Slack for customer service: 8 ways to improve customer and rep experience

Improve service productivity by using Slack for case management, agent onboarding, collaboration, automation and white-glove service.

[stat_row stat_1="28% | Faster resolution time" stat_2="15% | Reduction in cost per ticket" stat_3="17% | Reduction in escalations"/] [footnote reference=”1″ note=”Customer Success Metrics – Slack, July 2022″ /] [footnote reference=”2″ note=”The Total Economic Impact of Slack for Service Teams, 2021″ /] [youtube url="https://youtu.be/NpiBBzQuZAU" image="https://d34u8crftukxnk.cloudfront.net/slackpress/prod/sites/6/Screenshot-2024-08-14-at-2.16.03%E2%80%AFPM.png?w=128&h=96&crop=1" alt="Statistics of using Slack for customer service" /]

Case management

[youtube url="https://youtu.be/XnxEopdXw9o" image="https://d34u8crftukxnk.cloudfront.net/slackpress/prod/sites/6/Screenshot-2024-08-14-at-2.20.14%E2%80%AFPM.png?w=128&h=96&crop=1" alt="A slide showing the advantages of using Slack for customer service case swarming" /]

Case management, or swarming, provides a single place for service agents and cross-functional teams to come together and solve issues faster. Agents can quickly connect with the right experts to solve complex issues. Customers only need to communicate with one case owner, improving their experience.

This leads to:

• One case owner from end to end
• Increased productivity
• Frictionless experience
• Faster resolution time
• Increased customer satisfaction
• How to use Slack for case management:

How to use Slack for case management:

1. A customer has a complex issue with their cloud provider. They call customer support.
2. The agent creates a case in Slack and starts a swarm from Slack or Salesforce Service Cloud right away.
3. The agent pulls in the right experts to find a solution within minutes.
4. The agent reconnects with the customer and solves the issue. The customer is delighted.

Integrate your customer service software with Slack.

[product_ui id="6200096670545" description="A screenshot of Slack's integration with Zendesk showing how it can be used for managing customer support cases" /]

Agent productivity

[youtube url="https://youtu.be/8KXeYyk1q1U" image="https://d34u8crftukxnk.cloudfront.net/slackpress/prod/sites/6/Screenshot-2024-08-14-at-2.25.40%E2%80%AFPM.png?w=128&h=96&crop=1" alt="A slide with statistics on customer service agents using Slack" /]

Agent productivity is streamlined with the centralized knowledge base that is Slack. Using dedicated #plz- or #help- channels, agents can search for answers to questions, ask their peers, or use a pinned resource (for example a post or canvas) quickly answer their questions on everything from customer FAQs to internal processes. 

This leads to:

• Greater agent productivity
• Company-wide processes that make collaboration easier
• More time spent helping customers resulting in higher customer satisfaction

How to use Slack for agent productivity:

1. An agent receives a less common question from a customer.
2. The agent searches the #help-cs channel and finds a previous post from a colleague about the same question.
3. The agent reviews the answers in the thread of their colleague’s post, then references the pinned FAQ canvas in the channel.
4. The agent responds quickly to the customer, resulting in increased customer satisfaction. 

Learn more about using channels and canvas

Agent collaboration and automation

Agents use no-code workflows to automate routine tasks like requests or approvals. Workflows can be shared with the entire company, providing one central place to handle requests. Agents can also use lightweight huddles to jump into audio/video calls and quickly resolve issues. 

This leads to:

• Automated routine tasks with no-code workflows, leading to greater productivity
• Shared workflows with the entire company
• More time spent helping customers resulting in higher customer satisfaction

How to use Slack for agent collaboration and automation:

1. A customer calls to submit a service request to their service provider.
2. The agent reviews the request and submits a workflow. The financial services team receives it but needs additional documents.
3. The financial services team starts a quick huddle with the agent to explain the missing information. The agent asks the customer for the documents.
4. The agent sends the missing documents to the financial team, and they are able to immediately approve the request.

[product_ui id="6181867677734" description="A screenshot of Customer Service agents using Huddles in Slack to collaborate on a customer support ticket" /]

Tip: Use the customer support template for a ready-to-go channel including all the necessary documents and trackers for a seamless support experience. This template includes workflows, canvas, and lists that are already built to support service teams – you’ll just need to add in information that’s unique to your organization.

Incident management

Incident management with Slack speeds up incident detection and resolution by providing instant situational awareness and visibility with a timestamped audit trail. Automation with operations and monitoring tools further reduces context switching, keeping the team focused on the resolution. Slack Connect unlocks incident collaboration with cloud vendors and providers. 

This leads to:

• Faster time to detect, triage and declare incidents
• Reduced mean time to resolution
• Ability to review post incident and apply learnings to future incidents
• Less stress and better communication

How to use Slack for incident management:

1. Monitoring alerts are piped into the appropriate channel for the team to quickly assess and declare incidents, with on-call responders as members of the dedicated incident channel.
2. New joiners see the latest status pinned in the channel, with information neatly organized into threads and decisions clearly marked.
3. A timestamped audit trail of all incident data in a single place makes it easy for a fast, unbiased and blameless incident review to quickly implement corrective actions.
4. Incidents are resolved faster, customer-facing teams stay constantly updated, and customers are happier, with better transparency and quick resolution. 

[image_full src="https://d34u8crftukxnk.cloudfront.net/slackpress/prod/sites/6/Incident-Announcement-1.png?w=128&h=96&crop=1" alt="A screenshot of an individual posting in Slack about the incident status for an issue with their servers" caption="" loc_type="auto" locales="" countries="" /]

Agent onboarding

Agent onboarding is simplified with Slack canvas, a permanent place to centralize knowledge and training resources for new agents. With canvas, no-code workflows and powerful search, agents can ramp up quickly from anywhere so they can better serve their customers. 

This leads to:

• Faster ramp-up time and learning
• Faster resolution time
• One centralized training system

How to use Slack for agent onboarding:

1. A new agent receives an onboarding canvas from their manager with a checklist of training courses to review, videos to watch and workflows to check.
2. Agents successfully complete onboarding within a centralized place for knowledge—without having to switch between tools.
3. Agents ramp up faster, learn from past issues using search and reduce escalations.
4. Agents can also integrate data from Service Cloud into the canvas to surface customer insights and track KPIs.
5. Managers can quickly provide feedback in direct messages or via huddles to their reports. 

Learn how to create a workflow and pin posts in channels

[product_ui id="6190739590132" description="A screenshot of a post in Slack that welcomes new hires and provides them links to presentations and benefits" /]

Tip: Use an onboarding template for a ready-to-go channel including all the important info to onboard your new employee. This template includes an onboarding guide, first week checklist, and onboarding buddy in one easy to access place. Just add in a few details

White-glove service

White-glove service with Slack helps companies prioritize top-tier customers, partners and vendors with Slack Connect channels. With Slack Connect, agents and experts can communicate securely and listen to the customer’s issues and feedback in real time, solve them in minutes, and share product feedback and insights with the right teams.

This leads to:

• Faster resolution and response times to critical incidents
• Personalized service to key customers, partners and vendors
• Increased customer satisfaction

How to use Slack for white-glove service:

1. A top-tier customer has an issue with their service cloud provider. They have a Slack Connect channel with their support team and post their issue there.
2. An agent is able to review the issue, quickly prioritize it, and bring in the right experts to help solve it in minutes.
3. The customer gives a product suggestion that would simplify their work, and the support team shares it with the product team.
4. The customer is happy to see their product feature suggestion live in the next feature release.

Learn how to create and use Slack Connect

[product_ui id="6185516532133" description="A screenshot of a channel in Slack for a customer that gets dedicated customer support and white glove service" /]

Product feedback

The customer service team is often the front line for product feedback and requests, especially for high-value customers. Using Slack for product feedback, service teams can easily submit customer feedback and product teams can readily reply or add requests to their repository. The product team can also announce feature releases companywide so service teams are instantly informed about updates.

This leads to:

• Improved communication and collaboration across teams, resulting in higher employee engagement and satisfaction 
• Stronger customer relationships, as complaints and suggestions are given directly to product teams
• More robust product development, as customer needs are easily and quickly communicated to relevant teams

How to use Slack for product feedback:

1. Create channels in relationship with the product organization, like #product-gaps, #feedback-[features] and #industry-[retail], to centralize information about specific customers, product features or industries. For product announcements, create channels like #[feat]-gtm, #released, #product-roadmap, #released-internal and #released-minor.
2. In the feedback channels, use Workflow Builder to create forms that capture all the product request information. 
3. Product teams can reply in a thread under the request about its status, such as if the feature is already in development or has been previously deprioritized due to functionality. 
4. When a new feature is deployed, product teams post in the product announcement channels about the impact to customers, customer-facing documentation, and FAQs. 

[image_full src="https://d34u8crftukxnk.cloudfront.net/slackpress/prod/sites/6/Sales-product-feedback-1.png?w=128&h=96&crop=1" alt="A screenshot of a workflow in Slack where a user can submit product feedback" caption="" loc_type="auto" locales="" countries="" /]

Managing customer service teams

Using Slack to manage customer service teams creates real-time and documented communication so managers and teams can drive engagement. Managers can use Slack to provide in-the-moment coaching, document one-on-one meetings and outcomes, and increase transparency with upper management. Slack also enables teams to communicate in real time with their managers, whether it’s via direct message or in team channels, across globally distributed teams. 

This leads to:

• Increased agent efficiency
• Increased agent confidence
• Increased employee engagement
• Improved customer experience
• Through shorter resolution times and improved responses

How to use Slack for managing customer service teams:

1. Managers create private channels for each of their team members to document their one-on-ones, so everyone is on the same page. 
2. Managers are able to monitor cases in real time and provide in-the-moment coaching to their agents via direct message or huddle—especially critical in distributed workforces.
3. All levels of management can create a more transparent culture by hosting Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions in a channel or delivering org-wide updates where employees can use reacji or ask questions. 

How to run an AMA in a channel

Conclusion

Slack improves the experience for ever-important customer service teams by enhancing agent productivity and, ultimately, customer satisfaction. If you have further questions, please check out our Help Center or contact our support team.