With the right tools and information resources, remote assistants can easily take over customer service for you. Dedicated assistants with the right equipment, such as a CRM platform and AI writing tools, can provide quick responses to even large volumes of customer concerns.
In this article, we’ll cover a simple process for delegating customer support to an executive assistant. It’s suitable for teams of various sizes, and can easily be adjusted to suit the resources and tools you have on hand.
- Remote assistants equipped with the right virtual tools can field large volumes of customer queries, while still offering a human touch that’s crucial when matters need to be escalated.
- When delegating customer service to an assistant, make sure they have access to the information they need, and to specialists on your team who can handle complex concerns.
- AI tools can help your assistants rapidly generate or improve upon replies, allowing you to cut down your initial response time and overall resolution time.
Getting Started
Before you can delegate customer support to an assistant, you need to prepare two things:
- Give them access to the channels through which customer requests/inquiries come in
- Determine the channels they’ll use to escalate those to specialists in your company when needed
Access to Request/Inquiry Channels
First, get your assistant access to any inboxes where customers regularly send requests or inquiries. There are a few ways you can do this, depending on the channels you use.
Email: If you have a dedicated support inbox, you can use a password manager to give your assistant login credentials. Use 2FA to maintain information security.
Help Desk Software: You can get your assistant an account on your chosen help desk software. Most allow you to restrict their access to specific functions or actions.
If your chosen plan has a limit to the number of users, you can again use a password manager to grant them access to another team member’s account. Use 2FA to maintain information security.
Social Media: Many platforms allow you to give an assistant certain management privileges, even without granting them full access to, or control of an account.
- LinkedIn: Add your assistant as a page admin.
- Facebook: Give your assistant page access (or task access, specifically for messages).
- Twitter: Delegate your account to your assistant.
These methods require your assistant to have an account on the corresponding platform already. Beyond that, however, there are no other requirements (e.g. your assistant doesn’t have to be contacts with you, follow the page, etc.).
Set Channels for Escalation
Pick a communication channel your assistant can use to escalate requests that need a specialist’s attention. This could be an instant messaging program, such as Slack, or a project management platform like Asana.
It’s also important that you have point persons on your team who’ll check for such escalations regularly. One way to do so is to set a time each day for each point person to review these requests and respond to them.
Response Process
Next, your assistant needs to set a regular process for handling responses. By creating a structure to follow, they can respond more quickly even when handling lots of messages.
This process should focus on getting each customer an initial response as quickly as possible, while minimizing the number of times their concern is transferred from one person to another.
Knowledge Base
If you have an existing knowledge base, direct your assistant to it, so they can use it to answer customers’ quesitons.
Otherwise, direct your assistant to the resources they can use to find information on the company, your products or services, and other things customers might ask about. These could include your website, product documentation, meeting notes, and so on.
Have your assistant organize these into a document they can use for easy reference. Then, have them run it by the appropriate teams in your company, to check it for correctness.
Guidelines for Answering and Escalating
Afterwards, explain to your assistant what sort of questions they should answer, and which ones they should pass on to experts in the company. One quick way to do this is to explain it on a call, and have them take notes (or use an automated note-taker). This way, your assistant can draft a reference document later on.
Generally, assistants should handle questions covered by the knowledge base they have access to, and not require actions outside their authorization (e.g. viewing confidential documents, changing clients’ account settings, moving funds, etc.).
One way they can organize this process is through a flowchart, like the one below:
Once your assistant has outlined the process, have them submit it for your review.
The guidelines need not be exhaustive. Your assistant can use their judgment to determine if a question has become more complex than they first thought, or to handle it until it needs an expert’s attention.
This adaptability is one major advantage of having customer support agents available, rather than relying entirely on automation.
Outline a Response Format
Finally, your assistant should know how to compose a proper response. This includes both the information they should provide, as well as the level of etiquette expected of them.
A typical first response might include:
- A greeting and introduction: This could include their name, or simply identifying themself as part of your support team
- Acknowledging the issue at hand: Summarizing the key points to understand they’ve got the details right; if it’s unclear, they can ask clarifying questions
- Setting expectations: Telling the customer what they’ll do next. For complex concerns, this could include telling them they’ll be handed off to another team, or how long they might need to wait for a resolution.
You could also have them use AI tools to generate a typical response, and then follow its general format.
Have your assistant apply general guidelines for responding to customers, such as how to inform customers of escalations, ask follow-up questions, or confirm an issue is resolved before ending a conversation.
Improve Efficiency with AI Tools
The right AI tools can enable your assistant to speed up many of these steps. Here are some ways your assistant can use writing tools such as ChatGPT to work more efficiently:
Adjust Messages for Tone
Your assistant can use an AI tool to edit their response for clarity, correctness, or even to adjust the overall tone or voice of the messages. This can be especially helpful when trying to defuse tense situations or reassure frustrated customers.
Synthesize Information
After gathering relevant information from their available resources, your assistant can have that information synthesized into a single, coherent response. This will make it easier for customers to understand what they need to know.
Generate Responses or Templates
While your assistant could prompt for a response each time they get a query, a more efficient approach would be to prepare set responses or templates for common queries. They can use those responses as is, or adjust them as needed when receiving a customer message.
Delegate Customer Support with Magic
Magic can find you an executive assistant to handle customer support messages. Our assistants are all trained to succeed in fully remote setups, and we recruit only the top 1% of applicants.
Our assistants are also equipped with AI tools to make them more effective at their jobs. These include several text generation tools (e.g. for email replies, for phone scripts, or for chat responses), as well as customization options to create tools based on their day-to-day duties. We keep up with the latest in AI applications, so your CS assistants will always have the best software available to them.
Get in touch with us, and get started with your own Magic assistant in no more than a week.
