Providing proactive customer service gives you more chances
to assist consumers and encourage them to make purchases.
You probably picture a team of agents handling incoming
client complaints and inquiries when you think about customer service. Although
providing clients with reactive customer service is a vital approach to assist
them, it just represents one aspect of a bigger customer service experience.
·
Establishing self-help resources such as FAQ
sites or help desks
·
Live chat with prospective clients on your
website to offer assistance in real-time
·
Providing guides, coupons, and suggestions to
help clients buy with greater assurance
·
By providing proactive customer service, you may
raise consumer expectations, increase the likelihood of fruitful client
encounters, and boost the conversion rate for your business. All of this
without requiring your customers to do any effort to get in touch with you.
We\’ll outline a few proactive customer service tactics below
that will promote a contented clientele and, consequently, long-term sales.
First though
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Two main categories of customer service
Customer service can be divided into two basic categories:
reactive customer service and proactive customer service. It\’s crucial to
strike a balance between the two of these techniques if you want to develop a
customer service plan that is as successful and efficient as feasible.
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What is customer service that is
proactive?
In order to provide clients with proactive customer service,
you must take the initiative rather than waiting for them to contact your
business. Proactive customer assistance can be offered in two ways: directly by
an agent messaging customers, or indirectly by means of self-service tools like
a knowledge base or FAQ website. Proactive customer service examples include:
·
Using a live chat widget to get in touch with a
consumer before they make a purchase and walk them through the process (and
boost sales)
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Delivering automatic product suggestion pop-ups
that are prompted by particular client activities
·
Providing a knowledge base where clients can
look up solutions to frequently asked questions
·
Getting back to people who promote your brand on
social media
AT&T is one actual instance of a business that provides
proactive customer support. New clients receive a link along with their first
bill that leads them to a bespoke film created to explain their various fees.
What is customer service that is
reactive?
The form of customer service that the majority of consumers
are far more accustomed to is reactive customer service. Reactive customer care
is still an essential component of customer support, despite the rising
popularity of proactive customer service strategies.
Reactive customer service, as the name suggests, entails
responding to issues that customers bring to your attention. Reactive customer
service examples include:
·
Answering incoming inquiries on the customer
service line for your brand
·
Taking action on SMS and email messages
·
Interacting with clients via live chat when the
client initiated the live chat window
Although almost any company that interacts with customers
will have examples of reactive customer service, Zappos does so exceptionally
well. They use a customized response for each email they receive as part of
their strategy. The consumer will feel seen and acknowledged thanks to this
level of customization, which promotes more satisfying customer interactions.
Why proactive customer service is
becoming increasingly popular among online retailers
More and more online companies are adopting a more proactive
strategy to meet consumers\’ expectations as a result of the multiple advantages
of proactive customer care. My Customer research shows that 73% of consumers
who are proactively contacted report a favorable experience that improves their
opinion of the business.
Three more advantages of proactive customer service are as
follows:
You have more chances to increase sales as a result.
The difference between an order being placed and a cart
being abandoned can be made by proactive customer care. Why? Before placing an
order, customers require information such as sizing charts, product
specifications, and return policies. Before contacting customer support, a
customer could decide to shop somewhere else.
By proactively contacting visitors via live chat to inquire
about their needs during those crucial times, you can retain them on your
website.
By implementing proactive customer service, you may address
typical problems before customers even contact your customer support team. In
many instances, proactive customer care can be delivered without any help from
customer support personnel. Customers can, for instance, independently locate
the solutions to common questions using self-service tools.
Customer experience is enhanced, and
it may increase repeat business.
Proactive customer support\’s main objective is to help
customers without having to wait for them to ask for it. To anticipate and
proactively handle customer concerns and pain points, you must examine the
customer journey from first exposure to repeat client. This isn\’t always
simple.
Proactive customer service demonstrates to a customer that
your business genuinely cares about their needs. Offering excellent items is no
longer sufficient to guarantee strong client retention rates. The secret to
Amazon\’s success is that customers choose, recommend, and stick with businesses
that provide a customer-centric experience in addition to exceptional goods and
services.
5 methods for implementing proactive
customer service that will increase sales
There is no denying the advantages of proactive customer
service, but putting one into practice successfully calls for a well-thought-out
strategy. Here are five tactics to think about if you want to start using a
proactive approach to customer assistance to attract more satisfied clients.
1) Engage customers in proactive conversation when they have
hot products in their cart to decrease cart abandonment
Contacting customers while they are shopping is one of the
most efficient types of proactive customer service. It\’s similar to a
salesperson in a physical store asking a customer if they need anything, but
it\’s simpler to ignore if the customer is content to shop alone.
With the correct helpdesk, you can automatically get in
touch with consumers who have top-selling items in their basket and offer to
assist with any inquiries, suggest further items, or offer a coupon code to
encourage a purchase. Customers may respond by asking for your opinion on the
fit or other aspects of the merchandise, or they may just be happy to get a
discount. This proactive communication strategy, which we refer to as a chat
campaign, can lower cart abandonment or even result in upsells.
You can only target a certain segment of customers who have
best-selling items in their shopping cart. You can automatically start a chat
with clients using chat campaigns if they:
Add a predetermined quantity of goods to their Linger on the
checkout, help, or product pages.
Multiple visits to your website without purchasing anything
Check out our help doc on the subject for an inside look at
how to build up chat campaigns in Gorgias. Alternately, schedule a demo (and
ask about chat campaigns.)
2) Send a direct message (DM) to welcome new followers on
social media.
Social media is already widely used by brands to interact
with consumers. Sending a warm welcome DM to new followers on Instagram,
Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social media platform allows
you to cultivate customer relationships in addition to managing incoming DMs
and comments on your various social media accounts.
You can introduce yourself, thank them for following, point
them in the direction of some useful new-shopper information, or even give them
a special code for their initial purchase. Additionally, let them know that if
they have any questions now or in the future, they can contact you directly in
your DMs.
The idea that your customer support team isn\’t only there to
answer queries is reinforced by this kind of proactive, relationship-building
effort (like the 21st-century version of a call center). Instead, businesses
ought to develop fresh strategies for cultivating enduring client interactions
and proactively offer the details and special offers clients require to make
their initial, second, or tenth purchase.
3) Highlight significant client moments
Not only new clients benefit from proactive customer
assistance. By proactive reaching out to commemorate significant events like
their birthday or the anniversary of their first purchase, you can astonish
your most devoted clients.
If you want to automate this procedure, you can use a tool
like Zapier to start a workflow whenever a customer places their first order.
After those 11 months have passed, if the customer spends more than a certain
amount, your helpdesk will create a ticket reminding your support team to send
them a gift on the anniversary of their first purchase.
Additionally, a consumer can decide to share this happy
occasion on their own social media pages, thus increasing the exposure of your
brand.
4) Ask for client feedback whenever possible.
To provide clients with proactive customer assistance that
is truly useful, your company must first gain a full grasp of their
requirements, problems, and concerns. In light of this, asking your clients
directly is the only effective approach to find out what they want from
proactive customer care.
Surveys and customer feedback tools are quite helpful for
this reason since they enable you to collect direct input that you can then
utilize to improve your proactive customer care strategy as well as other
facets of your product and customer experience.
If you don\’t, we advise at least monitoring customer
satisfaction (CSAT) and including a field for open-ended comments so that
clients can share their likes and dislikes of your company.
5) Use self-service tools to proactively address problems
that you frequently encounter.
Microsoft\’s data on customer retention show that 66% of
consumers test self-service options before deciding to get in touch with a
company\’s customer care department. Given this, providing your clients with
helpful self-service resources like FAQ pages, knowledge base pages, forums,
and automated chat bots is one of the greatest methods to give proactive
customer care.
Self-service tools can significantly lower a company\’s
number of customer support tickets while simultaneously enhancing the customer
experience by enabling users to easily handle common problems on their own. By
doing this, your agents may focus more on high-impact tickets that call for a
personal touch and spend less time responding to routine questions.