Online shoppers increasingly expect service that is fast and tailored to their needs. New products and services allow retailers to provide superior customer care, while also meeting their ROI goals.
Now, more than ever, every customer is precious to a retailer. That’s why forward-thinking online retailers take advantage of new technologies and service providers to respond in a more personal way than ever before to customers inquiries and complaints.
As web shoppers become accustomed to receiving that kind of personal attention at popular e-commerce sites, the pressure builds on all e-retailers to upgrade their customer service strategies and, as always, give the shopper what she wants, when she wants it.
“Online retailers have to be accessible to their customers to answer their questions and provide assistance when they need it because many consumers will determine the value of a retailer’s brand by the quality of the customer service they provide,” says Saurabh Dadu, managing director for LiveSalesman, a provider of live chat, e-mail and click-to-call support services. “It costs more to acquire a customer than it does to properly service them, and in this economy retailers can ill afford to improperly service their customers.”
From a service standpoint, winning customer loyalty begins with how fast retailers respond to shoppers’ questions about a product or a request for help. Shoppers do not have a lot of patience when it comes to waiting to connect to a service agent after clicking on a live chat or click-to-call button. If shoppers feel the wait is too long, they will take their business elsewhere.
“The faster a retailer responds to an inbound customer service call or live chat, the greater the opportunity for them to differentiate their business and increase customer loyalty,” says Greg Fettes, president and CEO of contact center provider 24-7 INtouch. “Shoppers cannot be left at the mercy of contact center volume at the time of the service inquiry to determine when they will get a response.”
The principle of fast response times also applies to e-mail, adds Fettes. While most shoppers do not expect an immediate response to an e-mail message, they do expect to hear back from the retailer within 24 hours.
“We contract to respond to e-mail inquiries within four hours, but our average response time is 37 minutes, because advances in Internet technology have shoppers expecting faster response times,” says Fettes. “Customers that get an e-mail response by the end of the shopping session are wowed.”
On-site help
Another way retailers can wow shoppers on their sites is by reaching out to them to offer assistance via the instant messaging technology known as live chat. Shoppers that appear to be stuck on a page or struggling with a purchasing decision are prime candidates to be sent a message asking if they need assistance. Click-to-call is a close cousin to live chat: consumers are asked to provide a phone number and the technology automatically connects the agent with the shopper.
Retailers need such tools as live chat and click-to-call to proactively reach out to shoppers and match the quality of their service with the service expectations of the customer.
While shoppers may decline an offer for assistance through live chat or click-to-call, it does not necessarily mean they feel the offer was an intrusion. In fact, a forthcoming report from Bold Software shows that chatters who engage via proactive invitation are eight times more likely to purchase than visitors who don’t chat.
“On the contrary, letting consumers know service is available if they need it is appreciated,” says Steve Castro-Miller, president and CEO of Bold Software LLC, provider of the BoldChat live chat product, as well as click-to-call and e-mail management applications. “The key is to find the right balance between repeated offers of assistance and allowing visitors to browse by themselves.”
Visitor monitoring combined with pre-defined business rules can ensure assistance is offered when a shopper needs it. For example, a consumer that comes to a retailer’s site through a search engine may move from the landing page to the site search engine or to a FAQ page. The software tracks the consumer’s path, and if the behavior conforms to rules set in advance indicating help is needed, an agent will offer help.
“If a shopper looks like they need assistance, our software will proactively engage the visitor with an invitation to chat or talk to a live agent, and if they can get the information they need through the self-service channel, our philosophy is don’t get in the way,” says Jim Dicso, senior vice president, enterprise sales and service, for LivePerson Inc., a provider of online customer engagement tools.
Self-service
While many consumers welcome an opportunity to communicate directly with a retailer’s representative—whether through live chat, e-mail or click-to-call—some consumers prefer self-service options such as FAQ pages and site search.
Those shoppers may prefer to start with these self-service options because they don’t want to wait for an answer to an e-mail or find themselves stuck in a queue waiting to initiate live chat or click-to-call. However, in the case of LivePerson software, invitations to chat or talk are fired only when agents are available, eliminating wait times.
Effective self-service tools deliver the content the shopper needs, whether it is product information, instructions on how to initiate a return, store hours or something else. LivePerson can help retailers improve the content of the self-service tools by analyzing questions customers ask through site search, live chat, click-to-call and e-mail. The most common questions are identified and the answers are incorporated into the self-service channels.
Taking this approach can help retailers reduce the number of inbound customer contacts handled by agents, which reduces operating costs.
“Customers will contact a service agent when the self-service channel does not answer their questions,” says Dicso. “If retailers are looking to reduce operating costs by deflecting live agent contacts, they need to publish that information on their site and make it readily accessible. Some issues will require live assistance regardless, but the goal is to optimize site content to reduce the need for contacting a service agent.”
Dicso recommends that retailers make service options readily available across their sites, not just in the Contact Us section. “Shoppers should have easy access to self-service channels and to the ability to escalate to live help,” Dicso says. “When self-service doesn’t meet the requirement, retailers should try to handle the contact in the next most cost-effective channel. Access to these channels should be made available based on agent availability to avoid poor service levels.”
Information everywhere
In some cases, optimizing content to improve service means adding more detail to product descriptions to answer commonly asked questions. This reduces one step in the service process, and makes it easier for the customer to make the purchasing decision.
“The answers to questions commonly asked of service agents don’t have to reside just on the FAQ page, they can be part of the product description or site search results,” says LiveSalesman’s Dadu.
To further reduce the need for shoppers to contact a live agent, retailers can enhance a site search engine with a database containing answers to commonly asked questions, such as “Where can I find purple jeans?” The answer will include a link to the appropriate page.
24-7 INtouch can help retailers install such a database, using information about the retailer’s product line and web site to answer questions site visitors frequently ask. Such a database can provide the correct answer 95% of the time, Fettes says.
“Consumers have a low tolerance when searching a site for a product and will initiate contact with a service agent after a few tries, or abandon the site,” Fettes says. “Getting the right answer to them on the first site search query can deflect up to 30% of inbound service calls.”
Dadu recommends that retailers incorporate the answers to commonly asked questions throughout their web site. “Retailers want to keep the customer service knowledge base to commonly asked questions in sync across all communications channels,” Dadu adds. “The goal is to optimize the knowledge base of the site to make self-service tools better, regardless of the self-service tool the shopper uses.”
Why do they call?
Another way to leverage information from inbound customer service calls is to attach a reason code to each call. For example, a retailer that is running a promotion may have mistakenly included a price on the product or landing page that is different from that shown at checkout. The reason code allows outsourcing partners to quickly indentify how many inbound calls stem from a particular problem and relay that information so the retailer can correct the problem.
“Once the retailer knows what is driving their customer service calls, they can take immediate action to correct it and deflect further calls,” says Fettes. “Most retailers don’t make use of all their customer service data to understand how they can deflect inbound service calls.”
Still, there are times when consumers will want to interact with a live sales agent. When these instances arise, retailers need to personalize the interaction as much as possible. One way to do this is to provider service agents with visibility into the shopper’s behavior and movements through the site.
By arming service agents with such information as site search terms entered, pages viewed, and a summary of prior e-mails, live chat or phone contacts, agents have insight into what information the shopper has viewed and how the retailer resolved previous service issues.
This information can give the service agent a leg up in deciding how to address the problem since she does not have to rely entirely on the shopper’s account of where she’s been on the site or past interactions with the online retailer.
“The better the visibility service agents have into customer behavior and what the customer knows, the better they can interact with the customer on a more personal level and quickly get them to the product they want or the information they need,” says Matthew Tharp, director of sales for Bold Software. “It’s a way to personalize the interaction.”
Bold Software’s BoldChat live chat applications allow customer service agents to see the pages the shopper has viewed in the current shopping session and whether the shopper is a repeat customer. Service agents can call up a repeat shopper’s live chat history to provide insights into prior problems they encountered and how they were resolved.
The BoldChat application tracks how often consumers accept chat invitations, and provides operator productivity reports and service-level reporting. Service agents are able to follow shoppers’ navigation paths through a site via a tracking cookie. The information can tell service agents whether the shopper entered the site directly, through a paid search or banner ad, or via organic search results.
“It is beneficial for service agents to have some sense of where shoppers have been and what information they may have before offering assistance,” says Tharp. “The goal is to bring more granularity to live chat interactions.”
Rules of engagement
Knowledge of the particular customer is also crucial to effective use of proactive chat driven by pre-defined business rules.
For example, a shopper who has arrived at the site via an outbound e-mail campaign, conducts two site search queries but has not selected a product for purchase within a pre-determined time period may be confused or frustrated. Such a consumer is a good candidate for an invitation to a live chat.
“If a customer looks to be struggling to find the right product or information, retailers ought to be proactive in extending an invitation to chat,” says LivePerson’s Dicso. “Logic can be built into the application that sets rules or circumstances for when to proactively reach out to customers.”
Customer demographics can also be used to create rules that will improve a retailer’s ROI from live chat. Consumers shopping for big-ticket items or a high-value repeat customer who views several pages in a matter of minutes but does not commit to a single page can be candidates for a chat invitation, for instance.
“One way to balance the decision about proactively extending an invitation to live chat is to weigh the lifetime value of the customer,” says Deeksha Jaiswal, principal consultant for LiveSalesman. “Retailers need to make live chat a customer service option that is readily available, but not necessarily offer an invitation right away to customers whose lifetime value is not that high.”
Agent productivity
While segmenting customers can help retailers use live chat more cost-effectively, providers of call center technology are building in features to help call center managers improve agent productivity.
Bold Software’s BoldCCM includes a load-balancing feature that routes a shopper who launches a live chat session to an agent available to engage the shopper, rather than the next agent in line to handle a chat session.
This feature eliminates the risk of the shopper enduring a long wait for an agent if the next agent in line is not immediately available to handle that chat session. Agents often handle several chats at a time, and the agent next in line may be involved in a long exchange with a customer, for instance.
The application can also track conversions and order values for each chat session and compare that data to determine the ROI between proactive chat that the retailer initiates and exchanges that begin with the consumer clicking on a chat button.
“In this economic climate retailers need to take a harder look at costs across their entire operation, and the ability to track the ROI around chat can be a helpful metric in determining its overall value and whether current strategies for using live chat need to be adjusted,” says Tharp. “Retailers can also measure the ROI between customer-initiated chat and proactive chat.”
The role of social networks
Making more efficient use of customer service tools such as live chat is only part of the challenge retailers face today when it comes to managing customer communications more efficiently. Retailers must also keep up with shoppers’ penchant for using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and find ways to turn those social networks into customer service tools.
What intrigues—and sometimes frightens—retailers about social networks is the speed with which consumer opinions can travel across that medium. Consumers can broadcast their opinions to entire communities online and have them spread virally in a matter of minutes.
“The customer service challenge for retailers is how to prevent the spread of negative information before it goes too far and impacts their brand,” says 24-7 INtouch’s Fettes.
24-7 INtouch offers a customer relationship management tool developed by a third party that automatically asks shoppers to provide their Facebook or Twitter accounts and then monitors those accounts for comments about the retailer. If negative comments appear, retailers can respond directly to the shopper to address the issue.
“There is a lot of value in leveraging the power of social networks from a customer service standpoint,” says Fettes. “The challenge is finding the right approach.”
Trying to manage the plethora of communications tools to properly service consumers can be a daunting task for retailers, which is why more of them are turning to outsourcing partners for help with customer service. Before choosing an outsourcing partner retailers should discuss with potential service providers their strategies for deploying service technologies and the methods they use to ensure quality and brand integrity.
“Outsourcing is a way to bring operating efficiencies to the contact center and reduce costs, but if the outsourcing partner misses on providing a level of service that delights the customer and endangers brand loyalty, the retailer’s business will suffer,” says LivePerson’s Dicso. “The more the retailer looks to use their brand as a point of differentiation, the more deeply involved they need to be with the customer service experience, especially if it is outsourced.”
Spend the time
A common myth about outsourcing is that once a retailer turns over customer service to a third party, the retailer can simply forget about managing it. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“It is in the retailer’s best interest to learn about the outsourcing partner’s work culture, how they service the customer and how that level of service matches up with the level of service their customers expect,” says Live Salesman’s Dadu. “The decision to outsource has to match up with their business objectives from a service perspective.”
A common concern many retailers express about outsourcing is that, “Our product is too complicated for an outsider to be able to support.”
To ease those concerns outsourcing partners should explain that customer support can be divided into multiple levels, according to Dadu. Level 1 support includes handling basic presales queries and information about order status. “Usually it is easy for the outsourced agent to answer such questions based on little training and a knowledge base, plus product documentation,” he explains.
Level 2, which deals with issues requiring investigation, such as refunds, can also be handled by a well-defined business process.
Level 3 includes handling questions that cannot be answered by the outsourced agents. “Such questions are escalated to the representatives at the client’s office in real time for a solution, and the answer is simultaneously added into the knowledge base for future reference,” says Dadu.
Other questions that need to be answered in advance include whether the outsourcing partner measures customer satisfaction the same way as the retailer, how often the outsourcer provides performance reports, and how consistent and frequent is their agent training, according to Dadu.
Once a contract is signed, retailers should talk to their outsourcing partner at least once a week and regularly visit their facilities to make certain standards are being maintained. “We have had clients spend up to two months per visit at our facility observing,” says Dadu. “Outsourcing is an intimate relationship and retailers need to treat it as such.”
Taking the time to talk to an outsourcing partner’s service agents is one of the most effective ways to gain intimate knowledge of the work culture at the outsourcing firm. LivePerson offers its clients this opportunity through its partnership with call center services provider 24-7 INtouch.
“Transparency is important in developing strong relationships,” says 24-7 INtouch’s Fettes. “Open communication in everything you do as an outsourcing firm—from reporting to providing client access to data and personnel—is key to developing a true collaborative partnership where the client feels they have the same control over the contact center as if they were running it in-house, even though it is outsourced.”
As customer service technology becomes more sophisticated, retailers that take advantage of it can burnish their brand image and win the loyalty of their customers for years to come.
“Retailers that properly leverage all the customer service tools available will deliver value to the customer,” says Fettes. “Once consumers discover that value, they will return again and again.”
