The good news is that, worldwide, 67% of people believe that customer service is improving. The bad news is that customers expectations are higher than ever.

So how can game developers and publishers keep up with growing player expectations?

"In my opinion, there are three pressing challenges that game developers and publishers need to address when they think about player support today.

On the top of the list, is solving how they extend support to the multiple markets their games are distributed in. In our experience, providing effective multilingual/multicultural support is key to growing the player community and driving both engagement and retention.

Next is determining the support channels available to the player community. Often, developers and publishers will take the road of least resistance and deploy webform support as the sole engagement channel. And again, in our experience, providing players with an effortless support experience requires offering multiple engagement options. Chat, social, community, and forums are key engagement channels that drive player retention.

I would round off the list of challenges with accurately forecasting volumes. This is perhaps the most difficult challenge to overcome, as forecasting is more an art than a science, and it requires a large body of historical player behavior data. Getting these right creates the core of an optimal player support experience."

Bad Player Support Hurts Players and Profits
Bare minimum player support just won’t cut it. For 26% of customers, a single bad experience is enough for them to never come back. While that leaves a huge chunk who do give support a second chance, 92% would be out after three bad experiences. And one can quickly become three, especially in the games industry where there are a litany of options available and a notoriously discerning consumer base.

Feedback about player support, whether good or bad, is widely discussed by players. Players are often involved in active online communities where they openly discuss their experiences, reaching beyond just friends and family.. In fact, 67% actively discuss poor experiences and discourage their friends and family from using that service and company.
On the inverse, the vast majority of consumers recommend companies and services to friends or family after a good experience. Millennials are actually the only demographic in the US who tell more people about a good experience than a bad one.

Multi-market Games Need Multilingual Support
Multi-market releases are an inevitability in games. Developers want all their players to share the same excellent experiences on launch day, and this requires multilingual support.

We’ve found that consumers in most industries appreciate support in their own languages, and often reward an organisation with loyalty and continued business. And the stats back it up: 72% people believe their customer support satisfaction is increased when it’s offered in their native language. Again, the notion that the support experience must be effortless is paramount to the success of the business.

If effortlessness is the goal, players shouldn’t feel that contacting support is a task. But so many businesses fail to take this idea on board. In total, 86% of contact centres report having non-English speaking customers, but only 66% have formal support options in languages other than English.

In the games industry, native language support is an enabler of efficiency, leading to fast responses and happier players. Instead of English-speaking agents translating tickets, and likely missing important details, language agents can get straight to the point. In fact, 58% of contact centres said their internal efficiency improved once they began supporting other languages.

Choosing the Right Support Channels
Helping players once they’ve contacted support is important vital but identifying how and where they contact support is just as important:

What channels are the most important for video game player support?
Historically, webforms have been the primary channel of player engagement and support, in the gaming space. In recent years, other channels have emerged as vital to the player support ecosystem. These channels include self-service, webchat, social, community, and review sites. The essential premise of deploying these additional support channels is simple; provide an effortless support experience for players through multiple support options, so they may choose the channel that best suits their preferences and support needs.

Again, ‘Effortless’ should be the goal. because when contacting support becomes a chore, players avoid doing it at all. With younger audiences, developers ought to think about their preferences, rather than the population at large. 65% of people aged 18-34 believe social media is an effective channel for customer service, while 75% of people aged 55 and over do not.

It could be easy to see these findings and think great customer service is something millennials care more about; this isn’t the case. Between 60% and 71% of those aged 40 and over were more likely to pay more for better customer service, with millennials topping the list at 77%. The average consumer uses at least three types of support channel. They also found that the channels maintaining the highest levels of engagement were Phone, Email, and Live Chat.

Looking specifically at the games industry, in-game support is one the most direct and useful methods of contact. Because in-game support allows players to raise issues without leaving the comfort of the game, it feel less intrusive and doesn’t interrupt a player’s enjoyment. This becomes even more pertinent in Virtual Reality, where ensuring players don’t have to break immersion is critical to the game experience. Live chat and social are also popular support channels in the games industry as they allow players to talk with support immediately, while still focusing on their game.

If you’re maintaining multiple support channels, the most important thing to do is be consistent – something only 22% of users have experienced between support channels. That‘s a massive 78% of users who felt dissatisfied with multi-channel support. While attention should be paid to channel and language coverage, it’s also important to keep an eye on Volumes.

Getting Ahead of the Volume Problem
The most important period for any new release is the 90 days that immediately follow. And predicting support volumes over this period is critical to any great player support service. The holy grail of this forecasting is historical data -- channel split, upcoming and historic agent activity, and self-service options, to name a few -- which can be used to provide accurate and direct information about player volumes, trends, and behaviours. Using this knowledge, and a flexible solution, support can ramp-up over this critical period, ensuring that players don’t face delays when resolving issues with the new game they’re excited to play.

Self-service FAQs and support pages are a huge boon to any customer support service in the games industry. Aspect Software found that 73% of people want to solve issues on their own. And that 65% of people 'feel good' about the company and themselves when they can solve a problem without having to contact support.

How much do FAQs, support pages, and third-party online resources decrease the volume of support tickets?
Organisations that value the player support experience allocate resources to the creation and maintenance of their self-service portal. We’ve found that a large percentage of players attempt to find a resolution to their issues prior to reaching player support. Overwhelming, creating a support ticket is the final step of getting support, proving that self-service is a critical element to the support ecosystem. Getting this right is a sure way of deflecting support inquiries from being generated in the first place.

Again, ‘Effortless’ should be the goal. because when contacting support becomes a chore, players avoid doing it at all. With younger audiences, developers ought to think about their preferences, rather than the population at large. 65% of people aged 18-34 believe social media is an effective channel for customer service, while 75% of people aged 55 and over do not.

It could be easy to see these findings and think great customer service is something millennials care more about; this isn’t the case. Between 60% and 71% of those aged 40 and over were more likely to pay more for better customer service, with millennials topping the list at 77%. The average consumer uses at least three types of support channel. They also found that the channels maintaining the highest levels of engagement were Phone, Email, and Live Chat.

Looking specifically at the games industry, in-game support is one the most direct and useful methods of contact. Because in-game support allows players to raise issues without leaving the comfort of the game, it feel less intrusive and doesn’t interrupt a player’s enjoyment. This becomes even more pertinent in Virtual Reality, where ensuring players don’t have to break immersion is critical to the game experience. Live chat and social are also popular support channels in the games industry as they allow players to talk with support immediately, while still focusing on their game.

If you’re maintaining multiple support channels, the most important thing to do is be consistent – something only 22% of users have experienced between support channels. That‘s a massive 78% of users who felt dissatisfied with multi-channel support. While attention should be paid to channel and language coverage, it’s also important to keep an eye on Volumes.

So, there it is. The ingredients to exceptional player support in the gaming industry. To recap:

01_Speaking in a player’s native language makes their interactions with support efficient, clear, concise, and stress-free.

02_Offering a variety of support channels lets players to contact support in a way that’s comfortable to them and fits their schedule.

03_Maintaining self-service options keeps volumes down, leaving the more critical issues for support agents.

04_Forecasting spikes in player volumes and problems far before they materialise, helps teams ramp-up and ramp-down without the last-minute stress, and ensures a new release doesn’t mean long customer support queues.