Conversational Commerce: Why Talking Results in Ecommerce Conversions
What is conversational commerce and can I really use it to drive more Ecommerce conversions? Learn how to use it to create connections with customers right here.
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In the digital marketing world, conversational commerce is gaining popularity. As the customer experience has become more crucial for marketers, forging a connection with customers is fundamental. The conversational approach allows marketers to engage online customers more naturally. It’s not a new idea. Successful retailers have been providing this kind of service for many years.
Engaging customers with friendly and knowledgeable staff in-store is a proven retail strategy. Translating that same experience into the online market isn’t always easy. Conversational commerce seeks to bridge the gap between real-life experience and online convenience.
Conversational Commerce: What Does it Mean?
The online shopping experience can feel very impersonal. It is especially true if you have to email or fill out a contact form and wait for support. Conversational commerce uses one-to-one assistance to help get customers an immediate response in a friendly way.
For most businesses, this means adding automated solutions to assist where human operators can’t. Conversational support gives round-the-clock live service using AI tools like chatbots, conversational AI, and virtual assistants.
This allows businesses to respond to customers at any time, across any channel. You can meet your customers where they are and provide a live conversation to get instant answers for the user. It moves customers through the sales funnel smoothly while keeping them satisfied.
Chatbots are the simplest form of automated assistance. They’re perfectly suited to simple ecommerce functions like orders, queries, and payments. There are also more advanced, AI-driven solutions that can interpret more complex queries and mimic human conversation.
The Types of Conversational Commerce
Customer experience is a primary differentiator for online businesses. That’s why conversational commerce and its tools are spreading across every platform. These are some of the most popular types that ecommerce businesses are adopting.
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Instant Messaging Apps
Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messenger have become more popular than social media for customer communications. They offer privacy, immediate responses, and support dynamic media like videos and GIFs.
These channels allow for more personal engagement of the customer. It feels much more intimate than conversing across an open platform like Twitter. Even when these conversations are automated, they can provide a more personal connection for the user.
Virtual Receptionists & Voice Assistants
When it comes to answering queries over the phone, having 24-hour human support is impractical. Even when you have human agents available, high call volumes could lead to calls being missed. Virtual receptionists can answer and route calls in place of human agents.
Basic options offer pre-recorded menus and options for the customer to select. The best virtual receptionist and virtual assistant options use natural language processing AI to interpret customer queries. Voice assistants, like Amazon’s Alexa or Microsoft’s Cortana, can respond to voice commands intelligently. AI voice assistants use machine learning to refine their responses over time.
Live Chat
On-site live chat is a popular option in ecommerce right now. These chat apps allow you to directly engage customers browsing your site. They’re highly versatile, you can use them to break the ice with new customers, answer queries, take orders, and more.
Text-based instant messaging means an agent can engage with multiple users at once. Customers get instant access to support and can have a conversation with the agent. It allows you to address pain points, cross-sell, and so on.
Automated Live Chat (Chatbots)
Live chats and other instant messaging options can be automated using chatbots. It lets you extend your live support to full 24-hour service. There’s no limit to the number of simultaneous interactions a chatbot can have, so no queues for your users. Even a simple chatbot can make life easier for customers. There’s no tool to learn, just an intuitive interface that plays out like a natural conversation.
More advanced chatbots can process language and search huge volumes of information. Using AI technology, they can respond to unique customer queries with relevant answers. They can also recognize when human intervention is required and notify appropriate agents.
Phone Systems
With all the digital assistance available, it’s easy to forget the most basic way of providing conversational support, human staff. Even the most advanced chatbot AIs will encounter situations they can not deal with alone.
Human support will always be necessary to step in where automation fails. Make the transition between automated support and live support as seamless as possible. This way, customers don’t feel like they’re being held back by the automated options. Using digital solutions to assist your live agents is the best compromise. Whether that’s an inbound voice assistant like these Dialpad IVR solutions, a chatbot, or a robust CRM system.
How the Conversational Approach Works
Conversations are a two-way street. You won’t make a connection with your customer if you’re only trying to market to them. The most important part of conversational commerce is listening to your customers.
Customer Touch Points
That means being aware of every customer touch point in your business. If you want to implement conversational commerce, you should start by mapping these out. That’s every interaction a customer has with your service.
Identify the stage a customer is at when they interact at each of these touchpoints. What is their level of interest? What questions might they have? This will help you tailor your conversational responses to be more personally relevant.
The Sales Funnel
The approach you need to take will be largely determined by where a customer is in your sales funnel, whether they’re ready to make a purchase or if they have just recently been attracted to your company by a digital ad created with the help of one of the best creative management platforms. The sales funnel describes the buyer’s journey from awareness to loyalty.
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At each stage of the funnel, you have opportunities to interact with your customers. Your conversational strategy should be aimed at addressing any issues while moving them to the next stage.
Awareness – The customer has identified an issue and needs a solution. It is your opportunity to address their problem directly, make a first impression, and provide a solution. On-site live chat can be helpful for quickly identifying these customers.
Discovery & Evaluation – The customer is aware of your business and may be looking for more information or reassurance. One-to-one human support is very effective at this stage. Any automated support should be able to provide in-depth responses.
Intent & Purchase – The customer intends to make a purchase. Your task is to make sure there are no obstacles in the way. It means providing instant support if necessary. Providing reassurance using automated chatbots can be very effective in reducing purchase abandonment.
Post-Purchase & Loyalty – Providing ongoing support after a purchase. Having 24-hour access to support helps customers to get a positive experience both from your service and your business.
Automated solutions are perfect for this as most “how to” queries can be answered instantly. When you help customers succeed with your product in this way, you build customer loyalty. It can help you move customers on to the final stage of the funnel.
The Benefits of Conversational Commerce
Conversational commerce has become a popular option because of the tangible business benefits. Customer satisfaction, conversions, and customer lifetime values can all be increased with a good conversational approach.
Personalization & The Customer Experience
65% of customers say they find a positive customer experience more effective than great advertising. A positive experience is made up of a few factors. Customer service, speed and efficiency, and personalization are all crucial.
With conversational commerce, all three of these key areas can be improved. Automated solutions can provide support when and where it’s needed. Having chatbots that can conversationally provide this is more personal while increasing the speed of resolution.
Conversational commerce can have a significant impact on the level of personalisation in your organization and will serve to support other attempts at personalisation that your company employs, such as email marketing.
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Retarget Warm Leads
Using AI or chatbot options to collect data, combined with a CRM system, lets you actively identify warm leads. You can use this information to retarget customers via off-site platforms or provide sales teams with qualified leads to follow. Using push notifications via messaging apps can help re-engage with customers. For example, if they’ve filled a basket and not made a purchase, then sending reminders or offers can be effective for converting these users.
Increase Brand Loyalty & CLV
Combining automated and live support options lets you optimize your post-purchase support. When customers receive timely assistance and great customer service, they’re more likely to recommend your business and make repeat purchases.
How to Start Using Conversational Commerce in Your Business
To get started using conversational commerce, you’ll need an implementation strategy. The first step is to gather information and identify areas for improvement.
Listen to Your Customers
To find out what you need to improve, you’ll need to find out what issues are affecting your customers. Use data to identify areas for improvement, maybe your cart abandonment rate is high, or your customer retention is lacking, for example. Then, collect feedback from your existing customers to identify common issues. Use this to focus on problem areas and set a clear objective. It will help you tackle the problem and monitor your progress.
Research Solutions
Once you have identified the problem and what you want to achieve, research the solutions that could help. There are various ways to solve customer service and sales issues, both technology-based and human-led.
A fully functioning, AI-driven chatbot can provide excellent service, but these options can be costly. It might be better to get a more simple automated solution if all you want is simple assistance on demand. A retail IT solution might be more suitable depending on your needs.
Software & AI Options
You might not be the most tech-savvy person, but that’s okay. There are no-code solutions for live chat chatbots, messenger apps, and social media bots. You simply need to design the conversations to be helpful and engaging.
AI technology is also within reach for small businesses, as third-party providers can handle the technical side for you. If you need an integrated solution that works across your business, then going with a software partner is a valid option.
Implement, Monitor, Improve
When you implement new technology solutions, it’s important to monitor and refine their functions. Set KPIs for your chatbots and automated solutions. Identify any points of attrition or sources of frustration for your users. The interactions between bots and customers are fully retained. That means you can easily identify points where the bot has trouble or where human intervention is needed.
The Value of a Human Touch.
Conversational technology has improved dramatically with the emergence of AI. Bots can now provide more lifelike interactions than ever before. Whether you need a chatbot for your website or a virtual assistant on your VoIP for small business, there are automated options to assist you.
Don’t forget that the human aspect of interaction is still what’s most important. Conversational commerce works because it gives a personal touch to impersonal transactions. That means listening to your customers and addressing their needs remains your top priority.
