The Benefits of Call Center Software for Ecommerce
The eCommerce industry is booming as consumers enjoy the ease of shopping online from wherever they are, day or night. As we all know, the eCommerce market is highly competitive, which means companies need to set up their game to retain more of their customers.
Customers expect a fast and simple buying experience, so your business had better be ready to meet the demand. Call center software tools help make it happen by providing a seamless system to provide better customer service and a more pleasant shopping experience.
Let’s dive in deeper and go over all the benefits of call center software for eCommerce and what it can do for your brand.
What is Call Center Software?
The most basic call center software is a technology that brings together all forms of communication used to service customers. Call center software allows agents to quickly respond to customers’ inquiries through various communication channels 24/7.
A ticketing system ensures every customer receives service and meets their needs quickly. The more advanced call center software has additional features that help improve efficiency and day-to-day operations.
Ecommerce call center software is designed to meet the needs of online retailers to keep their business running smoothly and create profit. Here are the general functions of call center software:
- Identify customers
- Discover customer purchase history
- Track and record customer service calls
- Route calls to appropriate agents
- Platform to deliver omnichannel service
- Record service tickets
- Monitor call volume for each agent
- Send follow-up surveys
eCommerce Call Center Software Benefits
Even before the Coronavirus pandemic, many consumers prefer to shop online. One thing is certain: Online shopping is one of the most common activities done on the internet today. With the internet at the fingertips of almost everyone worldwide, it has led to over 4.2 trillion dollars in eCommerce sales annually and is expected to grow.
If you want a piece of that pie long-term, you must provide an exceptional buying experience for your customers. Through trial and error, many eCommerce retailers have learned they need a call center to help service their customers and deliver excellent care consistently.
Ecommerce call center software helps the customer service team seamlessly satisfy customers’ needs quickly and accurately. Let’s go over all of the benefits of eCommerce call center software.
Better Customer Service
Better customer service? Say no more! The worldwide web is enormous, so competition is higher than ever. Consumers have experienced seamless first-class personalized service, so the bar is set high.
Consumer expectations keep rising, and they call the shots of who to buy from. The eCommerce call center software is the tool every online retailer needs to provide kick-ass service and build a following of satisfied and loyal customers.
Customers no longer solely call a company to get service. Nowadays, consumers use various channels to contact a company, including phone, email, SMS, online chat, in-app chat, and social media.
Many business leaders have found the only way to handle the multi-channel approach cost-effectively is to invest in eCommerce call center software. The eCommerce call center software helps service agents attend to customers quickly through the various channels.
If you don’t know, loyal customers turn into brand advocates and do quite a bit of marketing for your brand with word of mouth, referrals, and online reviews. Also, happy customers will buy from your brand again even if there are cheaper options out there.
When consumers know they will be satisfied with their purchase and cared for when buying from a company, they are willing to spend more. So, take care of your customers by providing an exceptional buying experience and watch your business grow – organically.
Provide Personalized Service
Utilizing an eCommerce call center software allows your business to maintain accurate records that your team has at their fingertips. During interactions, agents with the customer’s information in front of them can provide personalized service to make the customer feel important and valued. Calling a customer by their name and getting to know them more is an excellent way to build strong relationships.
Personalized service is what consumers crave. They expect it. They feel closer to brands that offer personalized service, increasing loyalty.
Also, when you know your customers better and understand their likes and dislikes, you can customize the marketing ads shown to them and increase their worth to your brand.
Monitor and Track Call Analytics
Without the data to show you your call analytics, how can you really see how your team is performing? A good guess doesn’t work well in business. Data is powerful, and the correct data is worth a million bucks in business.
If you want to improve efficiency and increase productivity, you must track your call analytics to see how each agent is doing. The analytics will provide reports to keep an eye on your most critical KPIs (link to Customer Service KPI Metrics You Need to Pay Attention To).
Ecommerce call center software helps you see without a doubt where each agent stands and who may need additional training. The software tracks call volume and call times to ensure your customers’ needs are met quickly.
Ecommerce call center software also tracks trends so you can see your peak inquiry times to ensure you beef up your staff to meet the demand. The eCommerce call center software will record your calls so you can analyze ones that went right and ones that went wrong.
You can use the data to provide coaching to agents that need additional help with effective customer handling to deliver total customer satisfaction – or at least try to.
By tracking your analytics, you can reduce the call handling times, satisfy your customers’ needs better, and ensure consistently high levels of service.
Offer Automation
Time is money. If you want to decrease your team’s workload, use an eCommerce call center software with an automation feature. Automation will collect some information from your customers before they reach an agent and sometimes solve issues without a live representative.
Total automation causes customer upset at times. But, in today’s tech-savvy world, people enjoy self-service options as a way to get answers to their questions or solutions to their issues without needing to communicate with a human. Ecommerce call center software can provide effective automation options that meet your customers’ needs.
If you think about it, automation means no labor is needed, which is a huge cost saving. So, the more you can automate without sacrificing exceptional service, the more profits you will have in your pocket.
Outbound Calls
Ecommerce call center software often comes with outbound call features for your agents to reach out to your customers for whatever reason you want. You might want your call center agents to reach out to your customers to cross-sell or to gain valuable feedback that you can use to improve processes.
Sending automated informative announcements is a breeze when using call center software. It’s a great idea to call customers after a sale to ensure they’re totally satisfied and see if they have any questions about using your products. Whatever the reason, call center software makes it super simple to reach out to customers.
Opportunity Tracking
As your agents communicate with customers and spot opportunities for upsells or cross-sells, they can utilize the call center software to flag these clients. Your team can then do the proper follow-up to close the sale or send specific marketing ads to the client.
Access to Local Numbers
It’s no secret that many people don’t pick up calls from phone numbers they don’t know. However, the answer rate is much higher when you use a phone number that is local to them.
Using call center software gives you access to cloud fixed cellular terminal (FCT) technology that allows your team to use many area codes to call your customers so they actually answer.
Send Follow-ups
After every interaction with a customer, an agent will mark the ticket done or completed. When using eCommerce call center software, you can have customer surveys sent as soon as the agent completes a ticket.
Customer services are extremely valuable and underused. After all, only about 26% of consumers will complain if they’re not happy with a product or service. The rest just churn.
Utilizing an eCommerce call center software will give you the feedback you need to see how well your brand is holding up to customers’ expectations and standards. The call center software gives you access to an IVR dialer that works without an agent, so it’s all automated.
What you don’t ask, you might not ever know. In the case of customer satisfaction, it can cost you everything. So, use call center software to survey your customers and get the feedback you need to improve processes when needed.
You can also evaluate areas or agents that are performing extremely well to determine what they’re doing right and what you can implement in other areas. The more you know, the more you can improve.
When using eCommerce call center software for follow-ups, it’s also a great time to ask for referrals or online reviews from your happy customers. Ask, and you shall receive!
Reasons to Invest in Ecommerce Call Center Software
Clearly, there are some tremendous benefits of eCommerce call center software that every online retailer could use. Investing in call center software is investing in your business and its long-term growth. Here’s how:
Decrease Costs
When you are more aware of what is going on in your call center, you can ensure agents are effective and productive. Streamlining your services and ensuring your team is performing the best of their capabilities can help reduce any wasted time and money.
Through automation, you omit human contact by allowing customers to get their needs met quickly and accurately, reducing the number of call center agents needed – a win-win.
Improve Efficiency
The truth is, your call center team is only as efficient as the technology and software they have. Companies like Amazon use excellent call center software to deliver outstanding service. If you’re looking to improve efficiency in your eCommerce call center, you must invest in top-of-the-line software.
Increase Productivity
When you track call center agents’ productivity, you will see the trend and set expectations to ensure everyone is pulling their weight. Lower-performing agents can receive additional training to increase their productivity while maintaining efficiency.
Most people like a good competition, even when competing with how well they performed the day or week prior. When you closely track each agent’s productivity, it turns into a game everyone wants to play – the most productive game.
Agents will see how others perform and do their best to “beat” them by resolving more customer issues accurately and in less time.
Acknowledging and rewarding high-performing agents goes a long way. So use the call center software to collect the data needed to recognize your best players.
Advanced Security
Advanced eCommerce call center software holds all of the essential customer data in the cloud where it’s safe and backed up. You avoid the risk of data loss which can cause huge problems.
The call center software often comes with high-security protocols, including data encryption and password protection, to ensure unauthorized users don’t gain access. You can rest assured your organizational data is safe and doesn’t end up in the hands of cybercriminals.
Increase One Call Resolutions
Ecommerce call center software provides agents access to clients’ information on one screen. When an agent understands who the customer is and their purchase history, they can more easily solve their issues and increase one-call resolution rates.
Customers want their needs met and problems solved with as few interactions as possible with the hopes of only one. When utilizing call center software, your agents have the tools and knowledge at their fingertips to service customers quickly without the help of others or second interaction.
Improved Customer Experience
The customers and their experience with your brand are what this is all about. Ecommerce call center software gives your team the knowledge and tools to deliver exceptional customer care each and every time.
Improved customer experience = increased customer retention = increased revenue. It’s really a beautiful thing.
Operational Flexibility
Call center software is often flexible and can be adjusted to fit the needs of each eCommerce business. It can integrate with your existing CRM as well. The software is configurable to your organization and what you want it to do for your business. As your brand scales, the software is ready to grow with you.
Effective Management
Effective management starts with knowledge. What you don’t know, you cannot change. Utilizing e-commerce call center software means you have the data needed to control your operations. When agents are not performing to your standards or low one-call resolutions, you know it’s time for some additional training.
Since the call center software records calls, you can listen to the agents’ calls and determine where they can improve and what areas need additional coaching. They may need more education about your products.
With the proper training and the right attitude, you should see the agent’s performance improve in no time.
Simply Put
So, as you can see, there are some fantastic benefits of eCommerce call center software that help an online retailer improve efficiency and increase productivity. Ecommerce call center software helps your brand deliver exceptional care to increase loyalty and retention.
Utilizing advanced call center software gives you the essential data you need to ensure your customers receive the best care quickly. Monitoring and analyzing the information you receive from call center software will provide you insights into where your team may be falling short so that you can fix any loose screws.
Are you ready to invest in call center software for your eCommerce business to improve efficiency and maximize productivity? If so, contact Awesome CX today!
Sources:
Global E-Commerce Sales To Hit $4.2 Trillion As Online Surge Continues, Adobe Reports | Forbes
50 Important Customer Experience Stats for Business Leaders | HuffPost Impact
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