We all know that great customer service converts to happy customers. 81% of consumers are more inclined to give a company repeated business after a good service. While apps continue to dominate the mobile revolution, majority of mobile app developers don’t provide in-app customer support, yet.

When experiencing issues with mobile apps, 52% of users tend to delete or forget the app, while 33% will try to get in touch with customer support, and 11% leave the app to find help online.

With hundreds of mobile apps being added to the App Store and Google Play everyday, vying for mobile users’ attention becomes a huge challenge. In terms of growth, highly reviewed apps are just simply better.

By providing instant and accessible help desk within your mobile app, you can increase positive reviews, improve app ratings, and turn users into loyal, happy, and engaged customers.

Here are 10 tips on how you can provide the best customer support for your mobile app users:

1. Provide a way for customers to message you directly without leaving your mobile app.

One in five consumers prefers online chat over any other communication channel. An in-app messaging tool, like live chat, will make communication between you and your users as easy as sending an SMS. This way, users won’t have to vent out their frustration by leaving a bad review or a low rating in the App Store or Google Play, just because they can’t talk to you.

2. Reduce the number of support tickets by providing in-app native FAQs that answer common questions from users.

91% of consumers state that they would use a knowledge base if it’s available. Your in-app knowledge base articles should be easily searchable and contain pre-defined canned responses made by your customer support staff. An offline help solution is important, especially if your users are not always connected to the internet.

3. Decrease wait times for support tickets by searching for problems or issues with similar themes.

55% of consumers say that a company’s failure to resolve their complaints in a timely manner drive them away. By using a mobile customer service software that has powerful search capabilities, you can easily find those common issues and quickly bulk reply to them.

4. Implement an automatic follow-up system to help you prioritize those users who still need help with their issues.

88% of consumers don’t buy from businesses who leave complaints unresolved. The automatic follow-up method is helpful in identifying who to answer first. One way of implementing this is to sort the oldest tickets that need to be actioned; bulk apply a unique tag to all these older tickets; and then send a bulk message asking those users if they still need help. The unique tag will help you identify the ticket as a priority if ever those users will reply.

5. Resolve issues quickly to impress customers and encourage high app reviews.

71% of online chat customers expect assistance within five minutes. Every moment that a customer waits is a potential churn. While email support is essential, it’s just not fast enough. An in-app help desk tool will make customer support much faster and real-time.

6. Don’t sound like a machine when helping users.

67% of customers are frustrated because they could not talk to a real person. Act accordingly to the culture of your mobile users. Be a real person and customers will appreciate your effort of “being a human being” in solving their problem. Empathize with users by writing in a more colloquial and easy-going manner. It helps to use the same words that your customers are using in order to achieve mutual understanding.

7. Allow users to easily cancel their subscription.

Otherwise, you’ll just escalate a natural churn into a negative review of your mobile app, or even worse. News of bad customer service spreads more quickly than a good service experience. Remember, don’t burn bridges as these users might even come back. But before you let customers go, it’s essential that you find out why they are canceling your service. The reasons from these customers are invaluable data in decreasing cancellation rate.

8. Deeply integrate your customer service software within your app.

Nine out of ten consumers expect a consistent user experience. Customize your mobile help desk tool to match your app’s look and feel and achieve a seamless customer experience. Automatically collect information about your users and their devices when servicing problems or issues to avoid annoying, repetitive, and time-wasting questions. Utilize push and in-app notifications in replying to a user’s message.

9. Keep up with mobile users’ expectations by innovating in handling problems or issues.

81% of companies with well-built capabilities for delivering excellent customer experience are outperforming their competitors. For mobile app developers, 800 numbers, website forms, emails, and other desktop-based methods are not effective enough to reach your mobile users. Creating a mobile app without a corresponding in-app customer support is quickly becoming impractical. Service your mobile customers with a mobile help desk solution.

10. Give your customer support team the appropriate mobile help desk tools.

The average annual value of each customer relationship lost to a competitor or abandoned is $289. A great customer service needs scalable and modern support software to efficiently manage incoming tickets. Even the best agents can be bottlenecked by using outdated tools. Your app is mobile, right? Then it’s just right to invest on customer support tools designed natively for mobile apps.

Conclusion

There are plenty of options to get started with mobile app customer support. But make sure that your chosen in-app help desk tool allows you to do all the above tips. One such software is Helpshift, an in-app customer service and mobile CRM solution natively designed for both iOS and Android mobile apps. 

For developers, you can download and integrate the Helpshift SDK. It's free for apps with under 10,000 monthly active users.

Remember, the product or service is only as good as its customer support. Always make your mobile app users happy by being there when they need help. As Tony Hsieh of Zappos says, “You must do something that’s above and beyond what’s expected. And whatever you do must have an emotional impact on the receiver.”

You can also get in touch with Helpshift at these links: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Github, and YouTube.

FYI if your a Developer with a New App with under 10K Average Monthly users you can access all the same Mobile App Developer tools for Free here.