Welcome back to the future!
In the first blog, we explored how consumer behaviors are shaping customer service in e-commerce and will continue to do so over the next few decades. This blog will look into another perspective of how e-commerce brands will leverage next-gen customer service tools to enhance customer satisfaction and customer experiences in the future.
Let’s get started!
“Always on” Customer Service
Recent research evidence shows that customers prefer chat-based customer support over any other support channel. A whopping 71% of them expect brands to offer live messaging support, and 29% will praise a company offering a positive live chat experience. Furthermore, customer satisfaction ratings for live chat are second only to phone support and beat-out help articles, email support, and social media-based support. In the coming years, customers will begin to shift towards real-time support over emails or social media channels. Seeing the traffic diluting towards real-time support, more e-commerce companies will take the above statistics seriously!
Smart e-commerce firms will amp up their communication technology ecosystem with intelligent chatbots. Chatbots will enable customers to solve on-demand problems without having to go through a human service rep. Customers will be able to stay in the flow of their tasks because they won’t have to move away to make a phone call or send an email – and then wait for a reply.
Moreover, bots will become smarter and even more capable of holding human-like conversations. Consequently, they will extend a company’s knowledge base, FAQs, and community forum, and allow customers to get lightning-fast responses to common queries. Such quick fixes and a focus on customer-centricity on the part of brands will enhance customer satisfaction, improve their brand experiences, and garner their loyalty and support.
Investing in Video-based Communications
In the near future, smart e-commerce brands will use video to speed up and simplify customer support. Video-based support has a unique feature – eye contact. Eye contact plus live interactions – not to mention facial expressions, empathy, and verbalized language – will facilitate more open and honest conversations between support agents and customers.
Additionally, these 1-on-1 interactions will enable agents to foster closer and more personalized connections with customers. They will be able to focus on each individual customer and offer tailored advice. Thus, they will not only decrease the time-to-resolution but also transform an impersonal support process into a meaningful, personalized, and interactive experience for customers.
E-commerce companies that use asynchronous videos in parallel to synchronous video meetings, will satisfy more customers. They will get closer to customers to understand their needs, empathize with their pain points, and successfully strengthen their relationships. By putting a human face to the brand and showing this face to customers, they will make customers feel more seen and heard.
Alongside live video support, more e-commerce brands will provide on-demand video that customers can access via mobile apps. Through video-based tutorials, FAQs, and how-tos, customers will quickly resolve their issues through an app instead of wasting time making a phone call or waiting for an email response. Both live video and on-demand video will improve their support experience. And from a brand perspective, these capabilities will build customer loyalty and increase their brand “stickiness.”
Self-service As the Trend
Today’s customers are always on edge and expect personalized support. At the same time, they want to be able to find solutions on their own, as long as they do not have to jump through hoops. Firms that understand this may begin to accelerate the development of support initiatives such as digital self-service to enhance customer experiences in the future.
A large part of future self-service tools will be driven by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. As these technologies improve, they will power the next generation of self-service tools that will be miles ahead of existing self-service support experiences. For one, customers will be able to ask for help in their own words, even if they use slang, make spelling mistakes, or prefer to communicate their needs via emojis.
Customers also won’t be stuck in static FAQs, support articles, or community answers. Rather they will be able to move freely between topics to quickly find the answers they need and get more control over the support experience. The tools themselves will be smart enough to review and “learn” from customer activities and preferences. More importantly, they will apply these learnings to continually improve their ability to interact with customers and provide the level of personalized service, satisfaction, and experience they demand – and deserve.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed this two-part series about the future of e-commerce customer support. In the e-commerce sector, making meaningful connections with customers and offering personalized support will be the key to boosting customer satisfaction in the future. Companies that invest in future-focused initiatives like video support, live chat, and self-service tools will be able to drive unforgettable experiences that are emotionally satisfying to customers and highly profitable for the company. Only these firms will secure their customers’ loyalty and get them to be enthusiastic brand advocates.
The future will be here sooner than you think. And if you want your e-commerce brand to succeed in its new realities, you need to start preparing now. Contact Ergode for technological or consulting support to inform your preparations. We will help you transform your service approach and equip you to meet customer expectations and provide excellent customer service.
