze historical data and make predictions about future events or behaviors. In the context of customer data analysis, predictive analytics can be used to anticipate customer needs and preferences based on their past behavior and interactions with the business. This allows businesses to tailor their marketing, sales and customer support efforts to better meet the needs of their customers.


## Streamlining operations

Streamlining operations is essential to delivering exceptional customer service. This includes automating processes, integrating your CRM with other tools, and centralizing customer data.


### Automating processes

Automating processes can help you save time and improve efficiency. This includes automating tasks such as customer support requests, marketing emails


### Integrating your CRM with other tools

Integrating your CRM with other tools is essential to streamlining operations. This includes integrating with tools such as marketing automation software, social media management tools, and customer service platforms. By integrating your CRM with these tools, you can improve efficiency and deliver a better customer experience.


### Centralizing customer data

Centralizing customer data is critical to streamlining operations. By centralizing customer data in your CRM, you can access important customer information quickly and easily. This can include customer profiles, purchase histories, and customer service interactions.


### Training your team

To deliver exceptional customer service, you need a well-trained team that understands your CRM and how to use it effectively. It's important to ensure you don't forget about training and onboarding all of your GTM teams. This may seem obvious, but it is business-critical to do so.


### Ensuring team buy-in

Ensuring team buy-in is essential to successful CRM implementation. Your business process is closely tied to how you manage customer relationships. To maximize outcomes, your team needs to understand the benefits of using your CRM and how to use it effectively. This includes providing training and resources to help your team understand the features and functionality of your CRM.


### Providing ongoing training

Providing ongoing training is critical to maintaining team engagement and effectiveness. This includes providing regular training sessions to refresh your team's knowledge of your CRM and new features as they become available.


### Encouraging collaboration

Encouraging collaboration is another important component of effective CRM training. By encouraging collaboration, you can foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. This includes encouraging your team to share ideas and feedback on how to improve your CRM and customer service processes.


## Conclusion

In conclusion, delivering exceptional customer service is critical for business success in today's competitive landscape. Customer relationship management (CRM) software is an essential tool that can help companies understand, track, and manage their customers. With CRM software, companies can manage customer interactions, analyze customer data, streamline operations, and effectively train their teams.

By using a CRM to provide exceptional customer service, businesses can personalize customer communications, provide timely responses, and resolve issues quickly. They can also identify trends and patterns in customer data, segment customers based on their behavior and preferences, and predict future customer behavior. Additionally, by streamlining operations and centralizing customer data in a CRM, businesses can improve efficiency and deliver a better customer experience.

Training your team to use your CRM effectively is also critical to delivering exceptional customer service. By ensuring team buy-in, providing ongoing training, and encouraging collaboration, businesses can foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.

In short, using your CRM to provide exceptional customer service is not only critical to retaining customers and building loyalty but also to attracting new customers and driving business growth.



Customer service is crucial in today's business world. If you cannot keep your existing customers satisfied, all your efforts to acquire new ones will be in vain. It's like a leaky funnel that will continue to leak until you fix it! In this article, we will discuss how to use your CRM to provide exceptional customer support.


## Understanding your customers

To provide exceptional customer service, one must have an accurate understanding of their customers. Without this understanding, everything else is meaningless—it's like spraying and praying! To achieve this understanding, you need to build the best CRM possible and make sufficient investments to ensure it includes everything necessary to charge you up for success. This includes building customer profiles, identifying their needs, and tracking their interactions with your business.


### Building customer profiles

Building customer profiles is essential for understanding your customers. These profiles should include information such as demographics, buying habits, and interests. In the world of product-led growth, it's crucial to understand how users interact with your product so you can hyper-personalize every outreach.


### Identifying customer needs

Do you understand your customers' needs, their jobs to be done, pain points, and existing solutions? Knowing their wants, needs, and desires can be a game-changer in how you communicate and serve them.


### Tracking customer interactions

Tracking customer interactions is critical to understanding your customers. By tracking their product usage and engagements, you can personalize outreach, including email nudges, in-app announcements, and more, that can help them take a journey that truly differentiates you. This can involve tracking customer complaints, analyzing feedback, and monitoring social media channels for customer comments.


### Improving customer interactions

Improving customer interactions is essential to delivering exceptional customer service. This includes personalizing customer communications, providing timely responses, and resolving customer issues quickly.


### Personalizing customer communications

Personalizing customer communications is a powerful way to improve customer interactions. This includes using the customer's name in communications, tailoring communications to their interests, and providing personalized recommendations.


### Providing timely responses

Customer service level agreements (SLAs) are crucial for many businesses. They not only ensure that business-critical functions are running smoothly, but also address the short attention spans of customers these days. If you don't respond in a timely manner, you risk losing customers and damaging their loyalty to your brand.


### Resolving customer issues quickly

Resolving customer issues quickly is a key component of delivering exceptional customer service. When customers have issues or complaints, they want them resolved promptly and effectively. Ensuring that your development team can fix bugs and address customer concerns immediately shows that your company cares. In today's world, where there is severe competition and low switching costs, customer service is everything!


## Analyzing customer data

Analyzing customer data is essential to understanding your customers and delivering exceptional customer service. This includes identifying trends and patterns, segmenting customers, and predicting customer behavior.


### Identifying trends and patterns

Identifying trends and patterns in customer data can help you understand their needs and preferences. By analyzing customer data, you can identify common pain points, trends in buying habits, and other key insights.


### Segmenting customers

Segmenting customers is another key component of analyzing customer data. Segmentation is the process of dividing a customer base into groups of individuals with similar characteristics or behaviors. By segmenting customers based on their behavior, preferences, and other factors, you can customize your marketing, customer support, and sales to better meet their needs. This can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, leading to increased revenue and growth opportunities.


### Predicting customer behavior

Predicting customer behavior is the next step in analyzing customer data. Predictive analytics is the process of using statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques to analyze historical data and make predictions about future events or behaviors. In the context of customer data analysis, predictive analytics can be used to anticipate customer needs and preferences based on their past behavior and interactions with the business. This allows businesses to tailor their marketing, sales and customer support efforts to better meet the needs of their customers.


## Streamlining operations

Streamlining operations is essential to delivering exceptional customer service. This includes automating processes, integrating your CRM with other tools, and centralizing customer data.


### Automating processes

Automating processes can help you save time and improve efficiency. This includes automating tasks such as customer support requests, marketing emails


### Integrating your CRM with other tools

Integrating your CRM with other tools is essential to streamlining operations. This includes integrating with tools such as marketing automation software, social media management tools, and customer service platforms. By integrating your CRM with these tools, you can improve efficiency and deliver a better customer experience.


### Centralizing customer data

Centralizing customer data is critical to streamlining operations. By centralizing customer data in your CRM, you can access important customer information quickly and easily. This can include customer profiles, purchase histories, and customer service interactions.


### Training your team

To deliver exceptional customer service, you need a well-trained team that understands your CRM and how to use it effectively. It's important to ensure you don't forget about training and onboarding all of your GTM teams. This may seem obvious, but it is business-critical to do so.


### Ensuring team buy-in

Ensuring team buy-in is essential to successful CRM implementation. Your business process is closely tied to how you manage customer relationships. To maximize outcomes, your team needs to understand the benefits of using your CRM and how to use it effectively. This includes providing training and resources to help your team understand the features and functionality of your CRM.


### Providing ongoing training

Providing ongoing training is critical to maintaining team engagement and effectiveness. This includes providing regular training sessions to refresh your team's knowledge of your CRM and new features as they become available.


### Encouraging collaboration

Encouraging collaboration is another important component of effective CRM training. By encouraging collaboration, you can foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. This includes encouraging your team to share ideas and feedback on how to improve your CRM and customer service processes.


## Conclusion

In conclusion, delivering exceptional customer service is critical for business success in today's competitive landscape. Customer relationship management (CRM) software is an essential tool that can help companies understand, track, and manage their customers. With CRM software, companies can manage customer interactions, analyze customer data, streamline operations, and effectively train their teams.

By using a CRM to provide exceptional customer service, businesses can personalize customer communications, provide timely responses, and resolve issues quickly. They can also identify trends and patterns in customer data, segment customers based on their behavior and preferences, and predict future customer behavior. Additionally, by streamlining operations and centralizing customer data in a CRM, businesses can improve efficiency and deliver a better customer experience.

Training your team to use your CRM effectively is also critical to delivering exceptional customer service. By ensuring team buy-in, providing ongoing training, and encouraging collaboration, businesses can foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.

In short, using your CRM to provide exceptional customer service is not only critical to retaining customers and building loyalty but also to attracting new customers and driving business growth. 



How to Use Your CRM to Provide Exceptional Customer Service

In the product-led era, great customer support isn’t just good business practice, it represents an invaluable opportunity for growth.

The [latest research from Gartner](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-11-18-gartner-survey-shows-64--of-customer-service-and-supp) finds that 64% of customer service and support leaders will focus on business growth in 2022. Increasingly, industry leaders recognize that customer management is [knowledge management](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/10/21/knowledge-management-for-customer-experience-challenges-and-best-practices-in-2021/?sh=55d27b3c66c0), and seek to harness customer insights to improve the product and grow their business.

Investing in your team’s customer support strategy is a critical step; here, we lay out three functions that founders ought to prioritize.

## Product integration

Product integration means harnessing insights from customer interactions in one organized place so builders can directly apply them to the product.

For startups, customer support is an untapped goldmine for data-driven decision making. Your customer support tool should help you capitalize on every customer interaction, building a knowledge base that informs your product and processes.

Great customer support platforms seamlessly incorporate dashboards and metrics that inform their business practices. Traditionally, these insights are siloed in customer support teams, and don’t connect to developers and other teams in the company.

In your startup, it’s not enough to just capture insights from your customers. That knowledge base must be easily accessible to all of your teams, empowering you to build and grow your business with customers at the center.

## Consolidation

Startup founders know the pain of sitting in front of a screen for hours, sifting through a mountain of customer requests and grievances. This inefficient approach halts workflows and diverts time from more pressing tasks.

To avoid this anguish, it’s essential to consolidate customer interactions in one place under one system. This saves needless headaches and prevents valuable customer information from falling through the cracks — housing all your customer operations under one roof.

## Malleability

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for your customer management system; as Michael Redbord writes in the [Harvard Business Review](https://hbr.org/2017/09/scaling-customer-service-as-your-startup-grows?registration=success), when scaling your startup’s customer support, you must “pick tooling that matches your service channels, style, and workflows.”

Your successful customer support tool should be simple to get started with, customizable from day one, and adaptable as your business grows.

For startups in particular, your tool shouldn’t be bogged down by endless features you don’t need. Instead, you should only pay for features and capabilities that are suitable for your growth stage; in customer support, minimalism is elegance.

## Customer success in your startup going forward
In 2022 and beyond, successful enterprises need to recognize every customer interaction as an asset.

As your customer support needs grow, it’s important to choose a malleable, consolidated, and integrated tool that delights your customers and informs your product-led growth from day one.

At DevRev, we understand this need and believe that makers (Dev) should be as close to the customers (Rev) as possible. Our platform synchronizes customer support, work management, and product planning in one place so your business keeps customers at the center.

The 3 essential functions of customer support tools for the growth-minded startup

## TL;DR

In this article, we tackle early-stage startup problems from a logistics view and how DevRev is the solution.

## The Problems

## There’s Always the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In the ever-changing post pandemic era, we present modern startups with extraordinary roadblocks to overcome. From a collaborative point of view, some of these obstacles include an endless checklist, from staffing concerns and new technologies to business pressures and sustainability issues. By proactively equipping themselves with success via strategic planning and partnerships, aspiring entrepreneurs can unlock their potential in this time of unprecedented challenge!

Let’s talk about some of the most common issues and resolutions that you might face in your startup.

## Tracking Word and Strategic Time Investment

With multiple projects and looming deadlines, teams working together can easily become overwhelmed with managing tasks. Prioritizing workloads, scheduling responsibilities, staying informed of progress - these are just a few elements that make collaborating an incredibly stressful undertaking. Despite the challenge, however; with some careful planning and organization in place—teams have the potential to work efficiently and reach their goals!

## Optimize the Team: Size vs. Productivity

Staying in sync with ever-evolving projects can be chaotic, especially when multiple people are involved. A "one for all" approach - where everyone dumps their work into one channel - may seem like an easy solution to avoid duplication of effort, but could actually overwhelm the system and lead to disorganization rather than cohesion. Creating a centralized system that provides notifications while avoiding redundancy is key!

## Friction: The Number of Cooks in the Kitchen

When dozens of developers come together to work on the same project, it can be easy for confusion and conflict to arise. But with open communication between all members involved, teams are able to better understand one another's perspective and avoid disagreements while still staying productive. An effective discussion often leads to a successful mission!

## Planning Sprints: Prepare, Don’t Fail

Whether it is a small startup or a huge corporation, preparation and planning is one of the indispensable aspects of building. The plan can range from a day, a week to year long planning depending on the detail and the stage of the company. This plan should take into account numerous parameters, such as time constraints, employees, monetary aspects, etc.

## Customer Needs Over Market Needs: Love for the Product

For businesses to thrive, a customer's love for the product is essential. Product lead growth requires existing customers being enthusiastic about your offerings and providing glowing recommendations. Developers can also play a key role in this process by understanding what it takes to be a customer, having empathy towards them, and offering helpful feedback that helps enhance the user experience even further.

## Scalability: Strong Foundations

As workloads increase, scalability offers a graceful solution that allows systems to remain intact while allocating additional resources. This ensures they can handle increased demand without needing major system redesigns!

## Existing Solutions

Developing applications often requires collaboration, workflow tracking and deployment. But what if existing solutions for these processes could be spread across multiple platforms? That could make it difficult to keep a consistent progression on the project. Fortunately, there are now numerous options available which bring all of these activities together in one place!

## Welcome to DevRev

So, how does DevRev help to solve all these problems?

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/b12808415fe5b85355135b3112b90dc1be8c39f6-1843x969.png?w=450)

The DevRev app is a powerful tool that makes development easier and more efficient. With it, you can link your current GitHub organization with this amazing application for extra benefits, such as finding and building code components in no time! 

Besides seeing work items linked directly to issues or tickets, the automation feature allows users to construct automated processes based on activity. This adds yet another layer of convenience when managing complex projects - making sure tasks are completed successfully from start-to-finish with no hassle!

DevRev's tickets and issues create a powerful dynamic when combined with automated processes. This simplifies the ability to track conversations with clients, assigning tasks based on each team's scope of work - plus developers better comprehend why they are given specific assignments thanks to insight from customer dialogues.

Automation and connection have just become easier for developers with the introduction of flows! DevRev has made it possible to create anything from simple customizations, such as synchronizing code changes between devOrgs & Github gitflows, following issue journeys in your project workflow, or sending notifications through Slack. With these templates tailored towards every developer's needs - automating tasks is only a few clicks away.

In addition to its automation capabilities, DevRev also supports [QR code](https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/qr-code-generator) scanning, making it even easier for developers to quickly access and share information on-the-go

## DevRev is the Solution

Greater transparency between developers and customers allows for smoother interaction. With this improved connection, developers no longer need to hop across multiple systems in order to monitor minor updates - a huge benefit!

And as the saying goes: *pahle istemal karen phir vishvaas karen.*

*First use the product yourself and then you will rely.*

Sign up for the [DevRev beta](https://devrev.ai/) and start using it to make your systems a whole lot easier.

Cloud Tech: Boost Customer Experiences in Startups

Salesforce has long dominated the CRM market, but as businesses [seek alternatives ](https://devrev.ai/blog/salesforce-alternatives)that offer comparable features and more flexibility, several robust options have emerged.

We’ll find out how Salesforce compares with ten different alternatives so that you can make an informed decision!


## Criteria for Evaluation

When considering a Salesforce alternative, it's important to first understand and analyze the pricing, scalability, features, user interface, customization options, integration capabilities, and customer support. Let's dive into each alternative and analyze their offerings, comparing them to Salesforce for a better understanding.


## A quick comparison of Salesforce VS alternatives


<table>
 <tr>
 <td>Alternative
 </td>
 <td>Strengths
 </td>
 <td>Salesforce Weaknesses
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>HubSpot CRM
 </td>
 <td>Affordable pricing, user-friendly interface
 </td>
 <td>Higher pricing tiers
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Zoho CRM
 </td>
 <td>Comprehensive features, affordable pricing
 </td>
 <td>Higher pricing tiers
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Pipedrive
 </td>
 <td>Sales pipeline management, ease of use
 </td>
 <td>Limited advanced functionalities
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Freshworks CRM
 </td>
 <td>Extensive customization, user-friendly
 </td>
 <td>Complex interface for customization
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Insightly
 </td>
 <td>CRM + project management, ease of use
 </td>
 <td>Limited industry-specific functionalities
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>SugarCRM
 </td>
 <td>Customization options, flexibility
 </td>
 <td>Complex interface for beginners
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Microsoft Dynamics 365
 </td>
 <td>CRM + ERP solution, Microsoft integration
 </td>
 <td>Steeper learning curve for customization
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Agile CRM
 </td>
 <td>Sales/marketing automation, affordability
 </td>
 <td>Complexity for advanced customizations
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Bitrix24
 </td>
 <td>CRM + project management, collaboration
 </td>
 <td>Steeper learning curve for customization
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Monday.com
 </td>
 <td>Versatile work platform, visual interface
 </td>
 <td>Complexity for advanced CRM functionalities
 </td>
 </tr>
</table>



## Salesforce VS Alternatives


### Alternative 1: HubSpot CRM

- Pricing and Scalability: HubSpot CRM offers a free plan with affordable pricing tiers, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes. Salesforce has tiered pricing that may be costlier for small businesses.

- Features and Functionality: HubSpot CRM provides essential CRM features like contact management, deal tracking, and email marketing. While Salesforce offers similar features, it may have a broader range of advanced functionalities.

- User Interface and Customization Options: HubSpot CRM boasts an intuitive interface with easy customization. Salesforce has a comprehensive and customizable interface, but it may have a steeper learning curve.


### Alternative 2: Zoho CRM

- Pricing and Scalability: Zoho CRM offers affordable pricing plans suitable for businesses of all sizes. Salesforce may have higher pricing tiers, especially for enterprise-level solutions.

- Features and Functionality: Zoho CRM provides a comprehensive set of CRM features, including lead management, workflow automation, and advanced analytics. Salesforce offers a wide array of features with extensive customization options.

- User Interface and Customization Options: Zoho CRM offers an intuitive interface with customizable layouts. Salesforce offers deep customization capabilities but may have a more complex interface.


### Alternative 3: Pipedrive

- Pricing and Scalability: Pipedrive offers competitive pricing plans suitable for businesses of all sizes. Salesforce pricing may be higher, particularly for enterprise solutions.

- Features and Functionality: Pipedrive specializes in sales pipeline management, providing features such as visual pipelines, deal tracking, and email integration. Salesforce offers a broader range of CRM functionalities.

- User Interface and Customization Options: Pipedrive offers a clean and user-friendly interface with customizable stages and fields. Salesforce offers extensive customization options but may have a more complex interface.


### Alternative 4: Freshworks CRM

- Pricing and Scalability: Freshworks CRM offers affordable pricing plans suitable for businesses of all sizes. Salesforce may have higher pricing tiers, especially for enterprise-level solutions.

- Features and Functionality: Freshworks CRM provides a comprehensive suite of CRM features, including contact management, lead scoring, and email campaigns. Salesforce offers a broad range of features with extensive customization options and advanced functionalities.

- User Interface and Customization Options: Freshworks CRM offers a user-friendly interface with intuitive customization options. Salesforce offers deep customization capabilities but may have a steeper learning curve.


### Alternative 5: Insightly

- Pricing and Scalability: Insightly offers competitive pricing plans suitable for businesses of all sizes. Salesforce pricing may be higher, especially for enterprise solutions.

- Features and Functionality: Insightly combines CRM with project management features, providing a unique blend of capabilities. Salesforce offers a broader range of CRM functionalities and additional modules.

- User Interface and Customization Options: Insightly offers a user-friendly interface with customizable dashboards and fields. Salesforce offers extensive customization options but may have a more complex interface.


### Alternative 6: SugarCRM

- Pricing and Scalability: SugarCRM offers flexible pricing options and scalability for businesses of all sizes. Salesforce pricing may be higher, especially for enterprise solutions.

- Features and Functionality: SugarCRM provides a comprehensive set of CRM features, including sales automation, marketing automation, and customer service management. Salesforce offers a wide range of features and advanced functionalities.

- User Interface and Customization Options: SugarCRM offers a customizable 

interface that can be tailored to specific business needs. Salesforce offers deep customization capabilities but may have a steeper learning curve.


### Alternative 7: Microsoft Dynamics 365

- Pricing and Scalability: Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers flexible pricing options suitable for businesses of all sizes. Salesforce pricing may be higher, especially for enterprise solutions.

- Features and Functionality: Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides a comprehensive CRM and ERP solution, offering sales, marketing, customer service, and field service management. Salesforce offers similar functionalities with extensive customization options.

- User Interface and Customization Options: Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a familiar and customizable interface within the Microsoft ecosystem. Salesforce offers deep customization capabilities but may have a more complex interface.


### Alternative 8: Agile CRM

- Pricing and Scalability: Agile CRM offers affordable pricing plans suitable for small to medium-sized businesses. Salesforce pricing may be higher, especially for enterprise solutions.

- Features and Functionality: Agile CRM offers a comprehensive set of CRM features, including sales automation, marketing automation, and service automation. Salesforce offers a broad range of features with extensive customization options.

- User Interface and Customization Options: Agile CRM offers a user-friendly interface with easy customization options. Salesforce offers extensive customization capabilities but may have a steeper learning curve.


### Alternative 9: Bitrix24

- Pricing and Scalability: Bitrix24 offers a free plan and affordable pricing options suitable for businesses of all sizes. Salesforce pricing may be higher, especially for enterprise solutions.

- Features and Functionality: Bitrix24 offers a comprehensive suite of CRM and project management features, including contact management, task tracking, and document management. Salesforce offers a wide range of CRM functionalities.

- User Interface and Customization Options: Bitrix24 offers a user-friendly interface with customizable layouts and workflows. Salesforce offers extensive customization options but may have a more complex interface.


### Alternative 10: Monday.com

- Pricing and Scalability: Monday.com offers flexible pricing options suitable for businesses of all sizes. Salesforce pricing may be higher, especially for enterprise solutions.

- Features and Functionality: Monday.com is a versatile work management platform that can be customized to function as a CRM tool. It offers features like lead tracking, communication boards, and task automation. Salesforce offers a broad range of CRM functionalities.

- User Interface and Customization Options: Monday.com offers a visually appealing and customizable interface. Salesforce offers extensive customization options but may have a more complex interface.


## Why is DevRev the new-age CRM?

OneCRM for the next generation of Customer Support and Software Development. Streamline collaboration, eliminate fragmentation, and bring teams closer to products and users. Experience the power of customer support and software development working seamlessly together. With DevRev's neural engine, unlock the ultimate copilot for support, development, and growth on a single platform. If you want to discover how DevRev can help you achieve customer delight, [give it a try now](https://app.devrev.ai/signup?_gl=1*xzy3i*_ga*NzAyMTQ2MzgzLjE2ODQ3NTY3MDc.*_ga_M8W9DZYXKF*MTY4NDkyODUyNy4xMjguMS4xNjg0OTMyNjMxLjU0LjAuMA..)!

Looking for A Tool Like Salesforce? 10 Tools Compared Side-by-Side

I remember my first few weeks of college being completely different than I expected. I had taken computer science classes throughout high school and presumed that I would be at least a little ahead of the curve arriving at college. However, a week went by, and we had already surpassed what I knew. After I finished my freshman year, I felt even more confident in my abilities going into my first internship, and I again thought that I would be overly prepared, and again I quickly realized that I would have to start from scratch. Now after four years of classes, three internships, and starting a full-time job, I have a much better perspective about what school teaches you and what it doesn’t.

Throughout my first internship, it felt as if school hadn’t prepared me for any of what I was doing. I had taken classes on data structures and computer architecture, but my internship was primarily front end work with some focus on data visualization and databases. Although my classes had taught me some new languages and some of the ideas that make for good programs, they were taught with a narrow view of applications, primarily with future classes in mind. I had to more or less teach myself the ins and outs of web development with help from my mentor and used little to nothing that school taught me. I knew that I would have to learn bits and pieces as I went, but I wasn’t expecting it to be that drastically different. As my time went on at school, I figured that I would be able to use what I learned from my internship because I thought I would have more classes that would cover some of the same material. However, out of 12 computer science classes, only one (Software Engineering) had any mention of front end development.

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/179d26c5e7166b629318c1492ca6ba33e9c6449d-4032x3024.jpg?w=4032)

In my mind, within computer science there are hard skills that directly relate to programming i.e. languages, libraries etc. and soft skills such as git, docker, ticketing systems etc. While you get good exposure to many different hard skills within school, training for soft skills is oftentimes lacking in the classroom. Again, out of 12 computer science classes only one (Software Engineering) really taught us how to use many of the different tools that are needed on a day to day basis as a programmer. While it is a little more understandable that there is less of a focus on front end engineering, the fact that these soft skills aren’t taught from day one is somewhat surprising to me. While in school, I worked as a freshman mentor for computer science students and taught a weekly one hour seminar to expose students to some of what they need to know that their classes would not teach them. Through that seminar, many students (including myself my freshman year) will learn a little about tools like git, some about recruitment, internships and going into the workforce, but that alone is not enough to truly prepare someone’s soft skills for the future.

Although I have a few qualms with some of the ways that college doesn't prepare students, over time, throughout my classes and internships I started to see my college experience start to pay off. For example, picking up a new coding language is much easier after using so many for classes. I also find that my development procedure has drastically improved over years of coding for classes and meeting deadlines. I also took a lot away from my extracurricular activities that I was a part of during school. I was a part of an organization that puts together hackathons, and that really helped with my interpersonal skills and leadership. There are also classes that go over necessary skills that have been made public online like [this one](https://missing.csail.mit.edu/) from MIT.

However I think the 

 I got through my education were the biggest teachers for me, specifically my last internship that turned into a full time offer with DevRev. Working for a startup will get you ready to work on anything quickly; but I’ll save that for another day.

I remember my first few weeks of college being completely different than I expected. I had taken computer science classes throughout high school and presumed that I would be at least a little ahead of the curve arriving at college. However, a week went by and we had already surpassed what I knew. After I finished my freshman year I felt even more confident in my abilities going into my first internship, and I again thought that I would be overly prepared, and again I quickly realized that I would have to start from scratch. Now after four years of classes, three internships and starting a full time job, I have a much better perspective about what school teaches you, and what it doesn’t.

Throughout my first internship, it felt as if school hadn’t prepared me for any of what I was doing. I had taken classes on data structures and computer architecture, but my internship was primarily front end work with some focus on data visualization and databases. Although my classes had taught me some new languages and some of the ideas that make for good programs, they were taught with a narrow view of applications primarily with future classes in mind. I had to more or less teach myself the ins and outs of web development with help from my mentor, and used little to nothing that school taught me. I knew that I would have to learn bits and pieces as I went, but I wasn’t expecting it to be that drastically different. As my time went on at school, I figured that I would be able to use what I learned from my internship because I thought I would have more classes that would cover some of the same material. However, out of 12 computer science classes, only one (Software Engineering) had any mention of front end development.

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/179d26c5e7166b629318c1492ca6ba33e9c6449d-4032x3024.jpg?w=4032)

In my mind, within computer science there are hard skills that directly relate to programming i.e. languages, libraries etc. and soft skills such as git, docker, ticketing systems etc. While you get good exposure to many different hard skills within school, training for soft skills is oftentimes lacking in the classroom. Again, out of 12 computer science classes only one (Software Engineering) really taught us how to use many of the different tools that are needed on a day to day basis as a programmer. While it is a little more understandable that there is less of a focus on front end engineering, the fact that these soft skills aren’t taught from day one is somewhat surprising to me. While in school, I worked as a freshman mentor for computer science students and taught a weekly one hour seminar to expose students to some of what they need to know that their classes would not teach them. Through that seminar, many students (including myself my freshman year) will learn a little about tools like git, some about recruitment, internships and going into the workforce, but that alone is not enough to truly prepare someone’s soft skills for the future.

Although I have a few qualms with some of the ways that college doesn't prepare students, over time throughout my classes and internships I started to see my college experience start to pay off. For example, picking up a new coding language is much easier after using so many for classes. I also find that my development procedure has drastically improved over years of coding for classes and meeting deadlines. I also took a lot away from my extracurricular activities that I was a part of during school. I was a part of an organization that puts together hackathons, and that really helped with my interpersonal skills and leadership. There are also classes that go over necessary skills that have been made public online like [this one](https://missing.csail.mit.edu/) from MIT. 

However I think the internships I got through my education were the biggest teachers for me, specifically my last internship that turned into a full time offer with DevRev. Working for a startup will get you ready to work on anything quickly; but I’ll save that for another day.

What college didn’t teach me

PR Newswire

DevRev Product-Led Support Now Available in AWS Marketplace

Product-led growth is one of the biggest themes in the zeitgeist of contemporary software companies. Adopting a 

 can transform a company’s ability to delight its customers and grow its top line. Moving away from the centralized, sales-led model of traditional enterprise software companies, innovative players are now recognizing this opportunity and starting to adopt the product-led ethos, leveraging the insights of the consumer internet and adopting efficient, scalable, and user-focused strategies for growth. These companies have not only attracted large numbers of delighted customers; they have also, understandably, attracted the attention of a new wave of founders and venture capitalists eager to build the world-shaping companies of the 

 mindset does not, however, need to stop at the revenue-generating elements of a company. A fully product-led organization will approach every function in the organization, including operations functions and areas traditionally seen as cost centers, with the same user obsession, drive for innovation, and focus on scalable business value.

Based on our own experience taking a product-led, user-focused approach to building our operations at DevRev, we have distilled several key learnings that can help to guide you and your company on your own felicitous path toward product-led productivity.

With every operational function, it is important to identify your customers and work assiduously to improve your offering to them (including constituencies internal to your organization). Drilling down further, to serve a customer well, you need to understand the needs of the customer’s atomic unit - the actual user. In employee onboarding, for example, you need to provide a delightful experience not only to new joiners, but also to hiring managers. In event planning, you may have speakers, marketing-analytics experts, and financial arbiters in addition to event planners. All of these groups need to be able to work from the same source of truth (the system of record), and each of them will have their own workflows that need to be built on top of that system. For instance, vendor quotes for an upcoming conference need to feed seamlessly into the planner’s budget plans, the finance team’s approval workflows, and the marketing team’s models for the expected productivity of outreach spending.

To have deep empathy for the user experience and to understand the nuances of workflows and edge cases, there is no substitute for being an actual user. When we at DevRev decided to scale up our engagement with the developer community through in-person events, we built an events-management tool that now provides people throughout the company a transparent calendar, a database of relevant logistical details, reporting dashboards, budgets, metrics, alerts, and status updates. Critically, our operations team built the tool not in a vacuum or based on a theoretical view of an event planner’s workflows, but instead in the real-world fray of planning, executing, and evaluating specific events. As a result, we built our ontology, data collection, and dashboards to support both tactical execution at the level of a single event as well as the macro view needed for setting strategy, allocating capital, and maximizing learning. We can easily and reliably answer, for example, essential questions like how many founders we expect to reach in our core geographies over the next six months or how many new users we can attribute to events of one type versus another.

3) Every operational function needs a system of record

The system of record is the cornerstone of accuracy and transparency that must underlie any product-led organization. It allows you to build trustworthy reporting and to inform your decisions with accurate and complete data. Importantly, operating with a system of record also allows your team to operate more flexibly. For instance, with a robust applicant-tracking system as the system of record for hiring activities, anyone can schedule a candidate’s next interview or answer a question about the candidate’s next steps based on a fully transparent view of the candidate’s activity up to that point. If one member of a recruiting team is out sick or on vacation, then another can easily step in with the benefit of full situational awareness. B2C has gotten this principle right out of necessity, but B2B has somehow still not caught up, continuing to rely instead on labyrinthine information flows rife with misdirection.

Realizing the value of the system of record requires leaders to draw lines in the sand. Every piece of an operating model must be founded on the system of record so that the work of every team member will compound in the product and lead to continuous improvement. In DevRev’s people ops team, we operate under the principle that “If it isn’t in the system of record, it didn’t happen.” All new hires, for instance, need to be managed through our applicant-tracking system since we have numerous automation to support employee onboarding that are dependent on having accurate data in the ATS. We have also learned that managing reporting through automatically refreshed dashboards rather than slides and forbidding the use of manually updated spreadsheets in ongoing processes are powerful design constraints to promote the growth of products. Working within these lines may be difficult initially (more on this later), but doing so is essential to ensure that the organization has a firm product foundation.

4) Decentralize power and enable the customer to take direct action

Just as most travelers looking to modify a flight itinerary would prefer to make basic changes themselves through an airline website, most standard operational workflows should be accessible to the user directly, allowing specialized team members to focus their efforts on complicated edge cases, situations needing white-glove attention, and opportunities for advancing the product forward on its roadmap. In a product-led hiring operation, for instance, a hiring manager should be able to schedule an interview for herself. At DevRev, our interviewers can schedule their own meetings with candidates in under 30 seconds using a bot in our chat app that lets them identify overlapping windows of availability between their schedules and the candidate’s schedule, choose an interview type and length, book a suitable slot, and send a confirmation email with a fully configured calendar invite to the candidate.

Most organizations orient themselves excessively toward internal secrecy and black-box processes, whether for reasons of internecine politics or merely the momentum of history - “It’s how we’ve always done it.” In stark contrast, the blossoming of Web3 - built on the premise that a decentralized architecture is more dynamic, scalable, and empowering to the individual user than a top-down monolith - shows the promise that new operating models can provide to forward-looking companies.

5) Start with the product, then build the team

Most organizations begin building a new function by making the first hire, and usually, this hire is someone who brings specific experience in the relevant domain. The questions of how that function should operate and what tools should enable the function’s work come next, and naturally, the team’s prior experience will heavily inform the answers. This mimetic tendency leads the organization to replicate the operating model of a status quo that is generally process-anchored rather than product-led.

To build a function that operates differently from the status quo, you need to establish a 

 foundation before you start building out the team. The roles will differ in responsibilities from those in other organizations, the skills and interests of the people who will thrive in those roles will differ, and the success metrics against which you will ask them to perform will differ from the usual metrics. Many of the best hires for these roles, in fact, maybe career-switchers coming from entirely different backgrounds, as their open minds and curiosity about a new space will enable them to adapt more quickly to your company’s distinctive way of operating.

It is critical to resist the siren song of the one-off shortcut when building a product-led operation. Setting up the initial version of a product, tweaking its configurations, and iterating on the necessary steps to complete an end-to-end workflow for the first time requires significant commitment and effort. The output benefit, however, is back-loaded compared to what could be achieved through a traditional, brute-force, process-driven approach. In investment parlance, the journey toward product-led productivity follows a “J-curve.”

In the early phases of the journey, when you are working late into the night to figure out the right tech stack and to iterate on the necessary workflows, there will inevitably come a time when you are tempted to resort to a bespoke spreadsheet or a manual workflow just to get the job done. For those brave souls who pass through the “valley of doubt,” however, this upfront pain and investment will yield compounding returns.

For an operations organization to become product-led, managers in particular must fight the urge to optimize only on short-term output. Because managers are separated from the product-building work of the makers, the J-curve is not tangible to them. They may not appreciate the interim progress of a product under construction, and as a result, they may pass judgment on the efforts of the makers too early, believing mistakenly that their input efforts are not producing sufficient value.

7) Create a product roadmap to fight the invisibility of the J-curve

Just as the product managers and developers building a software product use a clear roadmap to strategize for and plan the capabilities and features that they will add in the future, operations functions should be approached in the same way. Functions like employee success, legal ops, and real estate can all benefit from an intentional product roadmap to guide their roll-out of new technology tools, their data architecture, and their use of user feedback to iterate on their offerings. Our operations team uses DevRev’s Trails to structure our functions and their sub-components, and each part in our organizational architecture has associated with it a clearly defined set of work items that are prioritized and tracked directly in the platform. With transparency into a product-led function’s architecture and a clearly articulated path forward, the maker and the manager can more easily pass through the J-curve’s valley of doubt.

A continuous iteration cycle depends on clearly laying out the top-level goals for every function, the KPIs that drive those goals, and the SLAs to which each activity should adhere. At DevRev, we define goals as the highest-order measurable objective for the company. These are typically lagging indicators (outputs), and in general, they should not change frequently. KPIs are intermediate indicators (often inputs) of performance in specific areas that help us either track progress toward our overall goals or achieve them more effectively. We see SLAs as the tactical operating metrics that ensure that we are operating at a customer-service standard (e.g., time to respond to a customer inquiry).

With a product architecture that automatically generates these metrics and disseminates them through transparent dashboards, an organization can eliminate countless hours of time spent creating one-off presentations. Instead of relying on stale information or spending senior-management and board meetings covering surface-level read-outs or debating facts, key decision-makers can instead operate from an evergreen and transparent view of organizational performance that allows them to focus their time on higher-order creative problem-solving and deeper, more substantive engagement with the company’s strategic priorities.

Taking a product-led approach to operations is a continuous and iterative journey that will allow you to unlock much greater potential for each of your functions than most organizations ever realize. Your users, both within and outside your organization, will thank you. You may even build the prototype for a new business!

Product-led growth is one of the biggest themes in the zeitgeist of contemporary software companies. Adopting a [product-thinking mindset](https://devrev.ai/?tab=our-mission) can transform a company’s ability to delight its customers and grow its top line. Moving away from the centralized, sales-led model of traditional enterprise software companies, innovative players are now recognizing this opportunity and starting to adopt the product-led ethos, leveraging the insights of the consumer internet and adopting efficient, scalable, and user-focused strategies for growth. These companies have not only attracted large numbers of delighted customers; they have also, understandably, attracted the attention of a new wave of founders and venture capitalists eager to build the world-shaping companies of the [product-led paradigm](https://devrev.ai/articles/all/product-led-growth).

The product-led mindset does not, however, need to stop at the revenue-generating elements of a company. A fully product-led organization will approach every function in the organization, including operations functions and areas traditionally seen as cost centers, with the same user obsession, drive for innovation, and focus on scalable business value.

Based on our own experience taking a product-led, user-focused approach to building our operations at DevRev, we have distilled several key learnings that can help to guide you and your company on your own felicitous path toward product-led productivity.

1) Design for your customers
With every operational function, it is important to identify your customers and work assiduously to improve your offering to them (including constituencies internal to your organization). Drilling down further, to serve a customer well, you need to understand the needs of the customer’s atomic unit - the actual user. In employee onboarding, for example, you need to provide a delightful experience not only to new joiners, but also to hiring managers. In event planning, you may have speakers, marketing-analytics experts, and financial arbiters in addition to event planners. All of these groups need to be able to work from the same source of truth (the system of record), and each of them will have their own workflows that need to be built on top of that system. For instance, vendor quotes for an upcoming conference need to feed seamlessly into the planner’s budget plans, the finance team’s approval workflows, and the marketing team’s models for the expected productivity of outreach spending.

2) The builder must be a user
To have deep empathy for the user experience and to understand the nuances of workflows and edge cases, there is no substitute for being an actual user. When we at DevRev decided to scale up our engagement with the developer community through in-person events, we built an events-management tool that now provides people throughout the company a transparent calendar, a database of relevant logistical details, reporting dashboards, budgets, metrics, alerts, and status updates. Critically, our operations team built the tool not in a vacuum or based on a theoretical view of an event planner’s workflows, but instead in the real-world fray of planning, executing, and evaluating specific events. As a result, we built our ontology, data collection, and dashboards to support both tactical execution at the level of a single event as well as the macro view needed for setting strategy, allocating capital, and maximizing learning. We can easily and reliably answer, for example, essential questions like how many founders we expect to reach in our core geographies over the next six months or how many new users we can attribute to events of one type versus another.

3) Every operational function needs a system of record
The system of record is the cornerstone of accuracy and transparency that must underlie any product-led organization. It allows you to build trustworthy reporting and to inform your decisions with accurate and complete data. Importantly, operating with a system of record also allows your team to operate more flexibly. For instance, with a robust applicant-tracking system as the system of record for hiring activities, anyone can schedule a candidate’s next interview or answer a question about the candidate’s next steps based on a fully transparent view of the candidate’s activity up to that point. If one member of a recruiting team is out sick or on vacation, then another can easily step in with the benefit of full situational awareness. B2C has gotten this principle right out of necessity, but B2B has somehow still not caught up, continuing to rely instead on labyrinthine information flows rife with misdirection.
Realizing the value of the system of record requires leaders to draw lines in the sand. Every piece of an operating model must be founded on the system of record so that the work of every team member will compound in the product and lead to continuous improvement. In DevRev’s people ops team, we operate under the principle that “If it isn’t in the system of record, it didn’t happen.” All new hires, for instance, need to be managed through our applicant-tracking system since we have numerous automations to support employee onboarding that are dependent on having accurate data in the ATS. We have also learned that managing reporting through automatically refreshed dashboards rather than slides and forbidding the use of manually updated spreadsheets in ongoing processes are powerful design constraints to promote the growth of product. Working within these lines may be difficult initially (more on this later), but doing so is essential to ensure that the organization has a firm product foundation.

4) Decentralize power and enable the customer to take direct action
Just as most travelers looking to modify a flight itinerary would prefer to make basic changes themselves through an airline website, most standard operational workflows should be accessible to the user directly, allowing specialized team members to focus their efforts on complicated edge cases, situations needing white-glove attention, and opportunities for advancing the product forward on its roadmap. In a product-led hiring operation, for instance, a hiring manager should be able to schedule an interview for herself. At DevRev, our interviewers can schedule their own meetings with candidates in under 30 seconds using a bot in our chat app that lets them identify overlapping windows of availability between their schedules and the candidate’s schedule, choose an interview type and length, book a suitable slot, and send a confirmation email with a fully configured calendar invite to the candidate.
Most organizations orient themselves excessively toward internal secrecy and black-box processes, whether for reasons of internecine politics or merely the momentum of history - “It’s how we’ve always done it.” In stark contrast, the blossoming of Web3 - built on the premise that a decentralized architecture is more dynamic, scalable, and empowering to the individual user than a top-down monolith - shows the promise that new operating models can provide to forward-looking companies.

5) Start with the product, then build the team
Most organizations begin building a new function by making the first hire, and usually this hire is someone who brings specific experience in the relevant domain. The questions of how that function should operate and what tools should enable the function’s work come next, and naturally, the team’s prior experience will heavily inform the answers. This mimetic tendency leads the organization to replicate the operating model of a status quo that is generally process-anchored rather than product-led.
To build a function that operates differently from the status quo, you need to establish the product-led foundation before you start building out the team. The roles will differ in responsibilities from those in other organizations, the skills and interests of the people who will thrive in those roles will differ, and the success metrics against which you will ask them to perform will differ from the usual metrics. Many of the best hires for these roles, in fact, may be career-switchers coming from entirely different backgrounds, as their open minds and curiosity about a new space will enable them to adapt more quickly to your company’s distinctive way of operating.

6) Embrace the J-curve
It is critical to resist the siren song of the one-off short-cut when building a product-led operation. Setting up the initial version of a product, tweaking its configurations, and iterating on the necessary steps to complete an end-to-end workflow for the first time require significant commitment and effort. The output benefit, however, is back-loaded compared to what could be achieved through a traditional, brute-force, process-driven approach. In investment parlance, the journey toward product-led productivity follows a “J-curve.”

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/8cc43895647e18889c689140950f605e17f8e38c-982x982.png?w=982)

In the early phases of the journey, when you are working late into the night to figure out the right tech stack and to iterate on the necessary workflows, there will inevitably come a time when you are tempted to resort to a bespoke spreadsheet or a manual workflow just to get the job done. For those brave souls who pass through the “valley of doubt,” however, this upfront pain and investment will yield compounding returns.
For an operations organization to become product-led, managers in particular must fight the urge to optimize only on short-term output. Because managers are separated from the product-building work of the makers, the J-curve is not tangible to them. They may not appreciate the interim progress of a product under construction, and as a result, they may pass judgment on the efforts of the makers too early, believing mistakenly that their input efforts are not producing sufficient value.

7) Create a product roadmap to fight the invisibility of the J-curve
Just as the product managers and developers building a software product use a clear roadmap to strategize for and plan the capabilities and features that they will add in the future, operations functions should be approached in the same way. Functions like employee success, legal ops, and real estate can all benefit from an intentional product roadmap to guide their roll-out of new technology tools, their data architecture, and their use of user feedback to iterate on their offerings. Our operations team uses DevRev’s Trails to structure our functions and their sub-components, and each part in our organizational architecture has associated with it a clearly defined set of work items that are prioritized and tracked directly in the platform. With transparency into a product-led function’s architecture and a clearly articulated path forward, the maker and the manager can more easily pass through the J-curve’s valley of doubt.

8) Track goals, KPIs, and SLAs
A continuous iteration cycle depends on clearly laying out the top-level goals for every function, the KPIs that drive those goals, and the SLAs to which each activity should adhere. At DevRev, we define goals as the highest-order measurable objective for the company. These are typically lagging indicators (outputs), and in general, they should not change frequently. KPIs are intermediate indicators (often inputs) of performance in specific areas that help us either track progress toward our overall goals or achieve them more effectively. We see SLAs as the tactical operating metrics that ensure that we are operating at a customer-service standard (e.g., time to respond to a customer inquiry).
With a product architecture that automatically generates these metrics and disseminates them through transparent dashboards, an organization can eliminate countless hours of time spent creating one-off presentations. Instead of relying on stale information or spending senior-management and board meetings covering surface-level read-outs or debating facts, key decision-makers can instead operate from an evergreen and transparent view of organizational performance that allows them to focus their time on higher-order creative problem-solving and deeper, more substantive engagement with the company’s strategic priorities.

Taking a product-led approach to operations is a continuous and iterative journey that will allow you to unlock much greater potential for each of your functions than most organizations ever realize. Your users, both within and outside your organization, will thank you. You may even build the prototype for a new business!

The power of product-led business operations


Bad customer service can have a domino effect on your company’s performance. It can lead to poor customer satisfaction, low retention, and decreased sales. With the abundance of data and improved technology today, customer expectations are at an all-time high. Customers want to receive prompt, helpful, and personalized support throughout their entire experience with a company. Here’s how you can build a holistic [customer support](https://devrev.ai/blog/customer-support-tool) strategy to deliver a frictionless experience for your customers.


## Assessing your current customer support strategy

Before implementing any changes, businesses need to assess their current customer support strategy to identify areas for improvement. Some ways to evaluate your current strategy include:

### Conducting a customer survey

A customer survey can help businesses gather feedback on your company’s current customer support strategy. You can include questions about how responsive, knowledgeable, and helpful customers found your support staff. This can give you a good baseline to understand your current performance and measure the impact of changes made.

### Analyzing customer support metrics

Metrics like average response time, resolution time, and customer satisfaction scores are essential to help you strategize and improve your customer support. These metrics can help you analyze if any areas in your current support strategy need to be improved.

### Reviewing customer feedback and complaints

Reviewing customer feedback and complaints can provide valuable insights into areas where your business may be falling short in your customer support strategy.

### Understanding customer needs and expectations

In order to meet and exceed customer expectations, a company needs to know what these expectations are in the first place. Some ways to gather customer feedback include:

### Conducting surveys

You can send out qualitative surveys to your customers to understand exactly what they value when it comes to customer service. These surveys could be in the form of emails, social media posts, or prompts on your website.

### Analyzing customer interactions

You can analyze your existing customer interaction data to understand if there are any common issues customers are flagging. This analysis can also give you an insight into the general sentiment around the quality of customer service your agents are providing.


## Best practices for providing quality customer support

To provide quality customer support, businesses should follow these best practices:


### Build relationships with customers

Rather than simply closing tickets, support agents should look at building relationships with customers. Most customers reaching out to support are stressed about an issue they’re facing. Showing empathy and listening to their concerns can boost customer morale and loyalty to your brand.


### Be proactive and anticipate customer needs

Businesses should be proactive in addressing customer needs by anticipating their needs and providing proactive support. This includes reaching out to customers before they have to contact the business with an issue.


### Communicate clearly and effectively

Complicated terms and technical jargon can only confuse customers further. Support agents should be trained to use simple language that’s easy to understand. This can improve communication with customers and lead to faster resolution of problems.


### Resolve issues quickly and efficiently

The longer a customer has to wait for their issue to be resolved, the more likely they are to leave a low CSAT rating. Having a streamlined support process and providing support staff with the necessary tools and resources to resolve issues can go a long way in reducing first response times and resolution times.


### Go the extra mile to exceed your customers’ expectations

Meeting customer expectations involves doing the bare minimum to ensure a customer’s issue is resolved. But truly delighting customers involves making an effort to go a step further. This can include offering additional support or resources, providing personalized recommendations, or offering special promotions and discounts.


### Providing personalized support

Providing personalized support is essential to improve customer satisfaction. Some strategies for personalizing support interactions include:

### Using customer names

Using customer names in support interactions can make the customer feel valued and appreciated.

### Tailoring responses to customer needs

Rather than offering the same template responses to every customer, responses should be customized based on the customer’s profile and the issue that they’re facing.

### Providing product recommendations

Support staff can provide personalized product recommendations based on the customer's needs and preferences.


## Empowering your support team

Empowering your support team is critical for providing quality customer support. Some strategies for empowering your support team include:

### Providing ongoing training and development

Your agents should receive periodic training on the latest developments in customer support technology. They should also receive training on communication and customer-centricity to improve the quality of their interactions with customers.

### Encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing

Encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing among support staff can help improve their skills and knowledge.

### Providing the right tools and resources

Support agents are constrained by the quality of tools at their disposal. If your agents are still working out of email inboxes, they might not have the necessary data and tools to ensure quick and accurate support. Providing up-to-date customer support software that includes access to knowledge management systems, customer support software, and chatbots can equip agents to provide the best customer experience.


## Utilizing technology to enhance customer support

Technology can play a critical role in enhancing customer support. Some technology tools and solutions that businesses can use to enhance customer support include:

### Chatbots

Chatbots can provide automated support for routine inquiries and issues, freeing up support staff to focus on more complex issues.

### Customer support software

Customer support software can centralize customer interactions across all platforms, giving your agents a single view of all customer queries. It can also provide important metrics to monitor the quality of customer support and improve agent efficiency.

### Knowledge management systems

Knowledge management systems can help businesses organize and share knowledge and information with their support team.


## Measuring the success of your customer support strategy

Measuring the success of your customer support strategy is essential for identifying areas for improvement. Some key metrics for measuring customer support success include:

### Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

CSAT measures the level of customer satisfaction with the support they receive.

### Net promoter score (NPS)

NPS measures customer loyalty and the likelihood of customers recommending a company to others.

### First response time

First response time measures how quickly support staff respond to customer inquiries or issues.

### Resolution time

Resolution time measures how quickly support staff resolve customer inquiries or issues.

### Customer retention rate

Customer retention rate measures how many customers continue to remain loyal to your business and make repeated purchases.

By closely monitoring and analyzing these metrics, businesses can spot the key areas of improvement and make data-driven decisions to improve customer support.


## The Role of Customer Support in Different Business Functions

Providing quality customer support can have a positive impact on various business functions, including:

### Sales

By providing quality customer support, businesses can increase sales. Satisfied customers would be open to the idea of repeat purchases and association with the brand and become loyal customers.

### Marketing

Quality customer support can also impact marketing efforts. Satisfied customers are likely to become advocates for your business by sharing their positive experiences with others and making recommendations. This can lead to higher brand awareness and can lower the cost of customer acquisition.

### Product development

Customer support can also inform product development. Customer feedback and insights can help businesses find what needs improvement and build new products or features.

### Operations

Quality customer support can improve operations by identifying areas for improvement in business processes and procedures.

## Common customer support challenges and how to overcome them

Businesses may face 

 when providing quality customer support. Some common challenges include:

### Limited resources

Limited resources, including budget, staff, and time can make it challenging for businesses to provide quality customer support.

### Technology limitations

Outdated or inadequate technology can make it challenging for businesses to provide high-quality customer support.

### High customer expectations

Customers expect quick and accurate responses, and any deviation from these expectations can lead them to have a negative perception of your customer support. It can, therefore, be challenging for businesses to consistently meet customer expectations.

### Language and cultural barriers

Most companies today have a global workforce, with support teams located in various countries. As a result, there could be language and cultural differences between customers and support agents, which could lead to misunderstandings. To overcome these barriers, companies should invest in training their agents, investing in the best customer support technology, and setting standard operating procedures.

## Conclusion

Providing quality customer support is essential for business success. By assessing their current strategy, understanding customer needs and expectations, providing personalized support, empowering their support team, utilizing technology, measuring success, and following best practices, businesses can improve their customer support strategy and surpass the needs and expectations of their customers.



Bad customer service can have a domino effect on your company’s performance. It can lead to poor customer satisfaction, low retention, and decreased sales. With the abundance of data and improved technology today, customer expectations are at an all-time high. Customers want to receive prompt, helpful, and personalized support throughout their entire experience with a company. Here’s how you can build a holistic [customer support](https://devrev.ai/blog/customer-support-tool) strategy to deliver a frictionless experience for your customers. 


## Assessing your current customer support strategy

Before implementing any changes, businesses need to assess their current customer support strategy to identify areas for improvement. Some ways to evaluate your current strategy include:

### Conducting a customer survey

A customer survey can help businesses gather feedback on your company’s current customer support strategy. You can include questions about how responsive, knowledgeable, and helpful customers found your support staff. This can give you a good baseline to understand your current performance and measure the impact of changes made.

### Analyzing customer support metrics

Metrics like average response time, resolution time, and customer satisfaction scores are essential to help you strategize and improve your customer support. These metrics can help you analyze if any areas in your current support strategy need to be improved. 

### Reviewing customer feedback and complaints

Reviewing customer feedback and complaints can provide valuable insights into areas where your business may be falling short in your customer support strategy.

### Understanding customer needs and expectations

In order to meet and exceed customer expectations, a company needs to know what these expectations are in the first place. Some ways to gather customer feedback include:

### Conducting surveys

You can send out qualitative surveys to your customers to understand exactly what they value when it comes to customer service. These surveys could be in the form of emails, social media posts, or prompts on your website. 

### Analyzing customer interactions

You can analyze your existing customer interaction data to understand if there are any common issues customers are flagging. This analysis can also give you an insight into the general sentiment around the quality of customer service your agents are providing. 


## Best practices for providing quality customer support

To provide quality customer support, businesses should follow these best practices:


### Build relationships with customers

Rather than simply closing tickets, support agents should look at building relationships with customers. Most customers reaching out to support are stressed about an issue they’re facing. Showing empathy and listening to their concerns can boost customer morale and loyalty to your brand.


### Be proactive and anticipate customer needs

Businesses should be proactive in addressing customer needs by anticipating their needs and providing proactive support. This includes reaching out to customers before they have to contact the business with an issue.


### Communicate clearly and effectively

Complicated terms and technical jargon can only confuse customers further. Support agents should be trained to use simple language that’s easy to understand. This can improve communication with customers and lead to faster resolution of problems.


### Resolve issues quickly and efficiently

The longer a customer has to wait for their issue to be resolved, the more likely they are to leave a low CSAT rating. Having a streamlined support process and providing support staff with the necessary tools and resources to resolve issues can go a long way in reducing first response times and resolution times. 


### Go the extra mile to exceed your customers’ expectations

Meeting customer expectations involves doing the bare minimum to ensure a customer’s issue is resolved. But truly delighting customers involves making an effort to go a step further. This can include offering additional support or resources, providing personalized recommendations, or offering special promotions and discounts.


### Providing personalized support

Providing personalized support is essential to improve customer satisfaction. Some strategies for personalizing support interactions include:

### Using customer names

Using customer names in support interactions can make the customer feel valued and appreciated.

### Tailoring responses to customer needs

Rather than offering the same template responses to every customer, responses should be customized based on the customer’s profile and the issue that they’re facing. 

### Providing product recommendations

Support staff can provide personalized product recommendations based on the customer's needs and preferences.


## Empowering your support team

Empowering your support team is critical for providing quality customer support. Some strategies for empowering your support team include:

### Providing ongoing training and development

Your agents should receive periodic training on the latest developments in customer support technology. They should also receive training on communication and customer-centricity to improve the quality of their interactions with customers. 

### Encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing

Encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing among support staff can help improve their skills and knowledge.

### Providing the right tools and resources

Support agents are constrained by the quality of tools at their disposal. If your agents are still working out of email inboxes, they might not have the necessary data and tools to ensure quick and accurate support. Providing up-to-date customer support software that includes access to knowledge management systems, customer support software, and chatbots can equip agents to provide the best customer experience. 


## Utilizing technology to enhance customer support

Technology can play a critical role in enhancing customer support. Some technology tools and solutions that businesses can use to enhance customer support include:

### Chatbots

Chatbots can provide automated support for routine inquiries and issues, freeing up support staff to focus on more complex issues.

### Customer support software

Customer support software can centralize customer interactions across all platforms, giving your agents a single view of all customer queries. It can also provide important metrics to monitor the quality of customer support and improve agent efficiency. 

### Knowledge management systems

Knowledge management systems can help businesses organize and share knowledge and information with their support team.


## Measuring the success of your customer support strategy

Measuring the success of your customer support strategy is essential for identifying areas for improvement. Some key metrics for measuring customer support success include:

### Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

CSAT measures the level of customer satisfaction with the support they receive.

### Net promoter score (NPS)

NPS measures customer loyalty and the likelihood of customers recommending a company to others.

### First response time

First response time measures how quickly support staff respond to customer inquiries or issues.

### Resolution time

Resolution time measures how quickly support staff resolve customer inquiries or issues.

### Customer retention rate

Customer retention rate measures how many customers continue to remain loyal to your business and make repeated purchases. 

By closely monitoring and analyzing these metrics, businesses can spot the key areas of improvement and make data-driven decisions to improve customer support.


## The Role of Customer Support in Different Business Functions

Providing quality customer support can have a positive impact on various business functions, including:

### Sales

By providing quality customer support, businesses can increase sales. Satisfied customers would be open to the idea of repeat purchases and association with the brand and become loyal customers.

### Marketing

Quality customer support can also impact marketing efforts. Satisfied customers are likely to become advocates for your business by sharing their positive experiences with others and making recommendations. This can lead to higher brand awareness and can lower the cost of customer acquisition. 

### Product development

Customer support can also inform product development. Customer feedback and insights can help businesses find what needs improvement and build new products or features.

### Operations

Quality customer support can improve operations by identifying areas for improvement in business processes and procedures.

## Common customer support challenges and how to overcome them

Businesses may face several challenges when providing quality customer support. Some common challenges include:

### Limited resources

Limited resources, including budget, staff, and time can make it challenging for businesses to provide quality customer support.

### Technology limitations

Outdated or inadequate technology can make it challenging for businesses to provide high-quality customer support.

### High customer expectations

Customers expect quick and accurate responses, and any deviation from these expectations can lead them to have a negative perception of your customer support. It can, therefore, be challenging for businesses to consistently meet customer expectations. 

### Language and cultural barriers

Most companies today have a global workforce, with support teams located in various countries. As a result, there could be language and cultural differences between customers and support agents, which could lead to misunderstandings. To overcome these barriers, companies should invest in training their agents, investing in the best customer support technology, and setting standard operating procedures.

## Conclusion

Providing quality customer support is essential for business success. By assessing their current strategy, understanding customer needs and expectations, providing personalized support, empowering their support team, utilizing technology, measuring success, and following best practices, businesses can improve their customer support strategy and surpass the needs and expectations of their customers.


 5 Ways to Improve Your Customer Support Strategy

To excel in the business these days, quality [customer support](https://devrev.ai/blog/customer-support-tool) plays a crucial role. Customers expect to receive prompt, helpful, and personalized support throughout their entire experience with a company. The article helps us understand quality customer support and its impact on business.

## What is quality customer support?


Quality

refers to helping out customers, resolving their problems and issues, as well as providing them with a service beyond their expectations. Quality customer support goes beyond basic service and involves personalized attention, empathy, and a genuine desire to help customers achieve their goals.


## The benefits of quality customer support

Quality customer support can have numerous benefits for businesses, including:

### Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty

By providing quality customer support, businesses can enhance 

 and loyalty. It has its own benefits; the customer will continue to render the company's services and even refer it to others, thus will contribute to the word-of-mouth-based branding of the company through.

### Improved reputation and brand image

Quality customer support help in building brand image and reputation. With a satisfied customer through our services, a positive company image is created, and the experiences shared helps increase business.

### Increased customer retention and acquisition

Quality customer support can help businesses retain existing customers and attract new ones. Satisfied customers help increase our repeat rate as they continue to render our services and help increase our business through positive recommendations.

### Increased revenue and profitability

By providing quality customer support, businesses can increase revenue and profitability. Satisfied customers are more likely to purchase additional products or services from a company and become loyal customers.

## The costs of poor customer support

On the other hand, poor customer support can have significant costs for businesses, including

### Negative impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty

Poor customer support can lead to customer dissatisfaction and decreased loyalty. Dissatisfied customers can lead to bad-mouthing of the company by sharing their unpleasant experiences and even decrease the business by no longer taking our services.

### Negative impact on reputation and brand image

Poor customer support can also damage a company's reputation and brand image. The reputation of a company gets damaged as customer with negative experiences shares their experiences with others.

### Negative impact on customer retention and acquisition

Poor customer support can lead to decreased customer retention and acquisition. There is a negative impact on them, resulting in their switching to competitors as an alternative and discouraging others from doing business with the company.

### Negative impact on revenue and profitability


Poor customer support can also lead to decreased revenue and profitability. The bad impression can lead them to stop purchasing additional products and services. They tend to find alternatives and result in decreased loyalty.


## Key elements of quality customer support

To provide quality customer support, businesses need to focus on the following key elements:


### Availability and responsiveness


Customers expect businesses to be available and responsive when they need support. Businesses need to provide multiple channels of communication and respond promptly to customer inquiries and issues.


### Personalization and empathy


Customers want to feel valued and understood. Businesses need to personalize their support interactions and show empathy towards customers.

### Knowledge and expertise

Customers expect businesses to have the knowledge and expertise necessary to solve their problems. Businesses need to train their support staff to be knowledgeable and skilled in their field.


### Efficiency and effectiveness

Customers love it when their issues are being solved on a short notice effectively. Businesses need to have streamlined support processes and tools to ensure quick and effective resolution of customer issues.

### Proactivity and follow-up

Customers appreciate businesses that are proactive and follow up after support interactions. Businesses need to anticipate customer needs and follow up to ensure customer satisfaction.

## Strategies for providing quality customer support

To provide quality customer support, businesses need to implement the following strategies:

### Developing a customer-centric culture

Customer satisfaction and a culture centered on it is a must for a business to thrive and should be prioritized by the employees. This can be achieved through proper training on customer service skills and keeping customers in mind while designing all business processes.

### Hiring and training the right people

Hiring the right set of people for the customer support team is a crucial factor in deciding the quality of our customer support as they have to deal with all different types of customers. Regular training is required to keep up with the latest industry trends and technologies.

### Implementing the right tools and technologies

To provide efficient and effective support, businesses need to implement the right tools and technologies. This includes customer support software, knowledge management systems, and chatbots, among others.

### Collecting and analyzing customer feedback

To improve customer support, businesses need to collect and analyze customer feedback. This includes conducting surveys, analyzing customer interactions, and using analytics tools to identify areas for improvement.

### Continuously improving customer support processes

To excel in business and overthrow the competition businesses need to work on their customer support processes. This includes reviewing and refining support procedures, adopting new technologies and tools, and training staff on new skills and techniques.

## The role of technology in quality customer support

Technology does play an important role in providing quality customer support. Some of the key technologies and tools used in customer support include:

### Customer support software

The tool used by businesses to manage customer interactions and process their concerns over multiple channels is what we call Customer Support Software. This enables businesses to provide efficient and effective support to their customers.

### Knowledge management systems

Knowledge management systems help businesses organize and share knowledge and information with their customer support team. This enables support staff to quickly access the information they need to help customers.

### Chatbots

Chatbots are software programs that use artificial intelligence to communicate with customers and provide automated support. Chatbots can handle routine inquiries and issues, freeing up support staff to focus on more complex issues.

## Measuring the success of quality customer support

To measure the success of their customer support efforts, businesses need to track and analyze key metrics. Some of the key metrics used to measure customer support success include:

### Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

CSAT measures the level of 

 with the support they received. This is typically measured through surveys or feedback forms.


### Net promoter score (NPS)

NPS measures customer loyalty and the likelihood of customers recommending a company to others. This is typically measured through surveys or feedback forms.

### First response time

First, response time measures how quickly support staff respond to customer inquiries or issues.

### Resolution time

Resolution time measures how quickly support staff resolve customer inquiries or issues.

### Customer retention rate

Customer retention rate is defined as the percentage of a company’s customers that continue their takeaway or service from the company over time.

## The impact of quality customer support on different business functions

Quality customer support can have a positive impact on various business functions, including:

### Sales


By providing quality customer support, businesses can increase sales. Satisfied customers make repeat purchases and become loyal customers.

### Marketing


Quality customer support can also impact marketing efforts. Satisfied customers share their positive experiences with others. This leads to increased and effective brand awareness, customer retention, and enhanced marketing efforts.

### Product development

Customer support can also inform product development. Customer feedback and insights can help businesses identify areas for improvement and develop new products or features.

### Operations

Quality customer support can improve operations by identifying areas for improvement in business processes and procedures.


## The challenges of providing quality customer support

Businesses may face several challenges when providing quality customer support, including:

### Limited resources

Limited resources, including budget, staff, and time, can make it challenging for businesses to provide quality customer support.


### Technology limitations

Outdated or inadequate technology can make it challenging for businesses to provide efficient and effective customer support.

### High customer expectations

When a customer has an issue, they have high expectations from customer support as they are the ones who are in their direct contact. Therefore it becomes even more challenging when it comes to consistently satisfying their expectations.

### Language and cultural barriers

Diversity in the customer base makes it very challenging for the business to provide quality customer support because of language and cultural barriers.

## Best practices for providing quality customer support

To provide quality customer support, businesses should follow these best practices:

### Building relationships with customers

Building a positive relationship with customers is very important and businesses should focus on it by actively listening to their concerns, providing support, and showing empathy and understanding.

### Being proactive and anticipating customer needs

Businesses should be proactive in addressing customer needs by anticipating their needs and providing proactive support. This includes reaching out to customers before they have to contact the business with an issue.

### Communicating clearly and effectively

Any technical jargon should be avoided while dealing with a customer and it is important to provide clear and concise, easy-to-understand solutions.

### Resolving issues quickly and efficiently

Even if our customer support is perfect, resolving customer issues quickly and efficiently increases customer confidence in the company. This includes having streamlined support processes and procedures and providing support staff with the necessary tools and resources to resolve issues.

### Going above and beyond to exceed customer expectations

Going beyond customer expectations leaves a very positive impact on the customer's mind and helps businesses grow as their customers now talk positively about them. This can include offering additional support or resources, providing personalized recommendations, or offering special promotions or discounts.

## Case Studies of Businesses with Quality Customer Support

There are many examples of businesses that provide exceptional customer support, including:

### Zappos

Zappos is one of the very popular shoe retailers with an exceptional 365-day return policy and a 24/7 and brilliant, proactive customer support team.

### Amazon

Amazon is renowned and globally recognized for its high quality and outstanding expertise in customer service. They provide fast shipping, easy returns, and 24/7 customer support with customer-centric business culture. One of the best features includes “Mayday,” which allows customers to connect with their support representative through their device.

### Apple

There is no doubt why Apple is the leader in the Smartphone industry. This comes not only with a good product but with exceptional customer support, including a plethora of support options like phone support, online chat, and in-store support.

## The future of customer support

It is highly likely that technologies like AI and chatbots will create a totally new era of customer support. These technologies will surely result in completely different customer support, making it faster, more efficient, and more personalized.

To excel in the business these days, quality [customer support](https://devrev.ai/blog/customer-support-tool) plays a crucial role. Customers expect to receive prompt, helpful, and personalized support throughout their entire experience with a company. The article helps us understand quality customer support and its impact on business.

## What is quality customer support?


Quality customer support refers to helping out customers, resolving their problems and issues, as well as providing them with a service beyond their expectations. Quality customer support goes beyond basic service and involves personalized attention, empathy, and a genuine desire to help customers achieve their goals.


## The benefits of quality customer support

Quality customer support can have numerous benefits for businesses, including:

### Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty

By providing quality customer support, businesses can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. It has its own benefits; the customer will continue to render the company's services and even refer it to others, thus will contribute to the word-of-mouth-based branding of the company through.

### Improved reputation and brand image

Quality customer support help in building brand image and reputation. With a satisfied customer through our services, a positive company image is created, and the experiences shared helps increase business.

### Increased customer retention and acquisition

Quality customer support can help businesses retain existing customers and attract new ones. Satisfied customers help increase our repeat rate as they continue to render our services and help increase our business through positive recommendations.

### Increased revenue and profitability

By providing quality customer support, businesses can increase revenue and profitability. Satisfied customers are more likely to purchase additional products or services from a company and become loyal customers.

## The costs of poor customer support

On the other hand, poor customer support can have significant costs for businesses, including

### Negative impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty

Poor customer support can lead to customer dissatisfaction and decreased loyalty. Dissatisfied customers can lead to bad-mouthing of the company by sharing their unpleasant experiences and even decrease the business by no longer taking our services.

### Negative impact on reputation and brand image

Poor customer support can also damage a company's reputation and brand image. The reputation of a company gets damaged as customer with negative experiences shares their experiences with others.

### Negative impact on customer retention and acquisition

Poor customer support can lead to decreased customer retention and acquisition. There is a negative impact on them, resulting in their switching to competitors as an alternative and discouraging others from doing business with the company.

### Negative impact on revenue and profitability


Poor customer support can also lead to decreased revenue and profitability. The bad impression can lead them to stop purchasing additional products and services. They tend to find alternatives and result in decreased loyalty.


## Key elements of quality customer support

To provide quality customer support, businesses need to focus on the following key elements:


### Availability and responsiveness


Customers expect businesses to be available and responsive when they need support. Businesses need to provide multiple channels of communication and respond promptly to customer inquiries and issues.

 
### Personalization and empathy


Customers want to feel valued and understood. Businesses need to personalize their support interactions and show empathy towards customers.

### Knowledge and expertise

Customers expect businesses to have the knowledge and expertise necessary to solve their problems. Businesses need to train their support staff to be knowledgeable and skilled in their field.


### Efficiency and effectiveness

Customers love it when their issues are being solved on a short notice effectively. Businesses need to have streamlined support processes and tools to ensure quick and effective resolution of customer issues.

### Proactivity and follow-up

Customers appreciate businesses that are proactive and follow up after support interactions. Businesses need to anticipate customer needs and follow up to ensure customer satisfaction.

## Strategies for providing quality customer support

To provide quality customer support, businesses need to implement the following strategies:

### Developing a customer-centric culture

Customer satisfaction and a culture centered on it is a must for a business to thrive and should be prioritized by the employees. This can be achieved through proper training on customer service skills and keeping customers in mind while designing all business processes.

### Hiring and training the right people

Hiring the right set of people for the customer support team is a crucial factor in deciding the quality of our customer support as they have to deal with all different types of customers. Regular training is required to keep up with the latest industry trends and technologies.

### Implementing the right tools and technologies

To provide efficient and effective support, businesses need to implement the right tools and technologies. This includes customer support software, knowledge management systems, and chatbots, among others.

### Collecting and analyzing customer feedback

To improve customer support, businesses need to collect and analyze customer feedback. This includes conducting surveys, analyzing customer interactions, and using analytics tools to identify areas for improvement.

### Continuously improving customer support processes

To excel in business and overthrow the competition businesses need to work on their customer support processes. This includes reviewing and refining support procedures, adopting new technologies and tools, and training staff on new skills and techniques.

## The role of technology in quality customer support

Technology does play an important role in providing quality customer support. Some of the key technologies and tools used in customer support include:

### Customer support software

The tool used by businesses to manage customer interactions and process their concerns over multiple channels is what we call Customer Support Software. This enables businesses to provide efficient and effective support to their customers.

### Knowledge management systems

Knowledge management systems help businesses organize and share knowledge and information with their customer support team. This enables support staff to quickly access the information they need to help customers.

### Chatbots

Chatbots are software programs that use artificial intelligence to communicate with customers and provide automated support. Chatbots can handle routine inquiries and issues, freeing up support staff to focus on more complex issues.

## Measuring the success of quality customer support

To measure the success of their customer support efforts, businesses need to track and analyze key metrics. Some of the key metrics used to measure customer support success include:

### Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

CSAT measures the level of customer satisfaction with the support they received. This is typically measured through surveys or feedback forms.


### Net promoter score (NPS)

NPS measures customer loyalty and the likelihood of customers recommending a company to others. This is typically measured through surveys or feedback forms.

### First response time

First, response time measures how quickly support staff respond to customer inquiries or issues.

### Resolution time

Resolution time measures how quickly support staff resolve customer inquiries or issues.

### Customer retention rate

Customer retention rate is defined as the percentage of a company’s customers that continue their takeaway or service from the company over time.

## The impact of quality customer support on different business functions

Quality customer support can have a positive impact on various business functions, including:

### Sales


By providing quality customer support, businesses can increase sales. Satisfied customers make repeat purchases and become loyal customers.

### Marketing


Quality customer support can also impact marketing efforts. Satisfied customers share their positive experiences with others. This leads to increased and effective brand awareness, customer retention, and enhanced marketing efforts.

### Product development

Customer support can also inform product development. Customer feedback and insights can help businesses identify areas for improvement and develop new products or features.

### Operations

Quality customer support can improve operations by identifying areas for improvement in business processes and procedures.


## The challenges of providing quality customer support

Businesses may face several challenges when providing quality customer support, including:

### Limited resources

Limited resources, including budget, staff, and time, can make it challenging for businesses to provide quality customer support.


### Technology limitations

Outdated or inadequate technology can make it challenging for businesses to provide efficient and effective customer support.

### High customer expectations

When a customer has an issue, they have high expectations from customer support as they are the ones who are in their direct contact. Therefore it becomes even more challenging when it comes to consistently satisfying their expectations.

### Language and cultural barriers

Diversity in the customer base makes it very challenging for the business to provide quality customer support because of language and cultural barriers.

## Best practices for providing quality customer support

To provide quality customer support, businesses should follow these best practices:

### Building relationships with customers
 
Building a positive relationship with customers is very important and businesses should focus on it by actively listening to their concerns, providing support, and showing empathy and understanding.

### Being proactive and anticipating customer needs
 
Businesses should be proactive in addressing customer needs by anticipating their needs and providing proactive support. This includes reaching out to customers before they have to contact the business with an issue.

### Communicating clearly and effectively

Any technical jargon should be avoided while dealing with a customer and it is important to provide clear and concise, easy-to-understand solutions.

### Resolving issues quickly and efficiently

Even if our customer support is perfect, resolving customer issues quickly and efficiently increases customer confidence in the company. This includes having streamlined support processes and procedures and providing support staff with the necessary tools and resources to resolve issues.

### Going above and beyond to exceed customer expectations

Going beyond customer expectations leaves a very positive impact on the customer's mind and helps businesses grow as their customers now talk positively about them. This can include offering additional support or resources, providing personalized recommendations, or offering special promotions or discounts.

## Case Studies of Businesses with Quality Customer Support

There are many examples of businesses that provide exceptional customer support, including:

### Zappos

Zappos is one of the very popular shoe retailers with an exceptional 365-day return policy and a 24/7 and brilliant, proactive customer support team.

### Amazon

Amazon is renowned and globally recognized for its high quality and outstanding expertise in customer service. They provide fast shipping, easy returns, and 24/7 customer support with customer-centric business culture. One of the best features includes “Mayday,” which allows customers to connect with their support representative through their device.

### Apple

There is no doubt why Apple is the leader in the Smartphone industry. This comes not only with a good product but with exceptional customer support, including a plethora of support options like phone support, online chat, and in-store support.

## The future of customer support

It is highly likely that technologies like AI and chatbots will create a totally new era of customer support. These technologies will surely result in completely different customer support, making it faster, more efficient, and more personalized.

The Importance of Quality Customer Support for Business Success

## Part 2: Streamlining Software Development Challenges

Software development is a dynamic field that requires constant adaptation to stay ahead of the curve. 

However, many software development teams continue to accept inefficiencies because of outdated project management tools. Let's look at some challenges faced by software development teams.

**Operational Inefficiencies**

Operational inefficiencies are a common challenge faced by software development teams. One of the main areas where inefficiencies arise is in dependency management. As projects grow more complex, teams need to manage an increasing number of dependencies between modules, libraries, and services. This can be time-consuming and error-prone, leading to delays and unexpected issues during development. 

One solution to this challenge is to use tools that automate dependency management, such as dependency managers and package managers. Developers can use these tools to track and manage dependencies automatically, reducing their burden and ensuring effective communication of changes. 

Another challenge is cross-team visibility, where different teams may work independently of each other, leading to silos. 

Tools that provide visibility across teams, such as issue management software and collaboration tools, can help teams communicate effectively and work towards the same goal.


**Empowering Makers**

Empowering individuals is a key challenge in software development. Software development is a creative process, and developers need the freedom to experiment and iterate on their ideas. However, many teams struggle with rigid project management processes that limit individual creativity and innovation. 

To address this challenge, teams require a more flexible, agile implementation process to prioritize based on new teachings continuously. This approach allows developers to experiment and iterate on their ideas, while also providing regular feedback and checkpoints to ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal. Balancing customer requirements with innovation is another important aspect of empowering individuals. 

Teams should encourage developers to think creatively and explore new ideas while also ensuring that they meet customer needs.


**Productivity Blockers**

Productivity blockers are another common challenge faced by software development teams. Recurring meetings and a culture of status checks can increase distractions that take away from valuable development time. 

To overcome these challenges, teams can adopt processes that prioritize focus and minimize distractions. One effective strategy is to limit the number and duration of meetings, ensuring that they are well-organized and productive. Encouraging developers to allocate dedicated focus time each day can also help them maintain concentration and increase their productivity. By adopting such practices, teams can improve their developers' performance, resulting in better outcomes for the project.

To overcome these challenges, software development teams must adopt a flexible and adaptive approach that allows them to keep pace with the constantly changing demands of the industry. By addressing the issues stated head-on, teams can streamline the development process and ensure the delivery of high-quality software that actually meets customer needs.

Break Free from Agile Pt. 2 - Streamlining Software Development Challenges

## You have Jira

Almost 20 years ago, Jira redefined work for developers. The magical ticket management system fueled an era that was increasingly powered by the web browser, open source, and offshore development. Atlassian, the company behind Jira, was an original PLG company that let developers use its freemium software, no questions asked. Jira not only changed how we built software, but also how software companies worked. Engineering organizations went from expensive desktop tools to an affordable lightweight web application that upgraded often. Startups went from spreadsheets and emails to a system of record that helped scale their businesses.

Over the years, Jira went from being a bug tracking tool to a platform for workflows and product management. Companies went from monolithic waterfall release planning to agile development methodologies with sprints, epics, and stories. Agile became a necessity. Process was king.

Agile morphed into continuous integration and continuous deployment with the advent of cloud. Work became continuous and even more bite-sized, powered by informal chats and social conversations. Tickets became the new waterfall, and developers became loath to update them, while managers worried about the accuracy of their dashboards. Systems of record were now the breeding ground for vanity metrics such as developer productivity, story points, and burndown charts. The uncontrolled sprawl of metadata made developers crave for a system of engagement that was less informal, more delightful. Work needed to be more than a chore, a mere statistic.

## You like Slack

Jira had uncontrolled metadata, one KPI too many, and way more administration than what makers could fathom. More importantly, it celebrated process, and process alone. Product was relegated to component dropdowns at best. Customers were the domain of CRM systems. Users, no one bothered! After all, “users” were a B2C jargon, so why should a B2B software company care?

In the last decade, as B2B went SaaS, startups started to care about informal work and real-time collaboration, including with end users and partners. The informalism of GitHub Issues and 

was very attractive to companies craving for end user feedback, product-market fit (PMF) jitters, and in-app-everything.

Slack was a master of all things informal. From emojis and reactions to grassroots channels and search, the social tool had made collaboration real-time, delightful, and mobile. Even machines could participate via their bots! That’s how egalitarian social could be. Of course, they had to shun all metadata – process, product, customer object models – to achieve their “work os” moniker. And that clean canvas thinking required creating a parallel universe of channels, one for every “boring” work item recorded by legacy systems of record.

Work, though, is beyond the walled garden of companies. The success of the cloud model – both the public cloud and the offshore delivery “cloud” – has proven beyond doubt that work will increasingly be done in partnership with others. Users of a product, through their community, will play an increasingly important role in improving product experiences, championing products, and partaking in web3 tokenomics of the brand. Work also needs insights, which, for better or worse, needs metadata around product catalog, user activity, and customer transactions.

So the key question is: how do you keep work social, while still preserving product- and user-centricity? What else can one make with one part oxygen, and two parts hydrogen?!

## You'll love DevRev

Those two parts of hydrogen are product-centricity and user-centricity, and social provides the oxygen to bind the product, the user, and all work together. There is no ‘P’ in PLG without the user, and that’s why we believe in PLuG. The identity of the user, the notifications to the user, the incentives of the user – they are all key to product engagement. At DevRev, we believe that makers – developers, engineers, and PMs – need to be plugged into the “matrix” of end users.

## PLuG (and Play!)

Imagine you could add five lines of code into your application and now your app comes alive with an exhilaratingly simple real-time conversation widget to add social touch to all interactions.

What separates PLuG from other business messengers, though, is not just the ease of use in how you install and configure it, but also what happens when your customer success team is having real-time conversations with your users. Every conversation that is a customer problem immediately gets connected to a ticket that is linked to the right product “part” and tagged with the right developer or PM who owns that piece of code or feature. We call it Product-led User Growth (PLuG). We think this is the future of customer relationship management – real-time, maker-aware, and product-centric.

PLuG, over time, will help Product Managers(PMs) bypass spam marketing emails to educate, notify, and reward end users right in the application. The widget will also capture anonymized data around user behavior and error diagnostics to share with developers. The last mile of PLG will need you all to be totally plugged in!

## Real-time work, meet Play!

We designed a work management system built for the social product-led era.
Command line tools to create and update tasks from Github?
Sure.
Slack like channels for issues, tickets, features, and capabilities?
No problem.
Notifications to make sure you find and fix something even before your customers know about them?
Why not?
All work items connected to your customers on one end and your code/product on the other?
Now, we are talking.
Self-healing code?
Keep guessing …

## Product-led. Customer-centered. Catalog-ready.

We built an exhilaratingly simple system of record for your product that shows you the full picture of features and capabilities of your product “catalog” and connected them back to your work items including real-time conversations.

We call it Trails.

Did we mention it updates in real-time when you check in code to Github?

## H20 in love!

The world’s first DevCRM platform – with its design, data, and machine intelligence – will make PLG come to life. With a freemium distribution model, we hope to make it as ubiquitous as water!

You’ve code.
You want Product-Market Fit.
You’ll love DevRev.

You’ve product.
You want Product-Led Growth.
You’ll love DevRev.

You’ve Jira.
You like Slack.
You’ll love DevRev.

[Sign up here](https://devrev.ai/landing/beta?utm_source=artclead&utm_medium=fb&utm_campaign=slackjiraarticle) and become a part of the next revolution that brings your work, catalog, and customers in one place. A place called DevRev.

## You have Jira

Almost 20 years ago, Jira redefined work for developers. The magical ticket management system fueled an era that was increasingly powered by the web browser, open source, and offshore development. Atlassian, the company behind Jira, was an original PLG company that let developers use its freemium software, no questions asked. Jira not only changed how we built software, but also how software companies worked. Engineering organizations went from expensive desktop tools to an affordable lightweight web application that upgraded often. Startups went from spreadsheets and emails to a system of record that helped scale their businesses.

Over the years, Jira went from being a bug tracking tool to a platform for workflows and product management. Companies went from monolithic waterfall release planning to agile development methodologies with sprints, epics, and stories. Agile became a necessity. Process was king.

Agile morphed into continuous integration and continuous deployment with the advent of cloud. Work became continuous and even more bite-sized, powered by informal chats and social conversations. Tickets became the new waterfall, and developers became loath to update them, while managers worried about the accuracy of their dashboards. Systems of record were now the breeding ground for vanity metrics such as developer productivity, story points, and burndown charts. The uncontrolled sprawl of metadata made developers crave for a system of engagement that was less informal, more delightful. Work needed to be more than a chore, a mere statistic.

## You like Slack

Jira had uncontrolled metadata, one KPI too many, and way more administration than what makers could fathom. More importantly, it celebrated process, and process alone. Product was relegated to component dropdowns at best. Customers were the domain of CRM systems. Users, no one bothered! After all, “users” were a B2C jargon, so why should a B2B software company care?

In the last decade, as B2B went SaaS, startups started to care about informal work and real-time collaboration, including with end users and partners. The informalism of GitHub Issues and Slack was very attractive to companies craving for end user feedback, product-market fit (PMF) jitters, and in-app-everything.

Slack was a master of all things informal. From emojis and reactions to grassroots channels and search, the social tool had made collaboration real-time, delightful, and mobile. Even machines could participate via their bots! That’s how egalitarian social could be. Of course, they had to shun all metadata – process, product, customer object models – to achieve their “work os” moniker. And that clean canvas thinking required creating a parallel universe of channels, one for every “boring” work item recorded by legacy systems of record.

Work, though, is beyond the walled garden of companies. The success of the cloud model – both the public cloud and the offshore delivery “cloud” – has proven beyond doubt that work will increasingly be done in partnership with others. Users of a product, through their community, will play an increasingly important role in improving product experiences, championing products, and partaking in web3 tokenomics of the brand. Work also needs insights, which, for better or worse, needs metadata around product catalog, user activity, and customer transactions.

So the key question is: how do you keep work social, while still preserving product- and user-centricity? What else can one make with one part oxygen, and two parts hydrogen?!

## You'll love DevRev

Those two parts of hydrogen are product-centricity and user-centricity, and social provides the oxygen to bind the product, the user, and all work together. There is no ‘P’ in PLG without the user, and that’s why we believe in PLuG. The identity of the user, the notifications to the user, the incentives of the user – they are all key to product engagement. At DevRev, we believe that makers – developers, engineers, and PMs – need to be plugged into the “matrix” of end users.

## PLuG (and Play!) 

Imagine you could add five lines of code into your application and now your app comes alive with an exhilaratingly simple real-time conversation widget to add social touch to all interactions.

What separates PLuG from other business messengers, though, is not just the ease of use in how you install and configure it, but also what happens when your customer success team is having real-time conversations with your users. Every conversation that is a customer problem immediately gets connected to a ticket that is linked to the right product “part” and tagged with the right developer or PM who owns that piece of code or feature. We call it Product-led User Growth (PLuG). We think this is the future of customer relationship management – real-time, maker-aware, and product-centric.

PLuG, over time, will help Product Managers(PMs) bypass spam marketing emails to educate, notify, and reward end users right in the application. The widget will also capture anonymized data around user behavior and error diagnostics to share with developers. The last mile of PLG will need you all to be totally plugged in!

## Real-time work, meet Play!

We designed a work management system built for the social product-led era.
Command line tools to create and update tasks from Github? 
Sure. 
Slack like channels for issues, tickets, features, and capabilities?
No problem.
Notifications to make sure you find and fix something even before your customers know about them? 
Why not?
All work items connected to your customers on one end and your code/product on the other?
Now, we are talking.
Self-healing code?
Keep guessing …

## Product-led. Customer-centered. Catalog-ready.

We built an exhilaratingly simple system of record for your product that shows you the full picture of features and capabilities of your product “catalog” and connected them back to your work items including real-time conversations. 

We call it Trails. 

Did we mention it updates in real-time when you check in code to Github?

## H20 in love!

The world’s first DevCRM platform – with its design, data, and machine intelligence – will make PLG come to life. With a freemium distribution model, we hope to make it as ubiquitous as water!

You’ve code.
You want Product-Market Fit.
You’ll love DevRev.

You’ve product.
You want Product-Led Growth.
You’ll love DevRev.

You’ve Jira.
You like Slack.
You’ll love DevRev.

[Sign up here](https://devrev.ai/landing/beta?utm_source=artclead&utm_medium=fb&utm_campaign=slackjiraarticle) and become a part of the next revolution that brings your work, catalog, and customers in one place. A place called DevRev.

You have Jira. You like Slack.  You’ll love DevRev!

Palo Alto, April 20, 2022: DevRev, a business software company bringing Developers closer to their customers (Revenue), today announced the beta release of their platform.

Launching as the world’s first Developer Customer Relationship Management (

) platform, DevRev brings together the holy trinity of product-led companies – product, customer, and developer.

The company announced that over 100 customers have already signed up for beta.

The beta release represents a year’s effort from 100 DevRev developers, a grand total of 10,000 pull requests and hundreds of hours of customer interviews.

DevRev brings together customer conversations, work management with real-time collaboration, and a system of record for product in a single platform.


**About DevRev**

DevRev is a business software company that brings developers and customers together in the era of product-led growth. The company is building an API-first, dev-centric CRM that leverages data, design, and machine intelligence to empower developers to build, support, and grow their businesses. In times of anemic NPS and high customer churn, DevRev strives to create the world's most customer-centric companies led by happy developers. Grok and grep more on DevRev via the web, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Palo Alto, April 20, 2022:  DevRev, a business software company bringing Developers closer to their customers (Revenue), today announced the beta release of their platform.

Launching as the world’s first Developer Customer Relationship Management (Dev CRM) platform, DevRev brings together the holy trinity of product-led companies – product,  customer, and developer.

The company announced that over 100 customers have already signed up for beta. 

The beta release represents a year’s effort from 100 DevRev developers, a grand total of 10,000 pull requests and hundreds of hours of customer interviews.

DevRev brings together customer conversations, work management with real-time collaboration, and a system of record for product in a single platform.


**About DevRev**

DevRev is a business software company that brings developers and customers together in the era of product-led growth. The company is building an API-first, dev-centric CRM that leverages data, design, and machine intelligence to empower developers to build, support, and grow their businesses. In times of anemic NPS and high customer churn, DevRev strives to create the world's most customer-centric companies led by happy developers. Grok and grep more on DevRev via the web, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

DevRev launches their DevCRM beta, a platform for Product-Led companies

## What is Psychological Safety?

When we first think about joining an organization, it is normal for us to consider the financial benefits of the position and how it could help further our career. However, what is arguably the most important question to ask ourselves is how being a part of this organization would make us feel. 

This should not be underestimated, as it can have an enormous effect on our overall experience and success in the long term—no matter how attractive the financial package or career advancement initially appears. Workplace culture, and how it affects employees, is critical when considering your next career move.

For too long, the workplace culture has encouraged fear and punished mistakes instead of cultivating a sense of safety that encourages productive risk-taking. Fortunately, Amy Edmonson's concept of psychological safety brought this issue to light in 1999 - it’s defined as one’s perception about taking interpersonal risks with confidence rather than anxiously waiting for potential punishment. As we work toward creating more positive and encouraging workspaces, understanding how to foster psychological safety is crucial!

## What does Psychological Safety mean for Companies?

By nature, we are all hesitant to engage in or display behaviors that might lead to punishment. In the workplace, we often fear coming across as incompetent. We see examples of this when individuals are afraid to “ask stupid questions.” In response to this fear, we hesitate to ask for help and are fearful to admit to our mistakes. A psychologically safe environment, however, is one in which individuals feel empowered to ask questions and make mistakes without the fear of being hurt, embarrassed, or punished by their employer.

Even though recent findings have shown that psychological safety has a direct impact on work performance, employers still struggle with providing a psychologically safe environment. 

In fact, Google’s “Project Aristotle” found that only 45% of employees across the world described their workplace as being psychologically safe (Google, 2015). When company atmosphere encourages managers to reprimand their employees, companies are doing the exact opposite of what has been proven to drive performance.

## Why Company Punishment Occurs

So, why do they do it then?

The practice of punishment is not a foreign concept and has been occurring in society for centuries. By definition, punishment refers to the procedure of adding or removing aversive stimulus in order to decrease a targeted behavior (Cooper, Heron, Heward, 2007).

Usually, we see punishment showed in the workplace by adding an aversive stimulus after displaying the undesired behavior. For example, an aversive stimulus in the workplace could be a reprimand or threatening statements. We, as a society, believe that the only way to decrease an undesirable behavior is to use punishment. Studies have shown, however, that positive reinforcement is a far better way to increase desired behavior in the long term.

However, an important outcome of punishment that we overlook is how it makes the individual feel. Although it can be effective (but not more effective than positive reinforcement), punishment leaves individuals feeling shamed and fearful. This method does not aid in providing a psychologically safe environment for employees, and thus results in a decrease in long-term performance and employee morale.

## The Consequences

What happens when we don’t provide a psychologically safe environment?

*People Leave.*

With psychological safety playing a crucial role in the success of our teams, it's important to create an environment where employees feel comfortable taking risks. Without this safe atmosphere, we risk reducing feelings of autonomy and purpose- two key ingredients toward long-lasting engagement with their work. Poor mental health can lead to burnout, which could ultimately result in turnover; so providing a nurturing space is paramount for team members' wellbeing and productivity. 

In fact, Google’s ‘Project Oxygen’ study determined that one vital trait successful leaders implement is creating inclusive atmospheres - expressing genuine concern for those they manage along with demonstrating empathy towards colleagues which goes beyond the job description itself!

## Improving our Own Environments

How do we foster a psychologically safe environment?

As stated above, employees feel it is most important to ask questions and make mistakes without fear. Employees might ask themselves, “If I do this thing, or ask this question, will I be subjecting myself to an opportunity to be hurt, embarrassed, or punished?” 

This simple question drives a great deal of each employee’s behavior in the workplace.

## The Real Results of Negative and Positive Enforcements

When we do not provide a psychologically safe environment, we unintentionally punish autonomy and risk-taking behaviors. Startups rely heavily on these very behaviors in order to drive the success of the company. Without risk-taking, there can be no innovation, and without innovation, the startup will fail.

Employees are far more likely to produce better results and provide loyalty to a company when they feel they are being treated well by that company. Startups can gain the most out of their employees by simply treating them well and fostering a psychologically safe enforcement. 

We must provide opportunities for input and questions from each employee. As the saying goes, “there are no stupid questions,” and we must provide an environment that truly shows this belief.

Employers can cultivate an environment of success and improve performance by employing positive reinforcement. Focusing on highlighting successes rather than shortcomings, while giving clear and constructive feedback, encourages the employee to ask questions without fear of repercussions – leading to a safe atmosphere that fosters growth. Measurable behaviors should be defined so employees know what is expected from them.

## It’s Not Enough

Raises, bonuses, and Friday Pizza Parties are no longer enough to aid in employee morale and retention. Employers will find that they receive the most out of their employees when they provide a psychologically safe environment that welcomes questions and views shortcomings as opportunities for growth. 

Let’s work together as companies, employees, and coworkers to start building this new standard of environment for our work places, let’s build a new standard.

**Simply Put: Money matters. But, happiness matters most.**

How DevRev is Building an Environment of Psychological Safety

Providing excellent customer support is crucial for the success of any business, but not all industries have the same needs for customer service. Choosing the right customer support platform based on your industry can make a significant difference in the quality of your customer support and ultimately affect your business’s bottom line.

Whether you are in healthcare, finance, retail, or any other industry, understanding the unique challenges and needs of your customers is essential.

For instance, healthcare organizations may require secure communication channels to comply with HIPAA regulations. Meanwhile, e-commerce companies may need features like chatbots to handle a high volume of customer inquiries. On the other hand, startups typically need a customer support platform that is sturdy and assists them in fostering customer relationships and developing quality products through user insights.

In this blog post, we will explore eight [alternatives to Zendesk](https://devrev.ai/blog/zendesk-alternatives) that cater to specific industries and their unique customer support needs.
By choosing the right customer support platform for your industry, you can streamline your support operations, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately drive business growth.

## 8 Customer Support tools based on industries: A complete breakdown

### Customer Support tool to consider instead of Zendesk if you are in Retail 🛒

An online retailer is one of the power users of customer support platforms. The online shoppers engage with the seller through live chat, email, social media, and phone frequently and for different requirements - shipment status, return policies, and more. So, a retailer should make sure that their customer support platform enables them to:

- Provide customer support across multiple channels to meet the ongoing and diverse needs of the customers
- Help them streamline their operations through automation (self-serve capabilities) to handle a high volume of support requests
- Integrate with the key eCommerce platforms and tools they are using to enable context and personalization

#### The best Customer Support tool for Retail: Help Scout

- Shared inbox
- Automated live chat
- Integrated Knowledge base
- Analytics and Reporting
- Integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce & Magento

### Pricing: 

- Starts at $20 per user per month

### Customer support tool to consider instead of Zendesk if you are a Startup 💻

A startup should be very particular and picky about the customer support platform since it plays a huge role in building, keeping, and growing a strong customer base and growing the business.

So, a startup should ensure that its customer support platform enables them to:

- Be affordable and scalable and include all the essential features and functionalities
- Enable ease of use and should be quick to set up and get things going so that there is no time and effort wasted on training
- Choose a customer support platform that supports multiple channels, such as email, phone, chat, and social media, for a seamless customer experience

#### The best Customer Support tool for Startups: Freshdesk

- Multi-channel support
- Make agents productive through automation
- Tickets customization
- Enterprise-grade security
- Detailed reports and analytics
- Ease of use
- Affordability
- Self-service with knowledge base

### Pricing: 

- Starts at $15/agent/month


You can also check out some [Freshdesk alternatives](https://devrev.ai/blog/freshdesk-alternatives) for Startups.

### Customer Support tool to consider instead of Zendesk if you are in Healthcare 🏥

A customer support platform for the healthcare industry should be secure, compliant, customizable, and provide a range of features and functionalities to meet the unique needs of healthcare organizations. The healthcare industry should choose a customer support platform based on ease-of-use and security features to make sure that the patients and customers can communicate with no hassle. Here’s what to look for in a Zendesk alternative for the healthcare industry:

- Protects the patient data and hence be compliant, secure, and should have encryption
- Customizable to create custom fields, workflows, and reports
- Allows for personalized communication, such as addressing patients by name and providing tailored support based on patient needs, historical records for context, and more

#### The best Customer Support Tool for Healthcare: Salesforce Health Cloud

- Create canned responses
- Context-rich hybrid ticket streams
- Data security (security measures including HTTPS encryption and DDoS mitigation)
- Easy to set up 1-1 appointments
- Multichannel support

### Pricing: 

- Starts at $9/agent/month

### Customer Support tool to consider instead of Zendesk if you are in Education 🧑‍🎓

The education industry has unique requirements for customer support platforms for providing support to students, teachers, and other stakeholders. When choosing a customer support platform, education institutions should consider the following factors:

- Ability to integrate with other education tools like leave management system (LMS)
- A community forum for teachers, students, and parents to communicate actively and engage with each other
- Multichannel support to provide students and parents with immediate answers to pressing questions like exam dates, fees, admission procedures, scholarships, assignments, attendance, and more

#### The best Customer Support tool for Education industry: Zoho Desk

- Multichannel support
- Share issues with other departments
- Self-serve with FAQs
- Community forums for students, teachers & parents
- Intelligent automation, workflows & macros
- Powerful integrations

### Pricing: 

- Starts at $12/agent/month

### Customer Support tool to consider instead of Zendesk if you are in Finance 🤑

When choosing a customer support platform for the finance industry, there are several key features to consider, and here’s a quick rundown:

- The finance industry deals with a lot of confidential data, and hence the customer support software must be compliant and secure
- The platform should easily integrate with existing finance tools and platforms for more context and personalization
- Automating workflows not only streamlines support operations and reduces response times but also requires the platform to offer comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities.

#### The best Customer Support tool for Finance Industry: Intercom

- Easy to set up FAQs
- Configurable set-up
- Self-service
- Integrated knowledge base
- Automated assignment rules
- Custom bots
- Advanced Reporting

### Pricing: 

- Starts at $39/month

You can also check out some [Intercom alternatives](https://devrev.ai/blog/intercom-alternatives) for the finance industry.

### Customer Support tool to consider instead of Zendesk if you are in Manufacturing 🏭

A customer support platform for the manufacturing industry should be able to integrate with existing systems, have powerful automation, manage product information, and provide robust analytics and reporting capabilities. Here are some specific features required in a Zendesk alternative for the manufacturing industry:

- Include tight integrations with ERP and inventory management software to provide a seamless experience for customers and support agents
- Store and manage product information, such as product specs, manuals, and more, to resolve customer queries with context and ease
- Provides robust analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing the manufacturing organization to track metrics

#### The best Customer Support tool for Manufacturing: Groove

- Knowledge base
- Omnichannel support
- Robust reporting
- Live chat
- Ticketing
- Integrations (Stripe, Messenger, Slack, etc.)

### Pricing: 

- Starts at $20/user/month

### Customer Support tool to consider instead of Zendesk if you are in a Non-profit 💟

When choosing a customer support tool for your non-profit organization, consider specific features like donation management, fundraising campaign tracking, etc.

- Integrates with a plethora of tools used by non-profit organizations, like fundraising software, event management systems, and more
- Includes secure and compliant tools as non-profits deal with sensitive donor information

#### The best Customer Support tool for Non-profits: Salesforce Service Cloud

- Automation and workflows
- Seamless Slack integration
- Case management
- Omnichannel routing
- Remote help
- Self-serve
- Omnichannel support
- Reporting & analytics

### Pricing: 

- Starts at $25/user/month

### Customer Support tool to consider instead of Zendesk if you are in Real Estate 🏢

The real estate industry relies heavily on customer relationships, as buying and selling a property is a very elaborate, time-consuming, and complex process. Therefore, a customer support platform should handle many inquiries, provide quick and accurate responses on all channels, and allow for easy collaboration between real estate agents and customers. Here are some key features a real estate industry should look for in a customer support platform:

- Allows seamless communication across email, phone, chat, and social media as the end-users are diverse and communicate across multiple channels.
- Integrates with CRM data so that the agent gets a complete overview of the customer’s history and profile to provide tailor-made support based on their preferences
- Encourages tight collaboration through chat, co-browsing, screen sharing, and more because agents and customers chat frequently

#### The best Customer Support tool for Real Estate: Hubspot

- Conversations
- Tickets
- Automation and Routing
- Knowledge base
- Omnichannel support
- Conversational bots
- SLAs
- Mobile inbox

### Pricing: 

- Starts at $20/user/month

### Looking for a solution that is industry agnostic?

DevRev is a 2-in-1 platform for Customer Support and Product Management to reduce waste, have a direct line to your customer, and build beautiful products.
While there are several competitors to Zendesk available based on industry type, choosing one often requires making trade-offs between certain features. However, with Devrev, you can have it all. This powerful platform offers a comprehensive solution that addresses all your needs without sacrificing any critical features.
DevRev is the only platform encompassing all the features in a customer support platform that serves the unique needs of every industry. Here’s how DevRev is industry agnostic:

- In-App product support combined with a scalable and customizable ticketing platform and live chat that turns agents into customer engineers
- Product-led channels to communicate with customers across emails, chat, Slack, Discord, and more
- Bi-directional, synchronous views into real-time customer conversations across PLuG, Slack, and email
- Snap-ins to install powerful automation or integrate with your favorite apps
- Conversational AI that learns from your knowledge base to generate a conversational response to any customer request
- Responses to customer queries with GPT-powered replies
- Ticket grouping with smart clusters that find semantic similarity across customer feedback to auto-generate product insights


If you’re interested in learning more about how DevRev can help you own customer delight, go ahead and [try it out](https://app.devrev.ai/signup?_gl=1*ghf26f*_ga*NTk1NTQ3NjYwLjE2Nzc3NDA1Mjk.*_ga_M8W9DZYXKF*MTY4MzcwNDI1Ni45Ni4xLjE2ODM3MTgyNjEuNDEuMC4w)!

Zendesk Not Helping? Here are 8 Alternatives Based on Your Industry

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Creation takes time. But it also takes energy, vision, and sometimes conflict, sacrifices, and constant experiments every step of the way. In this process of building brick by brick, it is often the milestones that help us pull back and reflect on how far we have come and how much farther we have to go.

Today is one of those milestones. 

Today we are announcing the General Availability of DevRev, the world’s first DevCRM. In addition, we are also announcing the first app on the platform: product-led support aimed at a new breed of product-led companies looking to support their customers with code, and automation and looking to bring their customers and customer support engineers closer to their developers.

## Product-led support

A new breed of companies is leading the way in supporting their customers by tying customer interactions with product features and creating bespoke workflows that smartly detect issues even before users are aware of them and proactively fix them. This requires stitching systems like live chat widgets, customer identity, a support ticketing system, and a backend work management tool like Jira.

With DevRev’s product-led support, companies can now connect customer conversations with a ticketing and Knowledge-based platform with an integrated issues management workflow connected to the product features. All of this with real-time multiplayer collaboration and connections to other apps that companies currently use like Jira, Slack, and GitHub.

Let’s take a [look](https://youtu.be/5OqdQPHWvw0)

## PLS features:

Here are some of the things you can take advantage of right away by signing up for free on DevRev:
**PLuG Conversation widget:**

With a few lines of code, Install an in-app conversation widget that opens up real-time communication with your customers. We call this the PLuG widget.
![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/d09d719234cf6b2e8db4cdaa8f8f598912c536a8-512x872.png?w=512)

**Realtime updates for your users:** Keep your users always in the loop, with real-time status of their tickets, through the PLuG widget integrated with the PLuG Inbox.

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/7e6f66023d59cf48eafb8afc4e0639dd35147c9a-1514x946.png?w=1514)


**Knowledge-based articles and their management:** Along with adding and managing KB articles by DevOrg, users now have the ability to search them through PLuG widget.  

**Never miss your messages:** Whether your customers are chatting with you on PLuG or responding to your email, you can now stay notified 24x7.

**Convergence of Conversations, Tickets, and Issues:**
Track all your customer requests from within the conversations with a ticket. Connect and track developer work by connecting tickets with issues. Watch bi-directional updates flow through the system for effective customer-centricity. 

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/6a3b71e15e07448d50977cd5c3f7b2ad39f83466-1380x938.png?w=1380)


**Real-time, social collaboration with the entire team:** With Slack-like features, work with your colleagues as if they are sitting right next to you. 

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/499d312c322a63c0dbac1e301185ee187721d5c0-1224x900.png?w=1224)

**Work management with Vistas:**
Create views of your team’s work and share them with others. We call it Vistas.

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/0db02faa28611c112df0b2b23e6ae9626a41d324-1440x900.png?w=1440)


**Integration with your favorite apps:** Integrate your favorite apps like Github, Bitbucket, Jira, Slack, Linear, and many more.
 
**Interact with DevRev from Slack:** Never leave your customers in the dark! Create DevRev tickets and keep customers up to date without ever leaving Slack. Create DevRev tickets or issues from Slack conversations and stay up to date as the status of the work items change.

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/59d9fb9670387341710f5e18387126182df612f4-1400x930.png?w=1400)


**Automatic GitHub Updates:** Put your work in autopilot with Github and DevRev and make updates in real-time, and make your developer free from doing status updates.

**Product System of Record with Trails:**
Connect your code from your repository (Github, Bitbucket, etc.) and map them to features used by your customers and connect to issues and tickets. This is the true essence of product-centricity.

![image](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/umrbtih2/production/9e63afd16b5f87baf4b20702bee150bd7f8b34e5-1440x900.png?w=1440)


These are only some of the features we are releasing today.

Sign up for free [here](https://app.devrev.ai/) and hit the PLuG icon in the bottom left corner of the screen to chat with us.

We have just started our journey of a thousand miles and we hope you join us as we build the first [operating system for PLG companies](https://devrev.ai/articles/all/product-led-growth). 


The birth of a new platform for PLG  companies

The software product lifecycle is a structured process that software development teams follow to create, maintain, and eventually sunset software products. Understanding this lifecycle is crucial for organizations and individuals involved in software development. By gaining insights into the journey behind the scenes, we can appreciate the intricacies involved and make informed decisions throughout the process.

## Phase 1: Conceptualization and ideation

During this initial phase, the focus is on brainstorming and identifying a problem that the software product will solve. Extensive market research is conducted to gather insights into user needs and competitor offerings. Ideas are generated, and concepts are developed, setting the foundation for the subsequent stages.

## Phase 2: Requirements gathering and analysis

In this phase, the functional and non-functional requirements of the software product are defined. Stakeholder interviews and discussions help gather comprehensive information about user expectations, business objectives, and technical constraints. Feasibility studies and risk analysis are performed to identify potential challenges and mitigate them effectively.

## Phase 3: Design and architecture

Thoughtful design and architecture play a crucial role in determining the software product’s ultimate success, user experience, and functionality. Wireframes and prototypes are created to visualize the product's interface and flow. User experience (UX) design considerations are incorporated to ensure intuitive and seamless interactions. The architectural design establishes the software's underlying structure and system planning.

## Phase 4: Development and coding

The development phase involves translating the design and architecture into actual code. The development team chooses the appropriate programming language and technology stack based on the project's requirements. Features and functionalities are implemented incrementally, following coding best practices and industry standards. Continuous integration and version control systems are employed to maintain code quality and facilitate collaboration among developers.

## Phase 5: Testing and quality assurance

While often an afterthought, thorough testing is an integral part of the software product lifecycle that ensures reliability and performance. The different types of testing include unit tests, integration tests, system tests, and acceptance tests. Test-driven development (TDD) methodologies are employed, where tests are written before the code, ensuring better code coverage and minimizing bugs. Bug tracking systems are utilized to document and resolve identified issues.

## Phase 6: Deployment and release

The deployment phase focuses on making the software product available to end-users. The development team selects an appropriate deployment environment, considering factors such as scalability, security, and cost. Preparing for production release involves fine-tuning the software, conducting final testing, and addressing any remaining issues. Rollout strategies, such as phased releases or full deployment, are determined based on project requirements and user expectations.

## Phase 7: Maintenance and support

Once the software product is deployed, it enters the maintenance and support phase. This phase involves monitoring the software's performance, handling user feedback and bug fixes, and providing technical support. Frequent updates and patches are released to address any vulnerabilities, improve usability, and enhance end user experience. Proactive maintenance ensures the software remains reliable and up-to-date.

## Phase 8: End of life and decommissioning

All software products have a lifecycle and eventually, there comes a point where the product reaches the end of its usefulness. In the end-of-life phase, decisions are made regarding system retirement. End-of-life criteria are identified, considering factors such as technological advancements, market changes, and evolving user needs. Legacy system considerations and data migration strategies are employed to transition to newer solutions seamlessly.

## Challenges in the software product lifecycle

The software product lifecycle is not without its challenges. Managing changing requirements can be a daunting task, requiring effective communication and adaptability. Dealing with technical debt accumulated as a result of quick fixes and shortcuts demands careful planning and efficient resource allocation. Balancing time, cost, and quality throughout the lifecycle can also be challenging, as each aspect requires careful consideration and trade-offs.

## Best practices for a successful product lifecycle

To ensure a successful software product lifecycle, several best practices can be followed. Collaboration and communication among teams are crucial for maintaining a shared understanding and alignment of goals. Agile methodologies, such as Scrum or Kanban, promote iterative development and flexibility in responding to changing requirements. Emphasizing user feedback through usability testing and incorporating it into the development process improves the product's usability and user satisfaction.

## The role of project management in the product lifecycle

Project management plays a vital role in orchestrating the software product lifecycle. Project managers are responsible for coordinating teams, managing timelines and budgets, and ensuring project success. Agile project management approaches, such as Agile Scrum or Lean, offer frameworks for effective project planning, execution, and monitoring. Key aspects of effective project management include clear communication, stakeholder engagement, and risk management.

## Measuring success: Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Measuring success in the software product lifecycle requires defining and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) for each phase. These KPIs can include metrics such as time to market, customer satisfaction, defect density, and return on investment. Monitoring project progress against these KPIs enables teams to evaluate performance, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions for enhancing the product's success.

## Final thoughts

The software product lifecycle involves multiple stages from conceptualization to end-of-life, making it a dynamic and iterative process. Each phase contributes to the creation of a successful software product, requiring careful planning, execution, and continuous improvement. Understanding this enables organizations and teams to make informed decisions, mitigate risks, and deliver high-quality software products.


Unveiling the Software Product Lifecycle: Journey Behind the Scenes

## Who are we?

On May 2, 2022, we kicked off an incredible experience in the DevRev Bangalore office as interns. We embraced life in a new city and discovered their tech stack with help from the warm and welcoming team! Despite some initial challenges during our onboarding process, everyone was incredibly hospitable - it felt like home away from home!

After unpacking our bags and getting up to speed with the project's requirements, we jumped right into developing a sample application that could be deployed on Amazon Elastic Beanstalk. Let the coding commence!

## The first step in a new project

With careful consideration, we crafted a product requirements document that was customized to the specifications of one of our Beta customers. As every minute detail was discussed and accounted for, we gradually zoomed in on all aspects - from high-level descriptions to intricate technical specs - ensuring nothing had been overlooked.

As part of our project, we covered some of the following high-level tasks.

### Create the flask application

> We sought to explore the capabilities of AWS Beanstalk when it comes to CI/CD deployments using Github actions. To do this, we created a small Flask app with a minimalistic design and simple HTML templates. This allowed us to test different methods for sending data via APIs or webhooks as well as setting up virtual environments on our local machines in Python- all while keeping things super straightforward!
>
### Create GitHub organization and uploading to Repo

> To simulate an actual DevOrg customer experience, we launched our project into a GitHub repository and used Github Actions to deploy it on AWS Beanstalk. We made this process possible through the config yaml file located in the .github folder – all using my personal free-tier AWS account!
> 

### Create separate DevOrg on DevRev and GitHub integration

> We created a separate DevOrg on the DevRev app to bring our sample application to life. This incredible feature of this powerful tool allowed us to import users, issues and even set up automations based upon activity - making it easy for everyone involved in the project! In addition, you can integrate your existing GitHub repository or organization with DevRev - giving you instant access not only visibility across tasks but also enabling work action associations that make tracking changes simpler than ever before.
> 
> 
> We smoothly connected our DevOrg sample to the GitHub organization, thanks to webhooks. This way, any event on Github can be monitored and its payload sent directly through a URL provided by our DevRev app. We even found solutions for CI/CD pipelines involved in Elastic Beanstalk deployments-- giving us seamless failure-log management so users stay up-to-date!
>
### Deploy Elastic Beanstalk App with Github

> Using Github Actions, we automated our application's build and deployment process. Every push to the main branch triggers a workflow in which our app is built, tested then deployed via AWS Beanstalk with its version marked by the git commit SHA ID. This allows us to easily track CI/CD changes on DevRev that are associated with specific work items - all thanks to adding each unique commit ID as an identifying Version Label for every EB deploy!
>
### Send Payload with CI/CD Info to Any API with AWS Lambda Post Deployment

> To ensure the accurate tracking of changes in our timeline, we set up a local ngrok server and explored using an AWS service called EventBridge. Ultimately, though it didn't quite provide us with all of what was needed for picture-perfect results; so we crafted a Lambda function to pick up on environment updates from Elastic Beanstalk and launch into action! With each successful change comes an event payload containing the name of that respective environment - enabling us to retrieve pertinent commit IDs through querying the EB API.
> 

### Create a Stack in cloud formation template

> Our team created an AWS Cloudformation template for setting up a Lambda function and built a bash file to deploy it with ease. This script streamlines the process by verifying certain criteria (like valid URL, correct CLI set-up, accurate AWS profile) before pushing our yaml based cloud formation template into the environment!
> 

### Update Timeline with Payload Information

> With the right payload data, we can tailor DevRev's components to get exactly what you need. With Rego code in a yaml config file, your timeline will stay up-to-date automatically! Customize flows based on readymade samples or jump into open-source options for an even deeper level of customization.
>
## The end of our journey

Our journey through the week was an incredible learning experience – from how to dynamize event sources with automation tools, to finally integrating those processes into our DevRev application. Every day revealed new insights and knowledge, allowing us to gain a greater understanding of each task until it was fully complete.

Discover What It's Like to Work at DevRev: Get an Intern’s View from a Software Company Startup

Customers are critical in increasing revenue, improving brand image, and helping a business scale. Customer satisfaction can serve as a good indicator of how happy customers are with a company’s products and services. It can help businesses respond proactively to customer concerns and ensure that their customers remain loyal to the company. In this article, we look at the top customer satisfaction metrics you should track and how they could impact your business.

## Understanding customer satisfaction

A customer satisfaction score measures the levels of satisfaction of the customer with a business’s products or customer support. The customer satisfaction score (commonly known as a CSAT score) can help businesses understand whether they’re meeting customer expectations and identify any areas for improvement.

## The role of customer support in customer satisfaction

Customer support plays a critical role in shaping customer satisfaction. Customers are usually tense when they reach out to customer support because they face an issue with the company’s product or service. When customers receive prompt, helpful, and empathetic support, they are more likely to provide a good CSAT rating and not let their issue tarnish their perception of the brand. In contrast, poor customer support can lead to negative customer experiences and impact customer loyalty and retention.

## Methods for measuring customer satisfaction

There are several methods for measuring customer satisfaction, including:

### Surveys

Surveys are a popular and effective method for measuring customer satisfaction. You can circulate survey forms through social media posts, emails, or in-app prompts. Insights from surveys can help you understand a customer’s overall experience with the company, how satisfied they are with the products or services, and how highly they rate customer support.

### Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS measures the likelihood of a customer recommending a business to others. Customers are usually requested for a score on their willingness to recommend a business to others on a scale of 0 (will not recommend) to 10 (will recommend). Customers are then labeled as promoters (score of 9-10), passives (score of 7-8), or detractors (score of 0-6) based on their responses. NPS is the difference of the percentage of promoters and the percentage of detractors.

### Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

CSAT measures a customer’s satisfaction with a specific product or service. Customers are given a scale of either 1-5 or 1-10 and asked how satisfied they were with the service, with 1 being the lowest. CSAT prompts are usually asked after customers interact with customer support or after they complete a specific action on the app or product.

### Customer Effort Score (CES)

CES measures the level of effort a customer had to put forth to resolve an issue or complete a task. Customers are asked to rate their level of effort on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10, with 5 or 10 being the lowest level of effort.

### Customer Churn Rate

Customer churn rate refers to the percentage of customers who leave a business over a specific timeline. Churn rate can provide insights into overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.

### Online Reviews and Ratings

Text analysis of online reviews, such as on Yelp, Amazon, and Google, can help companies understand how satisfied customers are whether there are any common recurring issues mentioned.

## Choosing the right method for your business

Which of these methods of measuring customer satisfaction best suits your business? That depends on a number of factors, such as what domain your business falls under, the product category or service type you offer, and who your customers typically are.

## Best practices for conducting customer satisfaction surveys

To conduct effective customer satisfaction surveys, businesses should follow these best practices:

### Keep it short and simple

Surveys should be short and easy to understand to increase response rates and ensure that customers complete the survey.

### Ask specific and relevant questions

Avoid ambiguous language as this can confuse customers and lead to higher rates of survey abandonment.

### Use a mix of closed and open-ended questions

Closed-ended questions (yes/no or rating scale questions) can provide quantitative data, while open-ended questions can provide qualitative data and insights.

### Offer incentives

Offering incentives such as discounts or special promotions can increase survey response rates.

### Follow up with customers

Following up with customers who complete the survey can show that the business values their feedback and is committed to improving the customer experience.

### Analyze and interpret the data

Analyzing and interpreting survey data is essential for identifying trends and areas for improvement. Businesses should review survey results regularly and take action based on the data.

## How to calculate and analyze Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. NPS can range from -100 to +100. A higher score indicates higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. Analyzing NPS trends over time can provide insights into the effectiveness of customer support and overall customer satisfaction.

## How to calculate Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

CSAT is calculated by dividing the number of satisfied customers by the total number of customers surveyed and multiplying by 100. Analyzing CSAT trends over time can provide insights into customer satisfaction with specific products or services and the overall customer experience.

## How to calculate and analyze Customer Effort Score (CES)

Calculating CES involves subtracting the average customer effort score from the maximum possible score and multiplying by 100. Analyzing CES trends over time can provide insights into the effectiveness of customer support and overall customer satisfaction.

## How to calculate and analyze Customer Churn Rate

You can calculate the customer churn rate by simply dividing the number of customers lost over a specific time period by the total number of customers at the beginning of the same period and multiplying this by 100. Analyzing churn rate trends over time can provide insights into overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.

## How to monitor and analyze Online Reviews and Ratings

Monitoring online reviews and ratings can provide valuable insights into customer satisfaction. Analyzing these can help in identifying what needs improvement and responding to negative feedback.

## Common challenges with measuring customer satisfaction and how to overcome them

Some 

 businesses face when measuring customer satisfaction include low response rates, survey fatigue, and interpreting data. To overcome these challenges, businesses should consider offering incentives, keeping surveys short and simple, and analyzing data regularly to identify trends and take action.

## The benefits of measuring customer satisfaction

Measuring customer satisfaction has several benefits for businesses, including:

- Identifying areas for improvement
- Improving customer retention and loyalty
- Increasing customer referrals and new business
- Improving brand reputation and image
- Increasing revenue and profitability

## Conclusion

Routinely measuring customer satisfaction is critical for businesses to ensure that customers are happy with their products and services. By using various methods, including surveys, NPS, CSAT, CES, customer churn rate, and online reviews and ratings, businesses can gather data and insights to streamline customer experience management. However, choosing the right method of measurement depends on a number of factors unique to your business. Companies should evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each method to identify the ones that suit their business and objectives.

To get the most accurate responses from their customer satisfaction surveys, businesses should keep surveys concise, avoid complicated language, and use a mix of close-ended and open-ended questions. To incentivize customers to participate in the surveys, companies can consider offering product discounts or promo codes.

Measuring customer satisfaction has several benefits for businesses, including identifying areas for improvement, improving customer retention and loyalty, increasing customer referrals and new business, improving brand reputation and image, and increasing revenue and profitability. Therefore, businesses should make measuring customer satisfaction a priority and use the insights gathered to continually improve the customer experience.

Customers are critical in increasing revenue, improving brand image, and helping a business scale. Customer satisfaction can serve as a good indicator of how happy customers are with a company’s products and services. It can help businesses respond proactively to customer concerns and ensure that their customers remain loyal to the company. In this article, we look at the top customer satisfaction metrics you should track and how they could impact your business. 

## Understanding customer satisfaction

A customer satisfaction score measures the levels of satisfaction of the customer with a business’s products or customer support. The customer satisfaction score (commonly known as a CSAT score) can help businesses understand whether they’re meeting customer expectations and identify any areas for improvement. 

## The role of customer support in customer satisfaction

Customer support plays a critical role in shaping customer satisfaction. Customers are usually tense when they reach out to customer support because they face an issue with the company’s product or service. When customers receive prompt, helpful, and empathetic support, they are more likely to provide a good CSAT rating and not let their issue tarnish their perception of the brand.  In contrast, poor customer support can lead to negative customer experiences and impact customer loyalty and retention.

## Methods for measuring customer satisfaction

There are several methods for measuring customer satisfaction, including:

### Surveys

Surveys are a popular and effective method for measuring customer satisfaction. You can circulate survey forms through social media posts, emails, or in-app prompts. Insights from surveys can help you understand a customer’s overall experience with the company, how satisfied they are with the products or services, and how highly they rate customer support. 

### Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS measures the likelihood of a customer recommending a business to others. Customers are usually requested for a score on their willingness to recommend a business to others on a scale of 0 (will not recommend) to 10 (will recommend). Customers are then labeled as promoters (score of 9-10), passives (score of 7-8), or detractors (score of 0-6) based on their responses. NPS is the difference of the percentage of promoters and percentage of detractors.

### Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

CSAT measures a customer’s satisfaction with a specific product or service. Customers are given a scale of either 1-5 or 1-10 and asked how satisfied they were with the service, with 1 being the lowest. CSAT prompts are usually asked after customers interact with customer support or after they complete a specific action on the app or product. 

### Customer Effort Score (CES)

CES measures the level of effort a customer had to put forth to resolve an issue or complete a task. Customers are asked to rate their level of effort on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10, with 5 or 10 being the lowest level of effort.

### Customer Churn Rate

Customer churn rate refers to the percentage of customers who leave a business over a specific timeline. Churn rate can provide insights into overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.

### Online Reviews and Ratings

Text analysis of online reviews, such as on Yelp, Amazon, and Google, can help companies understand how satisfied customers are whether there are any common recurring issues mentioned. 

## Choosing the right method for your business

Which of these methods of measuring customer satisfaction best suits your business? That depends on a number of factors, such as what domain your business falls under, the product category or service type you offer, and who your customers typically are. 

## Best practices for conducting customer satisfaction surveys

To conduct effective customer satisfaction surveys, businesses should follow these best practices:

### Keep it short and simple

Surveys should be short and easy to understand to increase response rates and ensure that customers complete the survey.

### Ask specific and relevant questions

Avoid ambiguous languages as this can confuse customers and lead to higher rates of survey abandonment. 

### Use a mix of closed and open-ended questions

Closed-ended questions (yes/no or rating scale questions) can provide quantitative data, while open-ended questions can provide qualitative data and insights.

### Offer incentives

Offering incentives such as discounts or special promotions can increase survey response rates.

### Follow up with customers

Following up with customers who complete the survey can show that the business values their feedback and is committed to improving the customer experience.

### Analyze and interpret the data

Analyzing and interpreting survey data is essential for identifying trends and areas for improvement. Businesses should review survey results regularly and take action based on the data.

## How to calculate and analyze Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. NPS can range from -100 to +100. A higher score indicates higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. Analyzing NPS trends over time can provide insights into the effectiveness of customer support and overall customer satisfaction.

## How to calculate Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

CSAT is calculated by dividing the number of satisfied customers by the total number of customers surveyed and multiplying by 100. Analyzing CSAT trends over time can provide insights into customer satisfaction with specific products or services and the overall customer experience.

## How to calculate and analyze Customer Effort Score (CES)

Calculating CES involves subtracting the average customer effort score from the maximum possible score and multiplying by 100. Analyzing CES trends over time can provide insights into the effectiveness of customer support and overall customer satisfaction.

## How to calculate and analyze Customer Churn Rate

You can calculate the customer churn rate by simply dividing the number of customers lost over a specific time period by the total number of customers at the beginning of the same period and multiplying this by 100. Analyzing churn rate trends over time can provide insights into overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.

## How to monitor and analyze Online Reviews and Ratings

Monitoring online reviews and ratings can provide valuable insights into customer satisfaction. Analyzing thesecan help in identifying what needs improvement and respond to negative feedback.

## Common challenges with measuring customer satisfaction and how to overcome them

Some common challenges businesses face when measuring customer satisfaction include low response rates, survey fatigue, and interpreting data. To overcome these challenges, businesses should consider offering incentives, keeping surveys short and simple, and analyzing data regularly to identify trends and take action.

## The benefits of measuring customer satisfaction

Measuring customer satisfaction has several benefits for businesses, including:

-   Identifying areas for improvement
-   Improving customer retention and loyalty
-   Increasing customer referrals and new business
-   Improving brand reputation and image
-   Increasing revenue and profitability

## Conclusion

Routinely measuring customer satisfaction is critical for businesses to ensure that customers are happy with their products and services. By using various methods, including surveys, NPS, CSAT, CES, customer churn rate, and online reviews and ratings, businesses can gather data and insights to streamline customer experience management. However, choosing the right method of measurement depends on a number of factors unique to your business. Companies should evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each method to identify the ones that suit their business and objectives.  

To get the most accurate responses from their customer satisfaction surveys, businesses should keep surveys concise, avoid complicated language, and use a mix of close-ended and open-ended questions. To incentivize customers to participate in the surveys, companies can consider offering product discounts or promo codes. 

Measuring customer satisfaction has several benefits for businesses, including identifying areas for improvement, improving customer retention and loyalty, increasing customer referrals and new business, improving brand reputation and image, and increasing revenue and profitability. Therefore, businesses should make measuring customer satisfaction a priority and use the insights gathered to continually improve the customer experience.

How to Measure Customer Satisfaction with Support

Are you considering transitioning from a traditional enterprise software company to a 

There are many key differences between startups and enterprise software companies, and it can be difficult to know if you're ready for the switch. In this blog post, we'll discuss some of these differences and provide guidance on how to tell if you're prepared for the transition into startups. We'll cover topics they key differences between the two types of firms, how to know if a startup is right for you, and some tips on choosing the right environment for your needs.

By the end of this blog post, you will have all the tools necessary to make an informed decision about whether or not startups are right for your career path. So let's get started!

Key Differences Between Startups and Enterprises

Working for startups and enterprise software companies can be vastly different experiences. Startups tend to have a more casual environment, with roles that are often less specialized and require you to wear multiple hats. Many startups also operate on a smaller scale with fewer resources and employees than an enterprise software company, which has larger teams in place for each role. Additionally, startups typically focus on a narrow customer base while enterprise software companies target large corporations with deep pockets and complex needs. Finally, startups usually rely heavily on agile development methods while enterprises favor mature processes and methodologies such as Waterfall or Scrum. Knowing the differences between these two types of organizations is important when choosing where you want to work - so make sure to do your research!

Even if you come from an enterprise software background, transitioning to a startup can have many benefits. Startups often offer unique and exciting opportunities for career growth and learning that are difficult to find in traditional corporate settings. Plus, working at a startup gives you the chance to be part of something new and innovative – helping create products or services that could potentially make waves in the industry. Additionally, startups tend to move quickly and may provide more freedom for employees when it comes to decision-making compared with larger companies. All these factors can be incredibly rewarding for those who make the switch!

Is That Startup Really the Right Fit For You?

Let's dive into a few ways that you can tell if the startup you're considering is the right choice for your goals and your role.

1. Understand the company's mission: Take time to research and understand the core values, mission, and goals of a software startup before committing to it. This will help you determine if their vision aligns with yours and if this is an environment that will motivate and inspire you.
2. Review current projects: Ask about what projects are currently being worked on by teams at the startup to get a better idea of its priorities and future direction. If these initiatives interest you or fit your skill set, then it may be a good fit for your career goals.
3. Consider scale: Assess whether the size of the organization fits what you're looking for in terms of growth opportunities, resources available, team dynamics, etc., as working in startups can often mean fewer roles are more specialized but they move quickly when compared with larger companies within an enterprise software industry space
4. Evaluate culture/environment: Make sure that the atmosphere suits both your professional needs and personality type—it’s important to ensure that both work cultures mesh well together! Ask questions such as how teams collaborate when making decisions or what expectations management has from employees so that you have all relevant details needed prior to joining any new venture.

Finding the right software startup to join can be a daunting task. But if you take the time to do your research and understand what makes each company unique, you’ll have all the tools necessary to make an informed decision about whether or not startups are right for your career path.

Startups offer many benefits such as innovative projects, freedom of decision-making, and accelerated growth opportunities that may not exist in larger corporate settings – so don’t let yourself miss out on these amazing possibilities!

With enough knowledge and dedication, you’ll find a place where you will thrive and prosper at a software startup.

Are you considering transitioning from a traditional enterprise software company to a startup?

There are many key differences between startups and enterprise software companies, and it can be difficult to know if you're ready for the switch. In this blog post, we'll discuss some of these differences and provide guidance on how to tell if you're prepared for the transition into startups. We'll cover topics they key differences between the two types of firms, how to know if a startup is right for you, and some tips on choosing the right environment for your needs.

By the end of this blog post, you will have all the tools necessary to make an informed decision about whether or not startups are right for your career path. So let's get started!

## Key Differences Between Startups and Enterprises

Working for startups and enterprise software companies can be vastly different experiences. Startups tend to have a more casual environment, with roles that are often less specialized and require you to wear multiple hats. Many startups also operate on a smaller scale with fewer resources and employees than an enterprise software company, which has larger teams in place for each role. Additionally, startups typically focus on a narrow customer base while enterprise software companies target large corporations with deep pockets and complex needs. Finally, startups usually rely heavily on agile development methods while enterprises favor mature processes and methodologies such as Waterfall or Scrum. Knowing the differences between these two types of organizations is important when choosing where you want to work - so make sure to do your research!

## Benefits of Startups

Even if you come from an enterprise software background, transitioning to a startup can have many benefits. Startups often offer unique and exciting opportunities for career growth and learning that are difficult to find in traditional corporate settings. Plus, working at a startup gives you the chance to be part of something new and innovative – helping create products or services that could potentially make waves in the industry. Additionally, startups tend to move quickly and may provide more freedom for employees when it comes to decision-making compared with larger companies. All these factors can be incredibly rewarding for those who make the switch!

## Is That Startup Really the Right Fit For You?

Let's dive into a few ways that you can tell if the startup you're considering is the right choice for your goals and your role.

1. Understand the company's mission: Take time to research and understand the core values, mission, and goals of a software startup before committing to it. This will help you determine if their vision aligns with yours and if this is an environment that will motivate and inspire you.
2. Review current projects: Ask about what projects are currently being worked on by teams at the startup to get a better idea of its priorities and future direction. If these initiatives interest you or fit your skill set, then it may be a good fit for your career goals.
3. Consider scale: Assess whether the size of the organization fits what you're looking for in terms of growth opportunities, resources available, team dynamics, etc., as working in startups can often mean fewer roles are more specialized but they move quickly when compared with larger companies within an enterprise software industry space
4. Evaluate culture/environment: Make sure that the atmosphere suits both your professional needs and personality type—it’s important to ensure that both [work cultures](https://eventflare.io/journal/10-steps-to-establish-a-high-performance-culture-at-work) mesh well together! Ask questions such as how teams collaborate when making decisions or what expectations management has from employees so that you have all relevant details needed prior to joining any new venture.

## Growing Possibility

Finding the right software startup to join can be a daunting task. But if you take the time to do your research and understand what makes each company unique, you’ll have all the tools necessary to make an informed decision about whether or not startups are right for your career path. 

Startups offer many benefits such as innovative projects, freedom of decision-making, and accelerated growth opportunities that may not exist in larger corporate settings – so don’t let yourself miss out on these amazing possibilities! 

With enough knowledge and dedication, you’ll find a place where you will thrive and prosper at a software startup.

Benefits of Working for a Startup After Enterprise Experience

## Tech’s employee attrition problem

Employee turnover is one of the major issues affecting tech companies today. According to a Linkedin study, the tech industry has the highest turnover rate out of any sector at more than 13%. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the turnover rate is double the industry average for tech startups. It can take months to get a new employee up-to-speed and able to contribute fully. Moreover, recruiting and onboarding a new employee can take up to nine months worth of the employee's salary. Thus the inability of the tech sector to keep its employees motivated to build and grow within the organization is a huge challenge for every organization.

There are numerous reasons for the high attrition numbers across the industry. A big driver of the short tenure of employees is seeking more responsibility and being able to understand the “why” and the impact of their work. Too often, developers work on tickets and issues without a sense of real purpose, as they are far-removed from the actual end-user. They do not have direct access to the customer, and their teams are isolated from customer-facing ones. They become too project-oriented, and lose the sense of the “why” behind the product. They do not have any sense of what commercial and business impact the list of work items they are working on is having on the organization. Over time, the monotony of their day-to-day and the lack of real sense behind their work cause them to look for other opportunities, costing businesses tens of thousands of dollars per employee and months of lost productivity.

## How DevRev will be the critical platform to retain and motivate employees

This is where DevRev comes in. DevRev is building the world’s first Developer CRM that is breaking down organizational silos, and connecting makers to their end users as they build, operate, support and grow their businesses. Through the DevRev platform, every work item that the developer is working on can be brought under a single operating system that directly ties the work to customer impact. The developer is able to see exactly the source and the “why” of an issue or ticket that was generated, and how exactly the code that is worked on will enhance specific parts of the product. Hence, the developer is able to track in real-time the direct impact of the work item on the end-user and what exact parts of the product are being enhanced. Furthermore, the maker will eventually be able to see the direct commercial impact of the work item, as the issues and tickets will be enriched with commercial data such that the revenue/contract-value that will be captured by the completion of the work will be visible to the maker. DevRev will serve as a unified product and customer system of record, enabling the developer to prioritize work based on customer impact, focus on what really matters to delight the end-user and capture the business impact of each work item. There will be no more status meetings as every customer touchpoint and product enhancement will be linked together. As a result, DevRev will empower makers to directly tie every single work item to real customer impact and capture the “why” of their day-to-day. Product teams will move away from project-centricity towards product-centricity and track in real-time the direct impact they are having on their end-users. This will be a key driver for businesses to keep their employees motivated and satisfied. The end result will be a hungrier team working towards a unified vision and much better employee retention for the company.

Tech workers are more mobile than ever. Hybrid work is here to stay and demand for top talent will continue to grow. As a result, retention of top talent should be a major priority for every tech company. One of the keys to reduce attrition is to keep employees motivated by showing them the impact their work has on their end-users and the commercial metrics of the business. DevRev’s first-of-its-kind DevCRM platform will connect the makers to the customers, remove artificial siloes between teams of the organization, and serve as a central system of record that will connect every issue and ticket directly to customer impact. DevRev will thus become a critical platform for businesses to keep their teams aligned, motivated and customer-centric. The end result will be a much more coherent workforce and much higher retention numbers for the company.


Importance of DevCRM to improve employee retention

The PLuG platform in DevRev was created by support people for support people.

I’m going to outline three different support team structures I’ve worked with, pros and cons of each, and how I’d recommend setting up DevRev based on each team structure.

 refers to teams where you have on or a few dedicated subject matter experts for each part of your product (or each of your products). This can be combined with a tiered approach but should still roughly center around products or parts of products.

Pros: Allows for in depth subject matter expertise, build relationships with specific PMs/Devs

Cons: Information may be siloed, in case of absence high impact if there are only one or two people per part

 There are typically 2 or 3 tiers. Tier 1 is the first point of contact and typically does routing and may handle simple account issues. Tier 2 are typically more technical and can perform troubleshooting tasks. Tier 3 is usually the Support Engineers who can and do write code and do advanced troubleshooting

Pros: Gives some sense of career progression, faster first response time

Cons: Negative impact to CSAT due to switching agents multiple times, unnecessary cost as many Tier 1 tasks can be automated

 Chaos is a bit of a dramatic word to use here but it’s at least descriptive. This is usually a very small team. Any agent answers any conversation incoming. In the case of email support they may not own a conversation end to end and that conversation is just answered by whoever sees the next response first

Cons: Lots of context switching, lowered CSAT due to agent switching

All three have a place depending on the size of your organization, type of customer, and product.

, a formal tiered approach does not make sense. A product centric approach also does not make sense as there are not enough people to have knowledge redundancies if someone is out for the day. A 

 here works best. My recommendation is for agents to see all of their conversations through from first pickup to close to reduce the number of handoffs. Research has shown that the more times a conversation changes agents, the lower the CSAT score will be. You can take an informal tiered approach here in addition to the chaos method. If a support agent has done all they reasonably can to resolve an issue, now it may be time to share the conversation with a developer or product manager.

early stage startup with no support agents

 makes the most sense. While I admire a CEO willing to roll up their sleeves and answer incoming customer support queries so their engineers can focus, there is important context in those conversations that your engineers and product managers will benefit from. If youThose who work on a specific product/part should answer conversations related to their work. This reduces context switching and time to resolution. This approach is challenged however if you have parts or products that haven’t been launched yet. Here you need to make a decision whether the ability to reduce context switching for groups whose work hasn’t launched yet is more important than the ability to respond to customers quickly. I’d recommend using as much automation as possible and sharing some of the workload across the teams. Context switching can be valuable if it gives broader insight into the overall product.

nough support agents to dedicate one or two to each part/product

. If you only have enough agents for one per product/part, pair up so each agent actually becomes a subject matter expert on one and highly proficient in another thus creating knowledge redundancy in case the subject matter expert is out.

, there is a natural urge to fall into a tiered system. I’d urge you to resist this as long as possible. Instead of having a Tier 1 to answer “easy” or “known issue” type questions, consider why those questions are being asked in the first place. Is there a way the product or system can be improved so no one ever asks those questions again? Create automations and knowledge articles around them in the interim. You may still want a 

Tier 2 and 3 and this can be done while remaining product centric

. Tier 2 should be subject matter experts in their respective products/parts and perform advanced troubleshooting. Tier 3 should act as mini product managers interfacing often with engineering, product, and marketing to communicate technical questions/needs, product requests/needs, and clarification on marketing materials. Before you reach a tiered system, these functions should be owned still by the subject matter experts from the product centric approach.

The PLuG platform in DevRev was created by support people for support people.

I’m going to outline three different support team structures I’ve worked with, pros and cons of each, and how I’d recommend setting up DevRev based on each team structure.

Let’s start with the definitions.

1. Product Centric
2. Tiered
3. Chaos

**Product Centric** refers to teams where you have on or a few dedicated subject matter experts for each part of your product (or each of your products). This can be combined with a tiered approach but should still roughly center around products or parts of products.

Pros: Allows for in depth subject matter expertise, build relationships with specific PMs/Devs

Cons: Information may be siloed, in case of absence high impact if there are only one or two people per part

**By Tier:** There are typically 2 or 3 tiers. Tier 1 is the first point of contact and typically does routing and may handle simple account issues. Tier 2 are typically more technical and can perform troubleshooting tasks. Tier 3 is usually the Support Engineers who can and do write code and do advanced troubleshooting

Pros: Gives some sense of career progression, faster first response time

Cons: Negative impact to CSAT due to switching agents multiple times, unnecessary cost as many Tier 1 tasks can be automated

**Chaos:** Chaos is a bit of a dramatic word to use here but it’s at least descriptive. This is usually a very small team. Any agent answers any conversation incoming. In the case of email support they may not own a conversation end to end and that conversation is just answered by whoever sees the next response first

Pros: Minimal information siloing

Cons: Lots of context switching, lowered CSAT due to agent switching

## Which Structure is the Best?

All three have a place depending on the size of your organization, type of customer, and product.

If you are an **early stage startup** **with only one or two support agents**, a formal tiered approach does not make sense. A product centric approach also does not make sense as there are not enough people to have knowledge redundancies if someone is out for the day. A **chaos** **approach** here works best. My recommendation is for agents to see all of their conversations through from first pickup to close to reduce the number of handoffs. Research has shown that the more times a conversation changes agents, the lower the CSAT score will be. You can take an informal tiered approach here in addition to the chaos method. If a support agent has done all they reasonably can to resolve an issue, now it may be time to share the conversation with a developer or product manager.

If you are an **early stage startup with no support agents** however, a **product centric approach** makes the most sense. While I admire a CEO willing to roll up their sleeves and answer incoming customer support queries so their engineers can focus, there is important context in those conversations that your engineers and product managers will benefit from. If youThose who work on a specific product/part should answer conversations related to their work. This reduces context switching and time to resolution. This approach is challenged however if you have parts or products that haven’t been launched yet. Here you need to make a decision whether the ability to reduce context switching for groups whose work hasn’t launched yet is more important than the ability to respond to customers quickly. I’d recommend using as much automation as possible and sharing some of the workload across the teams. Context switching can be valuable if it gives broader insight into the overall product.

If you are at a stage where you have e**nough support agents to dedicate one or two to each part/product**, I’d recommend taking the **product centric approach**. If you only have enough agents for one per product/part, pair up so each agent actually becomes a subject matter expert on one and highly proficient in another thus creating knowledge redundancy in case the subject matter expert is out. 

Last, as teams **grow and scale**, there is a natural urge to fall into a tiered system. I’d urge you to resist this as long as possible. Instead of having a Tier 1 to answer “easy” or “known issue” type questions, consider why those questions are being asked in the first place. Is there a way the product or system can be improved so no one ever asks those questions again? Create automations and knowledge articles around them in the interim. You may still want a **Tier 2 and 3 and this can be done while remaining product centric**. Tier 2 should be subject matter experts in their respective products/parts and perform advanced troubleshooting. Tier 3 should act as mini product managers interfacing often with engineering, product, and marketing to communicate technical questions/needs, product requests/needs, and clarification on marketing materials. Before you reach a tiered system, these functions should be owned still by the subject matter experts from the product centric approach.

## How do I do this in DevRev?

First, take a moment to assess the current organization in your support team. Are you currently taking the best approach for you or should you try out a new method? Once you’ve decided, it’s time to onboard and implement DevRev.

If you’ve already set up your account and integrations that’s great! If not, visit our [documentation](http://devrev.ai/docs). You can get started without all of these steps but will get the greatest value if you are fully onboarded.

### Set up your Ticket Vistas

**Chaos:**

Untriaged, Triaged, Closed sorted by Date

These allow each member of the team to see Tickets that have yet to be triaged, the ones in progress, and just as importantly the ones recently closed so you can let your end users know in a change has been deployed in their Conversations.

**Product Centric:**

By Part(s), Group by Status

Breaking your Tickets down by product provides each owner/group a quick reference to what is most relevant to them. Grouping them by Status allows each owner/group to quickly see which have been recently closed to update those Conversations and which are awaiting triaging, in progress, etc.

**Tiered:**

Untriaged, Triaged, Closed sorted by Date

Similar to the Chaos method, this allows each member of the team to quickly find what’s most relevant to them.

**Tiered + Product Centric:**

By Part(s), Group by Status

Similar to the product centric method, it provides the information of the Tiered approach and the Product centric approach while keeping the Products/Parts separate

## Coming Soon:

Custom Inboxes - Sort your conversations

Flows - Write all the automations you desire
Routing - Assign incoming conversations to your team based on their strengths

SLA - Keep your team informed of SLAs

CSAT - Gather feedback about your interactions with customers

Want a feature not listed? Use the PLuG widget on our site to send us a message or email us at support@devrev.ai

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All articles⁽¹⁴⁵⁾

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The Complete Guide to Software Development Life Cycle: Phases, Methodologies, and Best Practices

Unveiling the Software Product Lifecycle: Journey Behind the Scenes

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Sprints and Agile Development: A User's Guide to Boosting Productivity and Efficiency

Ticket Management Software Selection: A Step-by-Step Guide

Mastering Effective Communication in Agile Sprints: Boosting Collaboration and Productivity

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All articles(145)

blog-design-test

The Ultimate Guide: How to Train Your Support Team to Deliver Exceptional Service

Building a Knowledge Base That Improves Customer Support

Generative AI for Customer Support

The Evolution of Software Development: 5 Key Trends to Watch for Users

Uncovering Zendesk Pain Points: The Voice Of Real Customers

The Complete Guide to Software Development Life Cycle: Phases, Methodologies, and Best Practices

Unveiling the Software Product Lifecycle: Journey Behind the Scenes

Best Practices for Bug Tracking and Issue Management in Software Development

Sprints and Agile Development: A User's Guide to Boosting Productivity and Efficiency

Ticket Management Software Selection: A Step-by-Step Guide

Mastering Effective Communication in Agile Sprints: Boosting Collaboration and Productivity

All articles⁽¹⁴⁵⁾