This is a guest post from Nathalie Lussier, digital strategist and co-founder of AmbitionAlly.
At AmbitionAlly, we’re a small team of four and we have a variety of software tools and online business training programs to support. We’ve got an incredibly loyal and whip-smart audience of business owners, and we love to take great care of them.
When I first heard about Groove, I was curious because I had used a few other support tools but I had never been truly satisfied.
What Made Us Switch To Groove
As you can imagine, as a software company, we have a good understanding of systems and how we like to interact with the software we use. That’s why we’d never found our “forever home” when it came to support and help desk systems.
One of the reasons I was initially drawn to Groove was how simple and fast everything loaded up during my trial. When you’re handling support, you want to be able to answer people’s questions as quickly as you can and a slow interface can really get in the way.
I have a tendency of trying lots of platforms, but once I tried Groove I knew I was hooked and I immediately invited all of our team members to try it out, too. The decision was unanimous and we started the process of moving our canned responses.
How We Reduced Our Support Time By 10%
We did the math and because of the automation and features that Groove provides (and a little API integration we coded for our CRM Infusionsoft) we’ve been able to reduce the time it takes to handle support by 10%.
Now, ten percent might not seem like much, but if you count that we’ve got 4 people answering emails and collaborating on things via Groove, that 10% per person really ads up.
We realized that because the Groove interface is so fast and intuitive, we’ve been able to get to “inbox zero” on our support email a lot more often. That’s a major morale boost for our team, and I’m sure our customers love hearing back from us faster, too!
Now let me explain exactly what features and how using Groove helped us reduce our time doing support.
The Automation Of Groove Has Allowed Us To Improve Our Workflow
The first thing that I love about Groove is the ability to create automated rules, tags, and filters. I’m a huge fan of Gmail filters, and I always wished I could do something as sophisticated in our helpdesk software… without pulling my hair out.
We’ve been using automation to filter through technical “how to” questions for our software from sales questions and editorial submissions for our blog.
We’re also able to tap into our canned responses, and make edits on the fly so that we can save time when answering similar questions, but still offer a personal touch.
Oh, and every time a guest post submission comes in, we’re able to filter that email to the right person on the team. We’re also able to quickly leave notes and tag each other if we need input before replying to someone, and that’s just so intuitive and easy.
Our Infusionsoft Customer Integration Gives Us Instant Information
One thing I had always wanted was the ability to see at a glance who was writing in. We have a large audience, and between the different products and services we offer, it’s hard to tell who has access to what.
Luckily, my husband and co-founder Robin Li, was able to code up a quick API integration for our CRM Infusionsoft.
That way, when someone sends an email we can see exactly which tags in Infusionsoft they have, and there’s a link to go directly to their customer profile.
This alone has saved us so many hours of searching for a contact in Infusionsoft, and context switching between answering a questions and checking on someone’s status in our system.
Now we can easily reply to people’s questions, and even offer them suggestions for other offerings that might be a good fit… thus giving us an easy way to increase our customer lifetime value and offer more support to our existing customers. Without spending extra time figuring out what they’ve already got.
Social Integrations Allows Us To Answer Customer Questions As a Team
Another amazing feature that I love about Groove is the social integrations. With over 10,000 Twitter followers and another 8,000 Facebook fans… it can be hard to manage answering support questions that come in quickly.
The main issue with social media is that it’s meant to be informal, but if I’m away at a business conference or on vacation and I’m not seeing the tweets or Facebook messages come in, it can reflect badly on my company.
Now with Groove, anyone on my team can address the time-sensitive Twitter and Facebook questions that come in, and I’m able to rest easy knowing that we’re serving our people in the way that they prefer to interact with us.
Not everyone likes email, and that’s totally fine by me. With Groove it’s so much easier to manage it all in one place!
What Cool Integrations Have You Used With Groove?
Since we’re still just a month into our switch over to Groove, I’m curious to know what other cool integrations you might be using with your team.
I’m absolutely happy with our move to Groove, and if you haven’t given it a try yet, what are you waiting for?
Nathalie Lussier is the founder of AccessAlly, the #1 course and membership WordPress solution for industry leaders.
Want to share your own Groove story? Let us know 🙂
