Ensure your customer service is customer-centric at all times in 2023

Offering the best products is no longer enough to have a successful brand. To win over shoppers, you need to focus on delivering customer services and support whenever the customer wants it.

Great customer service matters to consumers. According to UJET, 87% of surveyed consumers say they’ll spend less or stop spending money altogether on brands that offer a reduced customer service. However, an APWC survey reveals that only 49% of customers say companies actually provide good customer service.

The survey also reveals one in three customers will leave a brand forever after a single bad customer service experience. This means successful brands in 2023 will not only need to have every service channel angle covered—from dedicated helplines to messaging channels, all accessible from the customer’s mobile—but have the necessary support staff in place to manage multiple customer conversations. But how?

To help wrangle escalating customer service expectations, brands are doubling down on e-commerce chatbots—plus consumers are happy to use them. For example, according to Juniper Research, consumer retail spend via chatbots worldwide will reach $142bn by 2024—that’s up from just $2.8bn in 2019. More and more customers are already interacting with chatbots with 67% using bots over the past year, says Invesp.

Chatbots give consumers an always-on option for answering basic questions and servicing simple needs, as well as offering upselling and cross-selling opportunities. In this globalized era, multilingual bots can also remove language barriers. Such vital functionality needn’t cost the earth either— quality bots can be provided by specialists such as tyntec who offer off-the-shelf solutions.

In 2023, customers will continue to worry about their privacy and data when shopping online. Currently, 80% of consumers are concerned about the use of their personal data while 95% feel it’s important that their data is protected when online, according to Motiv.co.

It’s important then to offer reassurance at every stage, promoting messaging channels as the best-in-class for customer data protection. Messaging solutions like WhatsApp for instance offer end-to-end encrypted conversations. Allay your own privacy-related concerns by partnering with specialists like tyntec that transmit and store all data in accordance with key regulations including GDPR.

Providing great customer experiences doesn’t end with the consumer hitting the “buy now” button. Once they’ve made that order, customers expect the delivery to be totally transparent—so be sure to provide them with complete visibility.

Such transparency matters according to delivery specialist OptimoRoute. Over 87% of the shoppers it surveyed stated that real-time order tracking made their buying experience more enjoyable with nearly 60% saying it had a positive impact on their brand loyalty. Messaging apps offer the ideal channel for delivering regular updates from order processing details through to any last-mile notifications such as delays. Bottom line? Keep your customers informed in 2023 to keep them on your side.

In 2023 conversational commerce will continue to grow in importance. It is now easier than ever to provide a 5-star customer experience using messaging apps.

Using messaging apps, brands are able to deliver top customer experiences, while generating more revenue. With the right omnichannel platform you can manage all conversations with customers in one place—waving goodbye to multichannel management induced headaches. Go beyond your customer’s expectations in 2023. Go conversational.