Article • 9 min read
What is 24/7 support?
24/7 support means customers can get help and find answers to questions as soon as they come up—24/7 and in real-time.
著者: Raquel Jacob, Director of operations at Unbabel
更新日: January 22, 2025
As your business grows, you’ll start to scale beyond your initial audiences and markets—and with that change comes the need for round-the-clock service. 24/7 support is crucial in developing lasting customer relationships,
and improving the customer experience—in fact, according to Zendesk Benchmark data, nearly half of customers consider 24/7 support a crucial component of good customer service.
In this guide, we detail the basics of 24/7 support, and how you can bring it to your organization. Read on to learn about tips that can help you provide a winning customer experience.
More in this guide:
- Benefits of 24/7 support
- How to offer 24/7 support
- Six tips for providing 24/7 customer service
- Frequently asked questions
- Deliver 24/7 support with Zendesk
Benefits of 24/7 support
Delivering consistent customer support can help your organization in several key areas. Here are a few of the most impactful.
Giving your business a competitive edge
Not all businesses understand the importance of 24/7 support or have the resources to provide it. By offering round-the-clock assistance to your customers, you can differentiate yourself from competitors. Doing so demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction and can attract new clients who value exceptional service.
Providing support in local time zones
You may gain customers outside your local time zones as your business grows. Depending on location, a daytime message from them could reach your team after business hours. 24/7 support allows you to assist those consumers and ensure they receive timely support—regardless of location.
Offering support as a component of a premium product
24/7 support can be valuable to a premium product or service offering. By bundling it with your core offerings, you can increase the perceived value of your product and justify a higher price point. This strategy is common with mid to high-priced B2B services and can transform your support into a profit center.
Meeting customer expectations in a digital-first world
In today’s digital-first world, customers demand instant service day and night. By offering 24/7 support, you can meet these expectations, build customer loyalty, reduce churn, and improve your overall reputation.
How to offer 24/7 customer support
Now that we’ve covered the benefits, here are a few methods you can use to deliver 24/7 support.
AI agents
According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2025, 90 percent of CX Trendsetters—CX leaders who have fully embraced AI—think AI will resolve 8 in 10 issues without a human within the next few years. A key technology in that CX transformation is AI agents—advanced chatbots that can work over phone, email, and live chat.
They can understand customer sentiment and intent, provide accurate responses, and independently handle support interactions from start to finish.
By leveraging AI agents, businesses can significantly reduce response times, manage high volumes of inquiries simultaneously, and offer non-stop support across multiple channels and languages.
Knowledge bases
A comprehensive knowledge base is a self-service support tool that empowers customers to find answers to their questions. These resources can include how-to articles, product guides, FAQ pages, and more. When businesses maintain comprehensive knowledge bases, their customers can resolve issues independently while freeing up teams to focus on more important tasks.
Call center BPOs
A business process outsourcing (BPO) call center can provide a strategic solution for companies seeking comprehensive 24/7 support coverage. These third-party service providers employ teams of trained support professionals who can handle customer inquiries across different time zones and languages.
Organizations partnering with a reputable BPO can extend their support hours, manage peak contact volumes, and maintain high-quality customer service.
Community forums
Community forums are virtual communities where customers can ask questions to other users, share experiences, and provide solutions. These forums act like knowledge bases and can give customers the answers they need without reaching out to a support agent.
Forums can also foster a sense of belonging among users, generate valuable product insights, and reduce the burden on traditional support channels.
Six tips for providing 24/7 customer service
Providing 24/7 support can be a learning process, but here are six steps you can follow to be as successful as possible.
1. Embrace AI and automation
AI and automation technologies have transformed customer support by enabling round-the-clock assistance and reducing response times. Businesses can handle a significant volume of routine inquiries by implementing technologies like AI agents, automated ticketing systems, and machine learning-powered support tools.
These technologies can provide 24/7 support while freeing human agents to focus on more complex tasks.
2. Adopt a customer-first mindset
Being customer-first means putting the customer at the center of organizational decision-making rather than focusing only on products or profits. This gives businesses a strategic point-of-view that they can use to improve customer service and deliver comprehensive support.
By consistently focusing on the customer’s perspective in support operations, companies can build trust, increase loyalty, and create positive interactions that extend beyond traditional business hours.
3. Train your team
Employee training is crucial for delivering high-quality 24/7 support. Support teams must be equipped with deep product knowledge, excellent communication skills, and the ability to handle diverse customer scenarios effectively.
Regular training should cover technical skills and customer service skills like collaboration, communication, and empathy. Investing in ongoing professional development ensures that support staff can provide efficient support regardless of the time of day.
4. Optimize your self-service resources
Self-service cuts the load on your existing team, so your resources can go further. When building your resources, you should aim to make popular solutions to customer challenges more visible by asking questions like:
Are you highlighting frequently asked queries and their solutions in customer forums?
Are you updating your processes to reduce complexity and confusion?
Are you using video, screenshots, or training and webinars to educate your users?
By continuously updating and refining your self-service resources, you can improve user experience, reduce support ticket volumes, and empower customers to resolve issues quickly and conveniently.
5. Develop internal processes
Establishing clear, robust internal processes is essential for maintaining consistent and efficient 24/7 support. This includes creating detailed escalation protocols, defining response time standards, implementing comprehensive communication channels between teams, and developing standardized workflows for handling different types of customer inquiries.
Effective internal processes ensure that support issues are tracked, routed, and resolved systematically, minimizing delays and providing a seamless experience for customers across different time zones and support channels.
6. Match queries and channels to appropriate response times
Different customer inquiries require varying levels of urgency and response strategies. Critical issues like service outages or technical problems demand immediate attention, while general product inquiries can have more flexible response times. Businesses can optimize support efficiency by categorizing support queries and mapping them to appropriate communication channels and response time expectations.
This approach might involve using live chat for urgent matters, email for detailed inquiries, and community forums for less time-sensitive questions. Each customer interaction receives the most suitable and timely support with this process.
Frequently asked questions
Deliver 24/7 support with Zendesk
As your business grows, you must deliver 24/7 support to delight your customers and boost customer loyalty. Partnering with the right customer service software can help you hit your goals—and for that, you need Zendesk. Our AI agents can help you stay connected to your customers around the clock, while knowledge base and community forum capabilities can empower them to solve their problems independently.
Learn more about how Zendesk service can help you impress your customers day or night.
