Sales periods have always been important for retailers. This year has been no exception and in many, probably one of the most significant in the UK and Europe since many services moved online. In 2020, 87% of British consumers stated utilizing online channels to make purchases. This demonstrates that e-commerce in the UK shows no signs of slowing down in the future. To be guided in their choice, consumers naturally need advice, whether at a physical point of sale or on e-commerce sites. E-commerce has taken a special place in purchasing habits. So much, in fact, that revenue in Europe is expected to grow to 510.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. With that in mind, companies need to take care of their digital customer relationship to facilitate sales. Let’s review some good practices ensuring customer satisfaction and encouraging loyalty.
Listen to your customers
The effectiveness of customer service can be determined by several factors. Customers will gauge the timely resolution of their issue, knowledge of agents, and length of waiting time they have. Making sure that you are on the same wavelength as your customers is vital. Know the answers to these questions and where possible, improve them. This helps maintain relevance, making sure that the organization’s perception is reality by collecting customer feedback and acting on it.
Test the handling times of requests, understand the customers’ point of view regarding the purchasing process. From there, with this information, you can optimize the customer journey.
Be available to customers when and where they need you
Contacting customer service can be daunting for most customers at the best of times. So making the process easier will hold your business in high regard. Being available, not just on more channels, but the channels of choice that your customers use daily for both personal and professional reasons can endear them towards your brand and make their experience simpler.
When customers are left perplexed and need answers, the availability of your agents is key. If they cannot find an answer on the FAQ section of the website, they will turn to agents for a solution. If they don’t get the result they want, then competitors will be keen to offer them what they miss in the previous customer experience, especially during sales periods.
It is possible to adapt to the preferences of customers by using an omni-channel approach for example. In the event that one of your channels is not available, other channels are open for customers to contact you.
As part of that strategy, using asynchronous channels such as messaging allows customers to send a message at any time and be notified of the response. Chatbots can also provide instant answers to frequently asked questions, day or night.
Human after all, why chatbots still need a human touch?
Chatbots have rightly become a trending implementation for brands to answer common questions instantaneously. It works, so much so that a recent study found 80% of consumers reported a positive experience with a chatbot.
The great thing about using this innovative technology is that it can help reduce wait times, relieve pressure on agents, and improve the overall experience. 60% of consumers have used chatbots to find answers in the past 12 months. A trend that is sure to increase.
Why not differentiate yourself and opt for conversational commerce?
Conversational commerce is altogether redefining the experience of customers when they connect with the brand. This approach allows them to communicate in a personalized way by interacting with an agent, a chatbot, or combining the two.
Messaging applications are particularly relevant to this trend. By using WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, businesses are adapting to their customers’ daily uses. They can thus exchange in real-time by taking advantage of the features of messaging: a history of exchanges, file sharing function, geolocation. During sales; these channels can, for example, be used to inform customers about the availability of products in the store and offer them to click and collect.
Conclusion
Customers have adopted new shopping habits in 2020, which will continue to evolve this year. The combination of physical and digital selling points is increasing and gives rise to unified commerce, which offers the customer a seamless experience across all channels. This development must be accompanied by the unified management of digital customer relations to obtain a 360° view of the customer and respond to all the contact points they use daily.