Last updated: How customer service apps can boost your CX game

How customer service apps can boost your CX game

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Are you using customer service apps for a big CX win? The answer to that question may well offer a clue into whether you’ve got game, or if you are falling behind in the race to capture the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks of potential buyers.

In an age when busy, demanding consumers are just one click away from your competition, customer experience is everything if you want to gain long-term shopper loyalty. Successful brands know that returning customers are key to growth: It costs a whopping 500% more to acquire a new customer than to keep one who already digs what you do.

One negative experience can make customers – particularly younger shoppers – run the other way. For example, a ZK Research study found that about two-thirds of millennials admitted to changing loyalties to a brand because of a bad experience.

So if you think your average twenty-or-thirty-something is willing to wait endlessly on hold for customer phone support, or tolerate a company that doesn’t quickly respond to emails or texts, or purchase from a brand that makes returning or exchanging product an ongoing nightmare, think again. That shopper will be headed elsewhere tout suite.

Who should use customer service apps?

The highly competitive nature of business today means tackling every touchpoint to make sure your CX is top-notch from start to finish. That’s where today’s customer service apps come into play: These powerful customer service tools, used on mobile devices, laptops or desktops, speed up response times, improve communication and help make your customer’s path-to-purchase journey seamless and anxiety-free.

Customer service apps are perfect to use across a variety of functions. For instance, there are chat and messaging apps that help handle real-time customer support through every channel, including email, text and social media. Apps can help team members communicate wherever they are, at any time; gather consumer feedback and analyze data; and offer shoppers self-service options.

Five ways customer service apps can take your CX to the next level

1. By giving consumers the messaging options they crave.  Over half (51%) of US and UK consumers say they’re more likely to buy again from a brand that provides customer service support over social messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

Customer service apps are ripe for integration with messaging applications, which Gartner says will shortly surpass customer service requests made through social media.

2. By saving customers time through automation.  Forrester’s research shows that 66% of adults believe that the most important thing a company can do is value their time during a service interaction.

Customer service apps can automate repetitive actions through chatbots, pre-defined responses and other AI-based options, in order to provide personalized support at scale. The results? Shoppers can sail quickly through their purchase journey and move on.

3. By turning data into customer insights you can use. To provide the best customer experience, you need to make sure you recognize and understand your customers. What products are they interested in? How do they prefer to be contacted? What irritates them to no end? Customer service apps help measure and analyze the entire journey, driven by data gathered at every touchpoint along the way.

4. By boosting employee collaboration. CX excellence is driven by employees that collaborate with each other to resolve customer issues. Customer service apps offer easy ways to empower customer support teams, as well as sales teams and other departments, to quickly solve cross-functional problems and maximize productivity.

5. By empowering customers to solve their own issues. Sometimes customers just don’t want to talk to a support rep — they want to do. One study found that three-quarters of customers prefer self-service technologies such as self-checkout. Customer service apps allow them to research and troubleshoot by themselves, whether it’s checking out your knowledge base; using chatbots; or managing account information.

The power of customer service apps to deliver better CX

Ready to boost your CX game? Are you ramping up to provide the best for buyers, the vast majority of whom (86%) are willing to pay more for a great customer experience?

These days, customers demand what has become routine in their daily lives — instant access to, well, everything. From Amazon to Uber, quick shopping, seamless checkout and 24/7 service are assumed.

Keep in mind, providing the best customer experience is about meeting your customer’s expectations. And in this customer-centric era of endless choices, those expectations are rising ever-higher. You’ll find today’s frustrated customer at the door of your competition tomorrow.

So, if you want to provide championship-level CX, the latest in customer service apps will help you gain the most points where it matters — that is, customer trust, loyalty, and satisfaction.

96% of consumers have more trust in brands when they make it easy to do business with them.
Are you delivering what customers want? Get ‘The State of Customer Service’ report HERE.

 

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