Call Center Management Featured Article
Online and Mobile Customer Support Require Non-Traditional Thinking
When companies began moving some of their sales or customer service to online channels, there was a mistaken impression among many companies: the do-it-yourself nature of the Internet meant that the demands on the contact center would be lower. In the earliest days of e-commerce, finding decent service – or any service at all – on a company’s Web site was practically impossible. Today, we know that online customers demand just as robust live help when they require it as telephone-based customers. The channels may be a little different, but the need is just as great.
According to Trish Herriman, an underwriting manager at BillPro writing for Huffington Post Small Business, there are six customer-service elements a business must master in order to do online customer support properly: easy shopping, accurate product descriptions, clear shipping information, a transparent return policy, easy access to customer service and the willingness to meet customers' requests.
Easy shopping, of course, means that products are grouped in a way that make sense, and there is a highly usable search tool on the home page (don’t make your customers have to go looking for it). Product descriptions will be accurate, well written and detailed, so customers don’t need to flood the contact center asking for basic information.
“Detailed written descriptions and clear photos of your products can make the customer comfortable enough to purchase from your store,” wrote Herriman. “Clarity (News - Alert) can also prevent a mismatch between expectations and reality that can lead to returns, disputes, chargebacks, or negative reviews.”
While Web site and shopping experience design may be marketing’s job, the bulk of responsibility will fall on the contact center. Ensure that there is an easy way for online shoppers to request live help via the channels they prefer. Web surfers, for example, will often turn to chat, since they can stay on the Web page and communicate with a contact center rep at the same time. Mobile shoppers, however, are likely to prefer a telephone call. Ensure that online customers are not “siloed” away from the main contact center, but are instead handled just as a traditional customer would be serviced.
Keeping a focus on customer support for online or mobile customers may require more than a universal queue. When shoppers are in the middle of a Web-surfing session, the idea of “starting all over again” with a phone call or a chat may be very unappealing. Companies serious about the quality of customer support they offer need to do more about keeping customer service transactions in the context of the Web surfing or mobile session already in progress. How much time would it save, and how much better the outcome, if an agent answering a request for a chat could see what the customer was doing prior to initiating contact?
Today there are cloud-based solutions that can enable contact centers to do just that: allow customers to initiate a request for live help from the Web browsing session, the mobile app or even the interactive voice response (IVR) solution. Customers expect ease today, and nothing’s less easy than having to repeat oneself to every individual who picks up a request for information.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi