According to a PwC survey, 27% of customers are unsure whether they interacted with a chatbot or a humanin their last customer service conversation.

“27% of customers are unsure whether they interacted with a chatbot or a human.” – PwC

If anything, this data highlights that when customers engage with a business through channels that don’t have an image or voice, and an AI chatbot is used to assist them, they can’t tell the difference.

But beware! That doesn’t mean they can handle all queries equally well: AI has its limitations and, for example, lacks empathy and, worse, can be fooled.

That’s why it’s crucial to analyse when to offer self-service and when it’s better for the bot to pass the query on to an agent. Let’s look at four very clear examples.

EXAMPLES OF USING AI WITH CHATBOTS IN CUSTOMER SERVICE

1. ANSWERING TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

“My washing machine doesn’t work.”

If your contact centre provides technical support via WhatsApp (or any other instant messaging channel), we have good news: your agents will no longer have to deal with customers who don’t read manuals.

How?

If we feed the bot with all the documentation for our products/services, it can access it, find the section that answers the question and explain to the customer how to proceed.

Important: we also need to train it to recognise this type of request by providing keywords. And, especially in the beginning, work on continuously improving the bot.

What could happen?

If the customer’s problem isn’t covered in the manuals, the bot won’t be able to solve the problem and will transfer the call to a human.

Best of all, the customer doesn’t have to repeat what’s wrong because the agent can read the previous conversation.

2. ORDER TRACKING

“My package hasn’t arrived”.

When a customer contacts your eCommerce through the online chat on your website (or any instant messaging channel) and asks about tracking an order, the chatbot can respond instead of your agents.

How?

If the bot detects that the customer’s query is about a package, it can query your ERP system and find the tracking number to let them know where it is.

And you might think… if it can do that from a tracking search engine. Aha! But the bot can also communicate if there are any issues with the order.

What if there’s no information?

Then it has to transfer the conversation to an agent.

3. SCHEDULING APPOINTMENTS

“I’d like to make an appointment with Dr X.”

When we talk about “appointments”, we also include “meetings“, “hotel reservations”, “restaurant bookings” or “plane tickets”. All these requests no longer need to be handled by an agent.

How?

By connecting the bot to the doctor’s scheduling system, it can identify the customer, check the doctor’s availability, suggest a list of appointments, and book the appointment.

What else?

It can also instantly send an email or SMS confirming the appointment to the customer.

4. PERSONALISED RECOMMENDATIONS

“I don’t know what kind of credit card I need”.

Personalised product/service recommendations apply to almost every sector, including financial services.

How?

For this specific example, you’ll need to specify the types of credit cards you offer, including all their characteristics (fees, credit limit, associated benefits, etc.) and the customer profile that might be interested in each of them (purchasing habits, customer credit history, etc.).

MINIMUM ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, MAXIMUM HUMANITY

Artificial intelligence is ubiquitous, not only because it has already been democratised, but because it truly adds value.

Its ability to improve with each interaction, coupled with the fact that no technical knowledge is required to configure it, makes it an indispensable resource for any business.

For those in customer service, bots are essential to providing a better customer experience by offering fast 24/7 support and improving the agent experience by freeing them from repetitive tasks.

From the examples we’ve seen, you’ll also have noticed that AI can’t replace agents. Firstly, because it will soon be illegal to offer bot-only support in Spain, and secondly, because complex tasks or those that require a human touch should not be left to AI.

Do you want to know how to activate a chatbot for your customer service? Our team of (human) experts will advise you personally. Call us on +34 900 670 750 or write to us via our web chat.

La entrada 4 use cases where chatbots add value se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

The telephone is still the primary means of contact for online businesses, closely followed by instant chat and email. The reason for its use is simple: it is immediate and builds trust. 

eCommerce businesses are already taking advantage of the benefits of virtual numbers and using them as a contact medium in online stores, effectively increasing sales and building trust with visitors.

WHAT IS A VIRTUAL NUMBER?

A virtual number is a geographical, international or premium rate number that is not associated with a physical location and is stored in the cloud. 

As a virtual number, you can use it from anywhere with an internet connection, or you can redirect calls from the virtual number to another number to handle calls without an internet connection. 

In addition to the technological benefits, virtual numbers also offer significant cost savings for businesses, allowing them to subscribe to national geographical numbers for €5.40 per month instead of the usual €15.00. 

Virtual numbers use VoIP technology and are part of IP telephony, which sends communications over the Internet.

WHY HAVE A CONTACT PHONE NUMBER IN YOUR E-COMMERCE?

The problem with online shops is that customers don’t know who they’re dealing with and can’t get immediate answers to their questions. 

That’s why using a phone number as a contact method is the fastest way to help users and let them associate a voice with your brand. 

While many users will continue to make purchases without contact, others will prefer to send an email, but with a phone number you’ll reach the more traditional visitors looking for immediacy.

BUILD TRUST

Visitors to your website want to buy a product you sell. The challenge is that you only have a few seconds to gain their trust and get them to check out. 

To do this, you need to use the tools available in your eCommerce, such as design, user reviews and contact methods such as your phone number. 

eCommerce sites that display a visible contact number instil confidence in their users, who perceive it as a sign of security: they can contact a real person if they need to. 

In addition, many people still need to speak to the seller before making a purchase, even if they are sure they want to. It’s a way of confirming that it’s a safe place to buy.

INCREASING SALES

Often, callers only need to clear up a small doubt to decide to buy your product. 

Although you try to answer all the frequently asked questions on your website, sometimes it’s impossible to answer more personal questions in the FAQs. 

In these cases, a quick contact channel is essential. When a potential customer has a question, they can dial your phone number, resolve their doubts and then proceed to checkout.

WHY SUBSCRIBE TO A VIRTUAL NUMBER IN YOUR E-COMMERCE?

Why use a virtual number instead of a traditional phone number in an eCommerce business?

First of all, consider that the type of numbering is the same, i.e. both a virtual number and a traditional number from Madrid will always start with 91 and the cost of the call will be the same for your customers. 

The advantages of virtual numbering are mainly for the company that subscribes to it. There are many! Here are the seven best.

1. BETTER PRICE

While a fixed line number with a traditional company usually costs around €15.00 per month, with VoIP it is possible to subscribe to a virtual number for only €5.40 per month.

2. TOTAL MOBILITY

Just as you can run an e-business from anywhere with an Internet connection, the same applies to virtual numbers. 

With just an Internet connection, you have the freedom to manage calls from any device: smartphone, tablet, computer… and even from an IP phone if you prefer.

3. VIRTUAL NUMBER FROM ANY COUNTRY

For commercial reasons, you may prefer to have a number from Madrid or Barcelona rather than the province in which you are located. In these cases, virtual numbers are perfect. 

Because they are in the cloud, virtual numbers are not tied to the physical location of the business, so you can request a local number from any province.

4. CALL FORWARDING WITHOUT INTERNET CONNECTION

Unlike other devices, calls received on your mobile do not require an Internet connection. This means that you can answer incoming calls or calls that others have forwarded to you from your mobile phone without needing an Internet connection.

5. ANSWER CALLS FROM YOUR LAPTOP

Since you don’t go anywhere without your laptop, you can now use it to answer and make calls. All you need is a pair of headphones with a microphone.

6. AUTOMATIC SCHEDULING

It’s important that visitors to your website have a contact number, but that doesn’t mean you have to be available 24/7.

Given that e-commerce can take orders from anywhere in the world, at any time, it’s best to manage your opening hours.

From the control panel of your virtual number, you can specify the times you are available and schedule an answering machine message for calls received outside of business hours.

This way, people who need to contact you and call you outside of business hours will know when you are available and can call you back.

7. VIRTUAL NUMBERS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES FOR YOUR E-COMMERCE

Remember we mentioned that virtual numbers have no physical location? This means that you can also purchase numbering from other countries.

If your eCommerce receives a lot of traffic from abroad, consider subscribing to a virtual number from countries with more potential customers. By offering callers a direct and cost-free connection, you will increase the number of calls you receive and therefore your conversion rate. 

When listing different contact numbers on your website, we recommend that you include the contact number for each country for each language.

BOTTOM LINE

Including a phone number on your e-commerce site provides an immediate contact channel to resolve visitors’ doubts. By building trust, especially with new visitors unfamiliar with your brand, you can address their concerns and guide them to the shopping cart.

Unlike traditional methods, virtual numbers allow you to be location-independent and obtain local numbering from anywhere in the world, as well as use any device to manage calls. 

Our virtual numbers offer a very intuitive control panel to configure service hours, for example. Request a demo and find out about our rates by calling our team of experts on +34 900 670 750 or using the chat below.

La entrada Which virtual numbers are best for your eCommerce se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

The retail sector is constantly changing. Large businesses recognize that the sector is increasingly competitive, in part, due to technological innovations, customer expectations and changes in purchasing habits. For those who cannot adapt and react to these challenges, it will be increasingly difficult to develop and survive in the sector.

The companies that can thrive are those that strategically respond and adapt to digital trends by creating better customer selling experiences and modern supply chains, as well as using omnichannel selling strategies. The omnichannel experience allows businesses to increase their availability, improve sales and traffic, and incorporate digital touch points.

What Benefits Does An Omnichannel Strategy Bring To Ecommerce?

An omnichannel strategy improves the customer experience (CX) and increases the number of sales channels, from mobile, web or in physical stores. By having several marketing channels, sales and traffic will increase. In fact, omnichannel customers spend 15-30% more than customers who use one or more channels. According to a joint study by Google, Ipsos, MediaCT and Sterling Brands, 75% of consumers are more likely to visit a physical store if they have been able to consult information about commerce on the web. By using multiple channels, omnichannel commerce not only increases revenue from online sales, but also drives traffic to stores and increases their profits.

In addition, Enreach’s Omnichannel Contact Center adapts to all sectors and, in ecommerce, allows consumers to initiate and complete purchases in different channels. Customers can check the availability of an item and reserve it online to pick it up at the nearest store. Thanks to constant information, a better sales experience is created for customers, since businesses can develop a relationship and interact with them on a more personal and immediate level through various channels.

Another study from Harvard University found that omnichannel customers are also more likely to use retail channels, specifically digital touch points. For instance the use of mobile applications. Likewise, the study, which analysed data from 46,000 buyers, concluded that omnichannel customers provide more value than those who use a single channel.

To thrive in the competitive retail industry, merchants need to create omnichannel selling strategies that go beyond simply serving online or in-store. Instead, they should provide an integrated and seamless shopping experience so that customers continue to come to physical stores, but also consume through other online channels (for example, WhatsApp, SMS, WebChat, Click&Talk or email).

The success of an omnichannel sales strategy is not limited to having a physical store and online presence, but rather begins when retailers complement their strategy with the latest digital touch points and drive sales by offering content to customers at the right time and place.

In general, the retail industry is competitive and constantly changing. In addition, it is subject to different pressures, both competitive and technological and of other types. The rivalry is greater than ever, as digital forces are changing the way we shop and consumer-buying habits are more austere. The retail landscape is changing and its players have to find innovative ways to respond to digital transformation, consumer behaviour patterns and other challenges. In this sense, omnichannel sales have proven to be an effective solution.

How To Offer An Omnichannel Sales Experience

Offering an omnichannel sales experience is quite a challenge. It is necessary for businesses to create several contact points, standardize their (CX), associate their physical store and their online store, and improve the sales experience of each customer, all in one place.

This is not an easy task, especially when all this information is found in data silos. For example, a merchant may have an internal legacy system that needs to integrate with a mobile app or CRM system, social media platform management system, etc. In this way, businesses are forced to combine different applications, systems and processes.

La entrada Why Companies Should Adopt An Omnichannel Sales Strategy se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

What Is The Difference Between Omnichannel and Multichannel?

Multichannel

It is a strategy in which a brand is present on multiple channels, which its customers can use to interact with it. These can be, for instance, applications, websites, email, WhatsApp, WebChat, SMS, physical stores, etc. Of course, users expect to have a smooth experience on each of them. This is where omnichannel comes into play.

Omnichannel

An omnichannel e-commerce strategy envisions that customers may start searching on one channel and move on to another as a progression of their online shopping journey. Omnichannel completes a multichannel strategy and optimises it for today’s users.

What Are The Benefits Of Omnichannel E-commerce?

1) Offer a Cohesive Message

One of the main benefits of having an omnichannel e-commerce is that it offers your customers consistent messages about your brand. No matter where a user finds it, the message is always the same.

2) Understand the Customer Journey

Omnichannel e-commerce allows a business to collect and merge customer data from multiple channels. Combined, these provide a complete picture of what types of users are interested in the brand and their behaviour, making it easy to personalize the customer journey.

3) Personalization of The Customer Experience (CX)

Only by understanding the customer journey can CX be personalized. Omnichannel e-commerce allows you to create these types of experiences, which are essential for users, since they have a 30% higher lifetime value than buyers who only buy through one channel.

What Are The Challenges of Omnichannel E-commerce?

1) Stock In Physical Stores Vs. Online Stock

Many companies also display online the stock they have in physical locations. Products available in store fluctuate and may be out of stock when they have also been sold online. This is not always the best approach, as online transactions may be lost. A good way to solve this problem is to reduce the availability of “best sellers” items in e-commerce.

2) Lack of Infrastructure

When a business decides to implement an omnichannel strategy, its existing technology is often not up to the standards to be able to run such an operation smoothly.

3) Team Up With The Fight Partners

Having the best logistics, shipping, and e-commerce partners is crucial to omnichannel success.

With Enreach’s Omnichannel Contact Center, customers will be able to contact a company from their favourite channels, resolve their queries through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and connect with the most appropriate agent thanks to Smart Routing.

Likewise, agents will be able to manage all conversations from a single web application, supervisors will be able to control the level of service in real time and analyse the results to make the right decision-making.

La entrada Why Is Omnichannel E-commerce Important? se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

It typically uses conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, such as chatbots, to drive sales and increase customer lifetime value. But some brands also recruit agents to add a more personal touch to their communications and deliver a high-end customer experience (CX).

This interactive approach aims to bring a human touch to the world of e-commerce. It’s similar to having a trained sales rep behind the desk in a brick-and-mortar store, but everything happens online.

This technology may be used to respond to customer inquiries, facilitate transactions, or provide information about your products and services. It’s a key way for consumers to quickly and easily find what they need.

What Are The Benefits Of Conversational Commerce?

Conversational commerce provides brands with a powerful tool to communicate personally and online with their customers. This can increase satisfaction and increase the chances of making a sale. Below, we describe its main benefits:

1) Conversational Commerce Drives More Sales

Because each conversation is personalized to fit the customer, conversational marketing is optimized for sales.

Approaching consumers are about to buy something, so it’s essential that brands give the final push they need to convert them into trusted customers. This is definitely an area worth investing in.

A recent Forrester study conducted for Google found that 68% of shoppers prefer to choose brands that offer online tools like WebChat.

Data from Facebook also shows that 83% of consumers message a business for product information, while 75% use chat commerce to make a purchase or reservation. Therefore, brands need a presence in this digital channel to capture these types of leads and sales.

2) Improve The Consumer Experience

The Forrester study also mentioned indicated that consumers, particularly younger ones, want to send messages to companies. This is largely due to the speed and accessibility that chatbots provide.

This convenience, coupled with the ability to personalize, means that conversational marketing can enhance the experience for shoppers.

Of consumers who have purchased a product through chatbots, 81% said they would do so again. Therefore, making conversational commerce channels part of a company’s omnichannel approach will improve customer satisfaction.

3) Brands Can Scale At Lower Cost

The cost of implementing conversational commerce strategies will vary depending on whether you need a custom bot or an out-of-the-box solution. The number of agents required to manage these channels also affects costs.

But once a system is in place, the company will provide reliable support to shoppers and drive sales, even as the brand expands into new markets and inbound messaging grows. Chat tools can be expanded with minimal investment.

4) Increased Engagement And Interaction

Because conversational trading tools provide real-time interactions, they are very attractive. And there is research to prove it.

A Reckless study claims that push notifications have a 20% open rate across all industries. However, that same study shows that in-app messages have a massive open rate of 75%.

All of this makes the two-way communication provided by conversational commerce highly impactful.

5) Collecting Valuable Feedback

Chatting with customers is the best way to collect insightful feedback and qualitative data for your business, as web surveys don’t get the same level of detail. However, conducting market research interviews can be very expensive, but conversational tools like chatbots offer a cheaper alternative.

Facebook Messenger, for example, can contact followers based on past interactions with content. This is a great way to submit specific feedback questions. Furthermore, the potential for conducting one-on-one interviews will only improve as AI and machine learning (ML) improve.

In conclusion, in recent years, live chat has consistently been chosen as people’s preferred customer support channel. And as consumers become more accustomed to technology and its capabilities grow, there are no limits when it comes to conversational marketing and sales.

La entrada What Is Conversational Commerce And How Does It Influence Customers? se publicó primero en Enreach ES.