Top Seven Website Solutions
Website visitors, especially those trying to buy something, don't have much patience. If they cannot find what they're looking for or can't figure out how to purchase products, you can be assured that they're going to abandon ship. According to the rating website, BizRate.com, as many as 55 percent of online shoppers abandon their shopping cart before entering the purchasing process. An additional 32 percent abandoned their purchase at the point of sale. Poor customer service was named as one of the top reasons for this abandonment. With adversity comes opportunity and the good news is that there are a number of Internet customer service solutions providers now cropping up to aid Internet retailers ("e-tailers") with these problems. Here are the top seven solutions that range from sophisticated, learning FAQ databases to customer chat to instant message and even to voice-over-computer capabilities.
- Learning FAQ Databases
Standard FAQ pages are built with static information, which means the only way it gets updated is when the webmaster adds to it. "Learning" FAQ systems (also called "Self Service" solutions) take knowledge databases to a higher level, basically growing and adding to itself automatically as questions are asked of it. This provides more readily-accessible information to the consumer while at the same time reducing the customer service burden for the website.
- Email Solutions
As a website's commerce volume increases, so too does their volume of email inquiries. With this tends to come a poorer response rate (days instead of hours), which few shoppers will tolerate. Now you can turn to online customer service providers to pick up the slack by outsourcing email inquiries. Commonly asked questions can be handled by trained customer service reps. Unusual questions are typically forwarded on to a designated person(s) within the e-business who would be more well-equipped to handle the question.
- Instant Messaging
Taking advantage of pre-installed instant message tools to offer immediate assistance.
- Chat
Much like instant messaging, but no pre-installed tools are needed. On-site chat is typically enabled through code or script that you add to your site.
- "Co-Browsing"
Allows a customer service agent to link and interact with the website at the very same time as the customer, so they move through the site together.
- Voice
Utilizing a technology called "Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP)" or "Internet Telephony," this kind of customer service enables customers to actually talk to service representatives over the Internet. Though certainly not for low-budget websites, these tools have been shown effective for retaining traffic and increasing sales. So if you're planning website enhancements for 2004 and your site relies on sales, you might want to consider one of these customer service tools.
- Call Centers
Some folks still feel more comfortable picking up a telephone. Call centers are simply outsourced manned operator centers where phoned-in customer service questions can be handled.
Source: crmcommunity.com
