How to Use Slack for Customer Support in B2B (Guide)

How Slack changed B2B SaaS customer support forever

B2B customer support is a notoriously tricky area to crack. Demands are high, and customers are difficult to please. Over the decades, the field has continuously evolved, adapting to the latest trends, technologies, and the ever-changing expectations of buyers.

As B2B SaaS customers increasingly value exceptional service—willing to pay up to 30% more for top-notch support—the competition is fierce. Recent shifts in how businesses communicate have propelled Slack into one of the most popular tools for B2B customer support.

Here’s how Slack is revolutionizing the customer support landscape today:

1. Emptying inboxes

Let’s be honest: dealing with email is a hassle. Inboxes are packed with spam, reply-all threads, and too many folders to manage. Nobody has time for those long email chains anymore.

For businesses, the inefficiency of email can result in slower responses and missed opportunities. That’s why so many B2B SaaS companies are ditching email and switching to tools like Slack. Slack provides a stress-free way to connect with customers, ensuring conversations don’t get buried or overlooked.

For smaller companies like incident.io, Slack isn’t just an email replacement—it’s a partnership tool. George Mabey, Technical Support Engineer at incident.io, explains:

"Providing support directly within Slack feels very natural for our customers. It fosters a sense of true partnership, as they can easily ask questions in a tool they already use daily for their internal communications. It also empowers everyone in the business to get involved in supporting our customers, creating a more collaborative and responsive environment."

This transparency eliminates the inefficiencies of email threads and ensures that all communication is centralized in one place.

2. Creating instant communication

Today’s customers don’t just want quick answers—they absolutely expect them. 66% of customers think companies should reply right away when they ask for help. That’s why instant messaging tools like Slack are so important now.

Slack ensures customers get their issues resolved faster, fostering better relationships and higher satisfaction. For growing teams like Prismatic, using Slack for customer support helped maintain a personal and collaborative approach, even as the company scaled.

Chris Spencer, Technical Support Engineer at Prismatic, highlighted the importance of staying connected:

"As we built out our support function, we aimed to engage our customer base in a collaborative way through Slack. This method was well received by our early prospects and customers, so we wanted to maintain a similar experience as we grew."

3. Making it more personal

Personalization is no longer optional in B2B customer support either. Buyers increasingly expect tools tailored to their needs. Personalized solutions lead to higher customer retention rates, improved satisfaction, and a boost in customer lifetime value (CLV).

Slack fosters personalization by enabling teams to provide direct, real-time support. Integrating Slack with tools like CRMs allows agents to access customer history and provide tailored solutions instantly.

For larger organizations like Amplitude, maintaining this level of personalization while scaling was a key challenge. Jessica Chiu, Director of Technical Support at Amplitude, shared how Slack’s unique capabilities made a difference:

"Slack empowers us to meet our customers where they are without compromising the efficiency of our technical support workflows. This allows us to maintain the high standards of service that our customers expect."

4. Putting security first

Relying on email for customer support can leave businesses vulnerable to risks like phishing and scams, especially for large enterprises managing sensitive data. These threats can erode trust and lead to serious legal and financial consequences.

Slack offers a more secure alternative, with advanced features like two-factor authentication, single sign-on (SSO), and enterprise-grade encryption.

Source: Slack

For instance, a company supporting enterprise-level clients can use Slack’s private channels to securely discuss contracts or troubleshoot issues without fear of interception. This layered security gives businesses and their customers peace of mind.

5. Helping to scale quickly

B2B SaaS companies often grow faster than their traditional communication platforms can handle. Slack is designed to scale seamlessly, removing the need to constantly overhaul customer service strategies.

For example, if a SaaS business expands its workforce or doubles its customer base, Slack’s flexible workspaces and integrations—like CRM systems, ticketing tools, and shared knowledge bases—can accommodate the increased demand instantly.

Whether it’s onboarding new agents or managing high customer volume, Slack adapts without disrupting operations. This scalability ensures businesses can grow confidently while maintaining top-tier support.

Benefits of using Slack for customer support in B2B

Slack’s impact on B2B customer support is undeniable. But what makes it a standout choice for businesses? Here are the key advantages of leveraging Slack to deliver exceptional customer support experiences:

1. Easy to use

One of Slack’s biggest strengths is its intuitive design and widespread familiarity. Many teams already use Slack for internal communication, which means incorporating it into customer support workflows requires minimal training. Customers who are new to Slack often find it user-friendly, allowing for faster adoption and smoother communication.

2. Highly customizable

Slack’s customization options make it adaptable to your specific support needs. You can:

• Create dedicated channels for specific customers or query types.
• Set up Slack bots to provide automated responses for FAQs or routine updates.
• Build integrations with help desk tools and CRMs to streamline processes. 

This flexibility ensures that Slack evolves alongside your support strategy.

3. Makes collaboration easy

Some B2B problems are complex and need input from multiple people—whether it’s a sales rep, a technical expert, or a customer success manager.

Slack makes it easy for your team to come together and tackle these issues head-on. Team members can tag each other for input, share files in real-time, or use threads to keep discussions organized. This kind of teamwork helps resolve issues faster and more accurately.

4. Gives you better customer insights

When you use Slack for customer support, you get more than just a place to chat—you get a way to understand your customers better.

Pair Slack with tools like Thena, and you’ll uncover trends like common issues, frequently asked questions, and even which customers are your biggest fans. These insights can help you improve your support strategy and offer more personalized service.

5. Seamless integration with business tools

Slack serves as a central hub by integrating with your business’s essential platforms. From CRMs like Salesforce to ticketing systems such as Zendesk, Slack connects all the tools needed for efficient customer support.

Additionally, integrations with video conferencing tools like Zoom make it easy to escalate complex issues to face-to-face discussions. This consolidation of workflows reduces inefficiencies, ensuring your team spends less time juggling platforms and more time resolving customer concerns.

How Slack can improve customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is crucial to business success. According to Forbes, customer satisfaction leads to brand loyalty in SaaS. After all, happy customers are more likely to become repeat customers and recommend your business to others.

The price of poor customer service can run high, as 61% of customers suggest that they would likely change vendors or brands after even one bad experience. As the cost of attracting new customers can be especially high in the B2B SaaS environment, it is crucial that organizations get their customer service right.

Here are some ways Slack can help you improve customer satisfaction:

• Faster Response Times: Slack enables real-time communication, allowing support agents to respond to queries quickly. This can lead to faster resolution times and happier customers.
  
  
• Personalized Interactions: Slack allows you to have personalized interactions with customers. You can use their name, respond to their queries in a friendly tone, and make them feel valued.
  
  
• More Control: Slack gives customers more control over their support experience. They can choose the channel they want to use, get updates on their query, and have a record of their conversation.

• Simplicity: Slack’s workplace has a sleek and easy-to-use interface that is ideal even for customers with no or limited tech knowledge. Slack gives straightforward solutions to share messages and resolve problems with a few clicks of a button.

• No Spam: Slack’s interface provides no distractions to customers. Unlike inboxes stacked with spam messages and websites rigged with countless pop-up windows, with the help of Slack, your customers can quickly get help without having to fight off unnecessary information.

So, how do you go about setting up Slack for customer support success? Continue reading the next section!

How to set up your Slack workspace for customer support with Thena

Setting up your Slack workspace for customer support can transform the way you serve your customers. Not only can it improve response times, but it can also increase efficiency and improve the overall customer support experience.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Create dedicated Slack Connect channels

The first step is to set up specific channels for customer support. This keeps customer conversations organized and separate from other Slack activities. Create channels based on customer accounts, query types, or themes.

Use Slack Connect to invite customers and relevant team members into these channels. To make things easy, send automated welcome messages. These can explain how to log issues, expected response times, and other useful tips.

With clear guidelines and organized channels, your team can prioritize support requests more efficiently. Customers will also feel confident knowing their issues won’t get lost in the mix.

2. Integrate essential apps and tools

Slack becomes even more powerful when you integrate it with your other tools. For customer support, connect platforms like CRMs, help desks, or ticketing systems. Popular integrations include Intercom, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Salesforce, and HubSpot.

For many companies, Thena has become an essential tool for running customer service operations. This is because it helps teams streamline workflows and manage customer interactions at scale. As George Mabey, a Technical Support Engineer at incident.io, shared:

"Thena is incredibly important for us because it takes the chaos of managing hundreds of Slack channels and requests and transforms them into reportable, prioritizable tickets. It’s allowing us to manage and scale our support operations efficiently, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks and allowing our team to focus on what matters most."

Similarly, Chris Spencer, Technical Support Engineer at Prismatic, emphasized Thena’s impact:

"With Thena, we can meet our customers where they work (in Slack), track all their requests efficiently, and collaborate internally to assign tasks."

These integrations ensure that Slack becomes not just a communication tool but a comprehensive customer support hub.

3. Set up automated workflows

Automating repetitive tasks saves time and reduces errors. With Thena, you can create workflows that handle common support tasks.

For example, you can automate responses to FAQs or route tickets to the right agents. If a technical issue is submitted, the workflow can assign it directly to a technical expert. For after-hours inquiries, set up an automated reply letting customers know when to expect a response.

These workflows ensure customers’ requests are always acknowledged while making your team more efficient.

4. Build a self-service knowledge base

Research shows that 33% of consumers find it crucial to have a self-service help option available to attempt to resolve their issues.

You can support this by building a searchable knowledge base in Slack. Upload guides, tutorials, and troubleshooting resources directly into your workspace. Link to external resources like your website’s help center for more detailed content.

Slack also lets you share updates instantly. If there’s a new policy or product update, customers can access the latest information immediately. This empowers them to find solutions without waiting for a response.

5. Set up smart notifications

Notifications in Slack help your team stay on top of important requests. You can configure alerts for new messages or urgent tickets. Thena enhances this by triggering reminders for unresolved issues.

For instance, if a customer’s request hasn’t been answered within your SLA timeframe, Thena can notify the appropriate agent. This ensures your team responds quickly, keeping customers happy and engaged.

6. Enable conversational ticketing

Slack channels can get busy, and it’s easy for messages to get lost. With Thena, you can turn customer conversations into tickets directly within Slack.

Tickets can be assigned to team members, tracked through their status, and updated without switching apps. You can also use Thena’s dashboard to visualize progress and ensure nothing gets missed. This keeps your support organized while making the process seamless for everyone involved.

Now that we’ve taught you the ropes of Thena’s platform, it’s time to address a few other areas that can help you make the most of using Slack for customer support.

Building an effective customer support team on Slack

Delivering a first-class customer experience on Slack depends on more than just the platform itself. It requires the right combination of skilled staff, robust systems, efficient processes, and a supportive company culture.

Below, we explore the key factors to consider when building your customer support team on Slack.

1. Hiring and onboarding the right talent

A successful support team begins with the right people. Look for candidates who excel in collaborative environments, demonstrate proactive problem-solving abilities, and possess excellent communication skills.

📖 Related read: 11 Most Important B2B Customer Service Skills

Once hired, provide thorough onboarding and training. Ensure your agents understand your support processes, escalation protocols, and how to leverage Slack and integrated tools effectively.

2. Defining roles and responsibilities

Clear role definition is essential for efficiency. Assign responsibilities based on each agent’s skills and expertise. Define escalation paths to ensure that complex issues are resolved promptly. This clarity prevents duplication of effort and promotes accountability across the team.

3. Empowering and motivating your team

Happy and motivated agents are critical to providing exceptional service. Foster a supportive environment where employees feel recognized and empowered. Acknowledge individual and team achievements, and encourage creativity in problem-solving.

Use Slack creatively to boost morale—for example, by recognizing an "Agent of the Week" or hosting fun team competitions. Invest in upskilling opportunities and provide constructive feedback to enhance your agents’ decision-making and problem-solving abilities.

4. Establishing team culture and communication guidelines

Lastly, a cohesive team culture promotes collaboration and alignment. Create a team charter or core values that focus on customer satisfaction and foster a sense of purpose.

In addition, establish clear communication guidelines. Define expectations for response times, standard escalation protocols, and Slack communication etiquette. These guidelines ensure consistency and efficiency across the team.

A few other best practices for effective customer support

Streamline support ticket management

Streamlining support ticket management is essential to delivering fast and efficient customer support. Using Thena’s analytics, tracking metrics such as response times and resolution rates, and regularly reviewing support processes can help identify areas for improvement.

Implement response time standards

Response time standards can help set customer expectations and help agents prioritize support tickets. Establishing clear response time goals, such as responding to support tickets within 24 hours or less, can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Establish a customer-first strategy

Attracting new customers can be 6-7 times more expensive than retaining the existing ones. Ensure your customer is at the heart of all your processes and solutions. Proactively encourage your clients to provide feedback on your service. Their opinions can be a great source to create an even more robust product and brand.

If your customers feel like you genuinely care about them, they will be more likely to share their positive experiences externally, becoming active advocates for your organization.

Conclusion: Maximize the Use of Slack for Customer Support

Long gone is the era of blanket emails and countless hours spent on hold on the phone, Slack revolutionized customer experience to its core. While B2B SaaS customer support can be a tricky field to navigate, Slack and its integrations can easily help any organization achieve five-star customer service. Every time.

With the support of strategically structured Slack channels and workspaces tailored to your audience’s specific needs, you can connect with your clients faster and more effectively than ever. But Slack is not just for your customers; it can also provide a better platform for your customer support agents.

With solutions like Thena, your team will have access to a customized tool that helps them achieve maximum productivity and focus on the work that matters the most while creating a seamless environment for your clients. 

Ready to see how Thena can automate your customer service on Slack? Book a free demo today!