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Customer service: It’s the support offered to customers before, during, or after a purchase. To us and to our partners, it’s more than just providing answers – every interaction is a commitment and a statement from a brand to its customers.
In today’s ever-changing world, customer service goes far beyond telephone and email support. The modern consumer expects quick response times, personalized services and convenience above all else. Standard telephone and email support are certainly “table-stakes” but to delight today’s customer, we need to go beyond the expected.
Offering omni-channel support is a great example of a leading practice and caters to the needs of today’s modern customer. You may have heard of multi-channel support. In short, it simply provides customers with multiple channels to communicate. Omni-channel support brings all these channels together to create an integrated, branded experience. This allows for a cohesive customer journey where customers feel like they are receiving a personalized service that is catered to their favoured method of communication.
Two leading omni-channel offerings that we use and rank high in customer satisfaction are live chat and SMS based messaging. Both offer one-on-one interaction in a more convenient, mobile friendly way.
Live Chat
According to Zendesk, 32% of customers prefer live chat over all other methods of communication. Live chat is the fastest growing form of interaction for any online business, catching up quickly to phone calls (47%).
Quick response times are critical to ensuring that the modern customer is satisfied. Live chat offers transparency that other channels do not. Customers can see when agents are online and know exactly when to expect a reply.
Customers often add items to their cart but exit without purchasing. Live chat is extremely intuitive and recognizes when a customer is on a page and can offer assistance, increasing cart recovery. Some first-time purchasers may be apprehensive to reach out to customer service so an inviting chat message is shown to make these customers feel more comfortable.
Providing international services can be a struggle for many businesses. Even with tools like Skype, language barriers and time zones can render phone calls ineffective. Our live chat offers customers service in 105 languages with instant translations for both the agents and customers.
SMS/WhatsApp
SMS/WhatsApp has just surpassed social media as a preferred channel for customers to interact with. With over 1 billion WhatsApp users on the platform daily, this offers international customers a solution to expensive telecom rates for long distance calls and SMS.
With WhatsApp, brands can connect with their customers instantly while allowing the customer to control the pace of communication. It provides an easy to use and convenient way of communicating in a format that customers are already comfortable with. If your customer demographics show a significant millennial population, they are especially likely to prefer to connect with you on WhatsApp as opposed to calling you on the phone.
The popularity in online chats and the use of SMS services like WhatsApp stems from convenience and because of this, we’ve seen a decline in phone calls and emails. Contact us if you want to learn more about how Buyatab can provide omni-channel customer service for your gift card program.