Conversations are fundamental to the human experience. They are at the heart of nurturing relationships, promoting connection, encouraging collaboration, and building trust.
Brands that embrace conversational commerce drive real business growth. Engaging customers with meaningful, customized dialogues can foster loyalty, increase retention, and even increase profits. That’s because it transforms the transactional into the personal.
So, how can your brand deliver a remarkable conversational customer experience (CX) to shoppers?
It all starts with a white glove experience.
What is conversational CX?
At its core, conversational CX is the process of interacting with customers in a natural way at each phase of their buying journey.
A conversation between friends is a natural and valuable exchange of information. When businesses take a purely transactional approach to customer engagement, communication can become unnatural and not provide the important information a consumer needs at the time they need it. Worse yet, poor communication can lead to confusion, frustration, and ultimately losing a customer forever.
Conversational CX facilitates an easier and more enjoyable shopping experience. It empowers customers to naturally speak to brands on their own terms. For instance, is it more efficient for a customer to dig through a website for relevant information, or simply send a question to a brand via Facebook Messenger or Instagram about what they’re having trouble with?
Why is conversational CX important for brands?
Today’s consumers are buying more products and services online than ever before. In fact, eCommerce in the U.S. will exceed $1 trillion for the first time this year. Shopper preferences are shifting toward businesses using omnichannel communication where they can easily get answers to their questions instead of waiting on hold with a customer support rep.
Putting your customers first means putting them in the driver’s seat. When consumers feel empowered, they’re more likely to stick around for the long haul.
Benefits of conversational CX
The top three benefits of an exceptional conversational customer experience include:
Streamlines their shopping journey: Modern customers refuse to wait on hold anymore. They don’t even want to email you. Savvy shoppers want immediate responses and ongoing support. They want to engage with brands on the apps they’re already on. Whether it’s WhatsApp or Viber, an omnichannel approach gets rid of the friction and streamlines the customer experience.
Boosts brand loyalty and customer satisfaction: Can you imagine having to reintroduce yourself to someone every time you talk? If a brand doesn’t recognize a customer or forgets their preferences, that could mean losing loyalty. Providing your customers with an incredible experience will help you deepen bonds at scale. Continuous, contextual support is essential.
Enables the customer to lead: As we said before, customers want to be in control. Conversational CX allows shoppers to start a dialogue with a brand on their own terms.
The ingredients of a stellar conversational customer experience
There are three essential ingredients to an amazing conversational customer experience, including personalization, proactiveness, and meaningful automation.
Consumers want to feel seen. Brands can demonstrate their understanding of customer preferences and pain points through personalized conversations. Customized shopping suggestions, ongoing support, and quick resolutions will make a customer feel valued.
Proactive communication accelerates the customer journey. Communication about shipment delays, inventory availability, and time-sensitive discounts keeps customers in the know.
Meaningful automation ensures you’re delivering swift resolutions to customers 24/7. AI can quickly resolve common inquiries so shoppers are never left waiting for too long.
Brands that got it right
Beauty brand Sephora uses conversational tech to deliver customized experiences to consumers. Their virtual assistant helps shoppers at every stage of their journey, from alerting them about items that are back in stock to abandoned shopping carts.
Bank of America’s virtual shopping assistant, Erica, provides customers with personalized and proactive communication. It notifies customers when duplicate charges occur and even allows them to redeem rewards.
Unforgettable conversational CX with omnichannel
If you want to elevate your brand’s conversational customer experience, it all starts with an omnichannel approach. Mitto can help you engage and support shoppers on numerous social platforms.
To learn more, contact us today!
