Don’t go breaking their heartsDigital customer service for the retail sector

Did you know that self-service is not just being driven by younger, supposedly more tech-savvy consumers anymore? Forrester notes that consumers aged between 59-69, and the over 70s were the two groups showing the highest growth in wanting to self-serve.

According to the latest figures from the Centre for Retail Research, UK retailing has the highest proportion of online retail sales. And in the U.S., consumers last year spent a whopping $18.9 billion just on Valentine’s Day with over a quarter purchasing something online.

However, Forrester reports that more than 50% of customers will abandon their online shopping cart if they can’t find answers to simple queries and switch to a competi-

tor’s website. Customers hate struggling to find accurate and consistent answers to their questions.

Unlike our mixed feelings towards Valentine’s Day, most of us love the convenience of our connected world. Consumers have become impatient and weary of the time that they are willing to wait to get answers or have their problems solved. After years of faithful marriage to phone-based interactions, consumers prefer to communicate with brands via tablets, smartphones, and other digital gadgets over multiple channels.

Today’s tech savvy customers’ service expectations could have them falling out of love with a brand in two clicks.

Continuously nurturing relationships with your customers is crucial togrowing your business. Strengthen your customer relationships by helping them find what they are looking for, because being competitive is no longer enough. Brands also must be relevant, delivering great customer service experiences with 24/7 access to information, anywhere on any device.

Did someone say chocolate?

Customers falling out of love in two clicks?

Valentine’s Day, are you a ‘meh’ or ‘yeah’? The first ‘major’ holiday after Christmas and New Year sees Santa’s and snow globes being replaced with hearts, champagne, and chocolate.

www.synthetix.com

Swipe right or left?

The Silent Treatment

Efforts to prevent potential customers from abandoning their e-commerce carts, have had many businesses implement live chat support. A study by Forrester Research found, “Many online consumers want help from a person while they are shopping online; in fact, 44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer.”

www.synthetix.com

An emarketer.com survey found that 63% were more likely to return to a website that offers live chat. The report goes on to say: “62% reported being more likely to purchase from the site again. A further 38% of respondents said they had made their purchase due to the chat session itself. All these attitudes were even more prevalent among respondents who bought online at least weekly.”

As it turns out, live chat can offer real-time support, while also adding significant benefits to the staff and bottom line of companies. It is however important to consider that live chat poses some challenges. Customers are not bound by normal working hours when looking to make an online purchase or find support. Having live chat available with no-one to answer, might do more harm than good, frustrating customers with time-wasting silence.

Great CX

Multi-channel technology can assist in creating omni-channel customer experiences. Here are some of the key trends for 2019 that predicts love from customers:

Consistency across channels is key to a great overall experience. Trust is created when front-line staff, support staff and online channels all offer the same consistent answers. Having an integrated knowledge-base across your website, contact centre and social channels is key.

Ease: If it’s easy to find answers, purchase, get support, customers will return.

Mobile: We take our smartphones everywhere with us. In a study by Search Engine Watch, 67% of participants said they were more likely to make a purchase when visiting a business’s mobile-friendly site, versus 61% who said they’d most likely leave a site that wasn’t optimised for mobile.

Personalisation: Make identity an enterprise asset. Identifying customers at every touchpoint will result in a long-term relationship.

Virtual Agents: 24/7 customer service with a smile. A semblance of personal service, NLP artificial intelligence combined with a graphical representation, can be a powerful additional contact channel (not a replacement for human interaction). Virtual Agents can raise the online customer service effort bar. Always on, ready to offer customers who wish to self-serve answers, an engaging, appropriate, and conversational automated interaction.

www.synthetix.com

Conclusion

In our own lives, we appreciate that we cannot expect close relationships, family relations, or a marriage to survive and flourish if we don’t put time and effort into maintaining it. A business’s relationships with its customers is no different.

The customer journey map has many touch points, but the C’X’ that marks the spot is ‘first contact resolution’, which is why contact centres should shift their focus from average call handling times to develop strong online customer service strategies across multiple channels.

Will 2019 be the start of a beautiful customer experience journey for your business?

About Synthetix

There are many businesses who promise the moon and stars when it comes to providing online customer service. However, before you end up heartbroken, it is important to ask the right questions. Understanding the challenges involved in delivering effective online service, tools available to meet those challenges, implementation and if there are any hidden costs.

At Synthetix we develop cloud-based customer service software which is aimed at improving overall customer experience and contact centre efficiency such as reducing complaints, increasing the speed of response, and improving first contact resolution. We have helped many retail brands like Boots, and Fortnum & Mason, to transform their online customer service delivery.

T: +44 1279 555 580

uk@synthetix.com