4 Customer Support Best Practices That Work

Originally published March 18, 2020 · Updated: July 2026

Stellar customer support comes down to four practices: be available on the channels your customers actually use, communicate clearly, lead with empathy, and summarize every resolution so nothing is left ambiguous. Expectations rise every year — 88% of customers expect faster responses than they did a year ago, per Zendesk’s CX Trends 2026 research — so the bar keeps moving.

Nearly three-quarters of consumers — 73%, per PwC’s “Experience Is Everything” study — point to customer experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions, just behind price and product quality. But today’s consumers expect more from their customer experience than they did three years ago. They want their choice of communication channels, and they expect faster response times.

For support agents to meet these expectations, they must be available whenever and wherever their customers need them. They need to provide support in a way the customer understands, and that makes them feel heard.

Here, we demystify how you and your support team can wow customers with four practices for delivering stellar support.

Key Takeaways

Channel availability is the foundation: meet customers where they already are instead of forcing them to your preferred channel.
Clear communication beats fast-but-confusing replies — plain language, no internal jargon, one question fully answered at a time.
Empathy is operational, not just attitudinal: agents need customer history in view to acknowledge context.
Always summarize the resolution — confirmed fixes prevent reopened tickets and leave the customer certain of what happens next.

1. Be available on convenient, cost-effective channels

Not every customer prefers the same communication channel when it comes to contacting support. To be available for all of your customers, you need to offer efficient multi-channel support. Learn more about seamless conversations with the Zendesk conversational support guide.

Look to the typical ways your customers interact with your brand to identify which support channels will be most convenient to them. For example, if most of your sales are made on your website, it makes sense to offer live chat support from there. You can also conduct surveys or analyze historical data—such as the average number of tickets opened per communication channel—to identify your customers’ preferences.

Consider also the most common days and times support tickets are received. Make sure a sufficient number of agents are staffed during these peak hours so customers can receive support without delays.

It’s also important to consider your budget when offering multi-channel support. If adopting a new channel is going to increase operational costs, you need to identify whether or not those costs will be recouped over time. Is it likely to result in increased customer loyalty and repeat purchases? If so, the upfront costs may be worth the investment.

Once you’ve identified the right channels to best support your customers, your agents will need to fine-tune their communication skills accordingly.

2. Fine-tune your communication skills

To ensure the customer experience is both consistent and positive across channels, your agents need to be well-versed in friendly, helpful communication. Help your support team hone their skills by sharing the following techniques.

Smile while you speak

You’d be surprised how well a smile translates through your voice. A good practice when talking to a customer on the phone is to mimic the same body language you would if you were face-to-face—and that means smiling. You’ll sound friendlier, and it will help you stay in a positive mindset as you work to solve the customer’s issue.

Communicate hold times

When assisting a customer on the phone, keep them from feeling antsy by communicating expected hold times. If you have to put a customer on hold to look up information or get assistance from another agent, check in with them every minute or so to assure them you’re still there.

Try this: “Hi [customer], I apologize for the wait time. I’m still in the process of pulling up your information, but will be with you in just a minute or two.”

Use positive language

It doesn’t matter what channel you’re using to assist a customer—positive language is always helpful. It keeps the conversation focused on the solution rather than the problem.

For example, let’s say a customer wants to buy a new product using a lapsed promotional code. Instead of saying, “I can’t give you that discount because it expired last month,” focus on a solution by using positive language like, “Let’s take a look at some of our currently active promotional codes. We’ll make sure to find one that gets you the discount you’re looking for.”

This will keep your customer from feeling frustrated and open them up to your solution, even if it’s different from what they initially expected.

Mirror a customer’s language and tone

Mirroring is when a support agent mimics a customer’s tone of voice and language. It’s a powerful way to establish trust. For example, a customer who uses emojis when they communicate over text might feel more connected with a support agent who does the same.

Practice these communication skills across support channels, and you’re likely to leave customers feeling understood and supported.

3. Empathize with your customer

As a support agent, your ability to empathize with a customer is key for calming them down enough so that you can help solve their problem. Practice empathy by utilizing the following best practices.

Listen first

Let your customer talk through their problem without interrupting. Frustrated customers need time to get to the bottom of what’s really ailing them. Listening first will give your customer time to air out their concerns. It will also give you a chance to fully understand the problem, so you can effectively brainstorm how to solve it.

Acknowledge their frustration

Recognizing how your customer’s issue is affecting them is likely to make them feel supported. If they feel that you understand where they’re coming from, there’s a good chance they’ll be receptive to the solutions you suggest.

Beyond repeating the issue back to the customer, you might show your understanding by mentioning a similar issue you experienced. Just be wary of focusing too much on your experience—otherwise, the customer will think you’ve stopped caring about their problem.

Once you’ve acknowledged the customer’s problem, turn the conversation toward a solution. Say, for example, a customer has forgotten their login information. To recognize the issue and introduce next steps, you might say, “I understand you can’t log into your account because you’ve forgotten your credentials. Let’s get your personal information verified so that we can reset your password and restore your access to your account.”

Empathy goes a long way when it comes to customer support. The techniques above will help you calm your customers down and establish a personal connection with them more quickly. Ultimately, you’ll be able to solve more tickets in less time.

4. Summarize your solution

For a customer to leave a support conversation satisfied, they need to understand what you’re doing to help and how it will solve their problem.

Walk them through the solution. Explain how you’re going to solve your customer’s problem, step-by-step, so they can see a clear path forward.
Keep it simple. Stay away from technical jargon that might further confuse your customer. Explain what you’re doing in layman’s terms, so your solution is easy to understand.
Make sure they understand your solution. Many customers feel uncomfortable speaking up if they’re confused about what a support agent is telling them. Check in with your customer about whether they understand the solution to make sure they know next steps.

Summarizing your solution is a great way to build trust and rapport. The more confidence your customers have in the support they receive, the more likely they are to keep coming back.

Prioritize your customers to offer stellar support

Top-notch customer support is meeting and exceeding your customers’ expectations. To accomplish this, you need to be available to your customers and ready to help. Offer support on the channels your customers prefer, and make sure you’re communicating with them in a friendly, yet professional way. Start with the four support practices in this post, and you’ll be well on your way to boosting customer satisfaction rates.

Which Support Channels Should You Offer?

Channel	Pros	Cons	Best for
Email / ticketing	Asynchronous, documented, easy to route	Slower perceived response	Complex issues needing paper trail
Live chat & messaging	Fast, conversational, deflects calls	Requires staffing coverage	Quick questions, e-commerce, SaaS
Phone	High-touch, best for emotion or urgency	Expensive per contact, hard to scale	Escalations and high-value accounts
Self-service / knowledge base	Deflects volume 24/7, customers prefer it for simple issues	Needs ongoing maintenance	Repetitive how-to questions
AI agents & chatbots	Instant answers around the clock, scales cheaply	Needs good training content and escalation paths	High-volume teams ready to automate tier 1

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most important customer support best practices?

Four practices cover most of what matters: be available on the channels customers prefer, communicate clearly and without jargon, show genuine empathy backed by customer context, and summarize every resolution. Teams that do these four consistently outperform teams chasing dozens of tactics inconsistently.

Which support channels should a small team offer first?

Start with email ticketing plus a self-service knowledge base — together they handle documented issues and deflect repetitive questions around the clock. Add live chat once you can staff it, and reserve phone support for escalations. Adding channels you can’t consistently cover hurts more than not offering them.

How do you improve customer support without hiring more agents?

Deflect repetitive volume with a well-maintained knowledge base and AI agents for tier-1 questions, then give remaining agents better context through CRM integration so each conversation resolves faster. Most support teams gain more capacity from tooling and process than from headcount alone.

How do you measure whether customer support is actually good?

Track a small set: CSAT for perceived quality, first-response and full-resolution time for speed, first-contact resolution rate for effectiveness, and ticket reopen rate for quality of fixes. Improving reopen rate and first-contact resolution usually moves customer loyalty more than raw speed does.

Want a second pair of eyes on your support setup? Get a free CX health check from Faye — we’ll review your channels, workflows, and tooling in Zendesk, Freshworks, or Intercom and hand you a prioritized fix list.

This blog was written by Zendesk. Faye is a Zendesk Master Development Partner.

By Sarah Hurd, VP Professional Services

Sarah Hurd is a momentum builder with over 15 years of expertise in technical project management and a proven track record leading complex, multi-technology initiatives. She works closely with organizations to align technology, collaboration, and culture around a shared vision that drives results.