We have to start seeing customer service as a much more comprehensive channel, not only one that’s used for support and to solve problems. In fact, it’s a great way to boost your marketing strategy.
You may not know it, but of all the traffic that e-commerce gets, the percentage of visits that end up making a purchase is tiny: between 0.2% and 3%. Another figure that illustrates the problem is the percentage of cart abandonment: approximately 75% of users leave the page without finishing checkout.
Have you ever thought about what would happen if you combined your marketing strategy with customer service? Just a hint: you increase user uptake, which gives you a chance to convert them into customers.
Implement a trigger strategy
Unfortunately, we already know that not all traffic that lands on your website have the intention of making a purchase. The key is to detect those who could be potential customers and impact them thanks to customer service triggers.
What are the triggers?
Triggers are predictive algorithms that can open your livechat automatically and send a personalized message to each customer, according to their actions on your website. If they’ve been on a page for a long time, if they’ve compared several products or services, or if their cart has reached a certain value.
In e-commerce, triggers are fundamental in capturing the customer and keeping them on your page if an issue arises during the purchasing process. For example, imagine that the chat is triggered automatically showing information about the shipments or how easy your business offers returns when the algorithms detect that a user has been on the checkout page for too long.
Many studies show that not all users express their concerns on customer service channels, even if they have them. As such, triggers are a great way – automatic and predictive – to detect which visitors need your help and offer it proactively.
The triggers manage to succeed in stopping many possible abandonments if, instead of just offering help, you customize the message based on each customer’s behavior.
Why use them as a marketing tool?
If you look at triggers from a customer service point of view, using them in an online store allows you to get closer to the customer and personalize their experience. But the fact that visitor browsing triggers the chat, means you can also display images with a promotional banner or discount codes.
This way we can capture and involve customers, even more so than combining marketing schemes with customer service, which leads to a higher conversion rate.
On the other hand, you can also make sure that your customers know about all of your promotions or discount campaigns. Not only are they well informed, but they also have the opportunity to talk with the customer service agent if they have questions about how to use the discount codes.
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At Oct8ne, a visual live chat tool, we advise setting up triggers this way: instead of by time on the page set them in terms of each customer’s navigation patterns. For example, if a visitor is comparing similar products, a good strategy would be to trigger the chat to offer professional advice and suggest items that are on sale.
Another good practice from this company is to trigger the chat during the checkout process to offer help and to remind customers of discount codes or free shipping. This way, they’ll always have crucial information at the time of purchase.
How marketing triggers increase conversion
As we’ve said already, even if a customer doesn’t express their doubts, it doesn’t mean they don’t have them. If we use tools, like triggers, that can detect when a user needs help and customize each message we show according to their needs, each conversation becomes a real sales opportunity.
According to a study by Oct8ne, after analyzing four different customers’ data, they verified a good trigger strategy for marketing in customer service increases the interaction by 8%, which means the conversion rate can increase up to 9 times.
It’s logical: by interacting with users and answering their questions before they arise, we gain trust. During the conversation, you not only apply marketing techniques, but you can also use sales techniques like up-selling and cross-selling.
To customize a trigger strategy that is activated at the right moment, you have to know what customers usually need on your website. In general, it’s usually repeated behavior.
These are some of the settings the Oct8ne team recommends taking into account for trigger activation:
- Number of products seen
- Price of products seen
- Value of customer’s cart
- Average time of customer’s search
- Number of categories visited
- Error on the webpage or form
In each of these triggers, you’re able not only to customize the help message, but also the type of information that suits your digital marketing strategy. For example: if you give away a discount voucher or free shipping when the cart value exceeds a certain amount, it’s a great option for the chat to send that information so even if the user doesn’t know how to enter the codes at checkout, they have help available.
This tool even allows you to combine several parameters at the same time to be able to get as close as you can to the problem and hit the nail on the head.
These automated messages help increase the user participation rate and keep customers aware of all your campaigns, but remember, what really adds value to your e-commerce are online advertisements that can meet customers’ needs when they have questions.
Combining customer service with your marketing strategy is a great sales driver!
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