The most reputable retailers are known for the outstanding eCommerce customer care they provide. From purchasing decisions to problem-solving across all available channels and platforms, the importance of customer care in business growth is hard to overrate.
At the same time, keeping customers happy is sometimes very tough. Bad remains in the memory much longer than the good. When consumers are asked about a customer service experience that happened to them a long time ago but still affects them in some way today, 46% of people recall bad experiences from two or more years ago. In contrast, only 21% of respondents remember a positive experience interacting with a company over the same period.
Keep multiple channels synchronized
People are becoming impatient; 51% of respondents reported waiting less than an hour before trying another contracting company if they didn’t get a response right away. Besides, consumers expect agents to be available via synchronized channels to switch between them anytime.
Сonsumers prefer different channels of communication depending on the urgency and complexity of the issue. For example, for simple information notifications, consumers are more likely to use email (60%), followed by online chat (48%) or SMS (24%), and social media (18%).
Conversely, consumers have a clear preference for a telephone conversation (76%) to resolve more complex requests, such as troubleshooting product malfunctions or discount terms. This can be explained by the fact that when solving tricky questions, a person still seeks to communicate with a person, not a chatbot, to ask non-standard questions, be understood, and get a reliable answer.
Thus, the level of customer satisfaction with your service dramatically depends on the channels your target audience prefers.
Keep UX up-to-date
As one of the most digitally savvy generations, 21st century-born consumers want their experience to be short, enjoyable, and convenient. Since these consumers will soon become the central part of the solvent segment of the market, everyone will have to adapt to their requirements.
65% of millennials expect customer service to be delivered significantly faster than five years ago. And half (48%) of the young generation surveyed no longer want to contact support services and are increasingly looking for ways to resolve their issues independently.
The difference in preferences between generations becomes more and more noticeable with the expansion of technical opportunities to declare their problem and get a solution. If you have ever encountered communication problems trying to describe a specific breakdown on your fingers, then you know that one picture is worth a thousand words. Therefore, 81% of the youngest participants in the study said that the best technical support is the one that allows you to quickly share a photo of the breakdown, a screenshot, or even a video file for additional commentary on the failure.
In comparison, only 38% of older respondents said they would like to use instant messengers or social networks to communicate with a company specialist but instead would prefer to call.
Of course, if people can quickly resolve issues independently without contacting customer support, that’s good for both the client and the company itself.
Organizing the process of self-discovery of the answer to your question should be taken very seriously because 98% of consumers say that they have tried to find a solution themselves, including searching in FAQs, the help center, or other online resources of the company, but not always successfully. And only more than a third (37%) say they do it all the time without going to a call center.
It is important to remember that by investing in the development of chatbots, wiki services, and lists of answers to frequently asked questions, the company ensures itself a reduction in the costs of call centers and their technical support in the future, but also risks losing loyal customers if it does not create convenient ones for them.
Innovate and set new standards
And given the previous finding of the changing preferences of new generations born in the digital age, real innovation has already become a decisive factor in choosing a supplier for a product or service. 56% of those surveyed (including 66% of the B2B segment) actively seek to collaborate with the most innovative companies and say that they are open to companies using artificial intelligence results in their services.
For example, outsourcing eCommerce customer support allows you to abandon the build-up of internal structures that perform non-core tasks for the organization, concentrate on the main areas of activity and get the highest quality solutions to these problems.
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