Complete guide to mobile app customer support

Customer expectations are high, especially when it comes to the value they get from an app and the level of support they receive. Word of mouth is powerful. Research shows that 96% of customers who have a positive experience will return to a business and recommend it to their friends and family.

Customers who have their problems resolved by a business will tell four to six people about their positive experiences.

On average, customers with a bad support experience will tell 8 to 16 people about it. If they have a second bad experience, they’ll tell over 20 people.

In this environment, customer satisfaction is key to retaining app users. Good in-app customer support is a game-changer for mobile applications.

Improving CSAT (customer satisfaction) scores should be a top priority for every customer service mobile app developer. One of the most effective ways to improve the value of an app for customers is to provide a positive experience when customers need support.

Read on for insights on strengthening customer relationships and improving CSAT by offering top-quality mobile app customer service.

On average, customers with a bad support experience will tell eight to 16 people about it. On the flip side, customers who have their problems resolved by a business will tell four to six people about their positive experiences.

In this environment, customer satisfaction is key to earning and retaining app users.

Good in-app customer support is a game-changer for mobile applications, both on iOS and Android. One of the most effective ways to improve the value of an app for customers is to provide a positive experience when customers need support.

In this guide, we’ll break down how to get their by improving your CSAT (customer satisfaction) scores.

Read more: 14 steps to improve your CSAT

Why you need app support: Customer support directly impacts customer retention

According to research by Gartner, customer service leaders must focus on two actions to increase customer retention: positive word of mouth and wallet share. They must resolve customer issues in a low-effort manner and help customers get greater value from the product.

Companies that focus on enhancing customer value through customer support can increase the chance a customer will spread positive word of mouth to 97%.

Companies can boost user retention and increase customer satisfaction by integrating a customer support platform into their mobile app. In-app support can help troubleshoot technical issues, assist user onboarding, answer questions about features, and resolve account issues. It can also drive enhanced value by educating customers on better or new uses for the app, validating purchase decisions, anticipating customer needs, and helping users achieve a goal.

This means you increase CSAT levels by ensuring users don’t get frustrated waiting while their problems get resolved and when you show them new ways your app can benefit them.

It all starts with a good customer support experience.

The growing need for mobile customer service

In their 2020 customer service report, Hiver surveyed consumers on what qualified as a good customer support experience.

The metrics tell a story.

Most respondents said the timely resolution of their problems was most important (37.3%), followed by knowledge/resourcefulness (29.8%), not having to repeat the problem (23.5%), and empathy (9.4%).

Providing practical and proactive in-app support resources, including real-time interactions, is crucial to meeting customer expectations in today’s marketplace. Gone are the days of call centers, impersonal bots, and boring text chats. Mobile app support must be engaging, valuable, low-effort, and personalized to improve CSAT. Service providers must proactively anticipate customer needs and provide self-service resources and real-time help so the customer’s problems can be resolved quickly and satisfactorily.

Get it right, and you’ll increase customer loyalty, making users more likely to stay with your app and recommend it to others.

Let's look at some of the benefits.

Benefits of mobile app customer support

The primary benefit of good mobile app customer service is user retention. For example, research shows that in-app messaging (including support messaging) can boost app retention by 30%. Let’s look at the different ways customer support can benefit users and improve CSAT.

1. In-app customer support increases conversion and retention rates

By improving customer experience, in-app support also drives app retention rates, particularly in the long run, when users are more likely to access support. Loyal customers who consistently return to your product will likely spend 31% more, and are 50% more likely to try new features or products.

Good in-app customer support starts the moment a user downloads the app. By providing a simple and engaging guided onboarding experience, you can increase the likelihood that a user will stay with your app. Considering that the average app loses 77% of its users in the first three days, improving retention during this critical period increases the chance a user will stay with the app longer.

2. App customers are more likely to leave positive reviews

As we said in the intro, 96% of customers who had a positive experience with a business will return to the business and recommend it to their friends and family.

Reviews matter. Research shows that 50% of mobile users won’t download an app with a 3-star rating, and 85% won’t touch an app with a 2-star rating. 

In a nutshell, online reviews amplify the word-of-mouth effect of positive and negative support experiences. Provide a good support experience, and users will leave positive reviews and promote your app on social media, attracting new users.

3. In app support enhances the app’s functionality

Modern users expect a seamless experience. Done well, in-app support improves an app’s overall customer experience. It makes the app easier to use and understand, and ensures users’ problems are resolved quickly and effectively. For example, by adding on-demand mobile support using Sendbird Desk, Virgin Mobile UAE was able to increase customer engagement with their app – and achieve a 5/5 customer satisfaction score.

4. Provide mobile app help to your customers where they already are

Proactive in-app customer support provides the resources and real-time support to help users resolve their problems without leaving the app. Anticipating users’ problems and ensuring they can resolve them in the app reduces the chance that they’ll become frustrated trying to get support via other communication channels and delete the app or leave a negative review.

How to build customer support within your own mobile app using Sendbird

In-app customer support has several advantages over providing support through a separate customer support app or via a messaging solution like Discord. Not only do users have to manually switch between your app and the mobile support app to get support, you also potentially lose control of the user interaction and conversation history. It’s preferable to keep the customer in your support infrastructure rather than in another customer service app or solution. That way, you can provide proactive support, keep the customer engaged, and build a social support community for your app.

Along with a good knowledge base and notification center, async customer support is the next generation of in-app customer support. Let’s look at how you can build a proactive customer support solution within your app.

1. Utilize in-app messaging

In-app messaging lets you provide streamlined conversational support to users. Although automation and AI can improve customer service, users want more than just a chatbot. They want personalized and human customer service in real-time.

Many brands are turning to asynchronous customer support for mobile apps. Async help desk software allows you to provide users with real-time multichannel support – they can send a support message any time and receive a message via push notification or email when a rep is ready to respond.

In-app messaging also ensures the support conversation history is kept secure, so it can be continued at any time to give users a continuous and consistent support experience. It also allows for a high degree of personalization. Asynchronous messaging systems like Sendbird Chat can be linked to user accounts or a CRM through an SDK, so customer service teams can access user data, support tickets, and conversation history.

Finally, in-app messaging systems allow users and support teams to share images, screenshots, and videos to help resolve issues.

2. Knowledge base and FAQ pages

An in-app knowledge base can help users to fix common issues by providing them with the resources they need for fixing their own problems. The knowledge base can include different resources such as answers to common questions, video tutorials, tooltips, webinars, and interactive support tools that the user can access without having to contact a support agent.

A well-designed, user-friendly knowledge base lets you proactively approach user support. For example, identifying potential problems before they happen and providing users with ready-made solutions can save time on support requests, and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The knowledge base is also a valuable reference to support teams. Team members can use collected knowledge to understand a problem, or direct a customer to a particular resource to help them solve an issue.

3. Address app store reviews and social media comments

Not all customer support queries come through the channels you might expect.

Users will often voice their problems in app store reviews and social media posts. In many cases, these posts go unnoticed and unanswered. This not only leaves the user dissatisfied, but also advertises potential shortcomings of your product to other potential users.

For this reason, it’s a good idea to scan your App Store and Google Play Store listings on a fairly regular basis for reviews that should be addressed. For small businesses, this could be once a month; larger organizations can set up a live monitoring workflow.

Social media is another arena for app customer support. Users may leave comments on your social profiles, or direct posts towards your company account. Even if you want to move the conversation to another platform, be sure to track these comments and posts.

Some customer service software, like SendBird Desk, allows you to handle support conversations via direct messaging on popular social platforms.

4. Use a notification center

An in-app notification center provides users with a shared inbox for updates, news, messages, and other information. Notifications can pop up directly in the app or via push notifications to the user’s mobile device.

There are two main types of support notification:

• Actionable notifications that require the user to take an action, like installing an app update or replying to a follow-up message from customer support.

• Informational notifications that provide information but don’t require an action, like alerting users to upcoming app maintenance or downtime.

Notifications should be kept simple and useful and used sparingly to avoid annoying the user with too many popups.

5. Integrate AI

ChatGPT is a powerful language model capable of generating human-like responses to various questions and queries. With its advanced natural language processing capabilities, ChatGPT is ideal for powering customer support chatbots.

One area where ChatGPT-powered bots can be particularly effective is within mobile apps. By integrating a chatbot into your mobile app, you can offer your customers quick and convenient support that's available 24/7. This can help to improve customer satisfaction and reduce the workload on your support team.

To build customer support within your own mobile app using ChatGPT, there are a few key steps to follow.

• First, you'll need to decide what types of query your bot can handle. These might include frequently asked questions, product information, or troubleshooting support.

• Next, you'll need to create a knowledge base that your bot can draw upon to answer these queries. This might include expertise content, first-party data on customers from Customer Relationship Management Systems, or prior conversations.

• Finally, you'll need to integrate your bot into your mobile app, ensuring it's easy for customers to access and use.

With a well-designed ChatGPT-powered bot, you can provide fast, practical support to your customers anywhere, no matter the time of day.

Further integrate your customer support with your mobile app

Exceptional customer support is crucial to improving customer experience and keeping users happy. Today’s user demands a support experience with a human touch, and they want support whenever they need it, through the communication channels they choose.

That means support teams would need to be able to meet or exceed users’ expectations on forums, SMS, social media, live chat, phone, or email – not easy for customer support teams that are already stretched.

That’s what makes Sendbird a game-changer.

Sendbird Chat empowers your help desk to engage quickly with customers and resolve their problems. With advanced chat features that bring user conversations to life, Sendbird Chat lets you provide personalized, real-time customer service – reducing wait times and making customers happier, more engaged, and more likely to promote your product.

Want to learn more? Get in touch with our sales team to book a demo.