How conversational commerce is changing the customer experience

Conversational commerce solutions

As if technology wasn’t demanding enough, brands now need to be wherever customers are. With digital channels

making it increasingly challenging for businesses to connect with their customers in moments that matter, more businesses have started to move away from third-party social feeds and automated chatbots to a more conversational commerce experience that supports individual interactions.

Understanding conversational commerce

While it may sound like a buzzword, this on-demand concept has been around for quite some time. Smart business owners have started to take advantage of expert interfaces, across various channels, to improve the consumer’s journey and guarantee better brand satisfaction. And, unlike simple, standardized chatbots, conversational commerce is making it easier for shoppers to communicate specific needs.

For example, shoppers who work full-time do not always have the time to physically visit the store to purchase a specific item. In these moments, brands have made it easier for their customers to directly engage with them over live chat, to inquire about a specific purchase, place orders, and collect.

The frustration with automated chatbots is that their responses are standardized. They only respond to specific FAQs such as trading hours, return policies and specials. This is certainly beneficial for people who are asking those types of questions, but for businesses to accommodate consumers who are looking for an intelligent conversation with an expert, they will need to adopt a conversational commerce approach with omnichannel solutions to improve the customer experience.

The omnichannel customer experience

Switching from a multi-channel to an omnichannel is essential for consistent customer experience across various touchpoints. Not only does omnichannel manage sales in multiple channels, but it integrates channels together to enhance the entire brand experience for both employees and customers.

Although real-time messaging is essential for commerce success, what matters more is how the customer receives it. If your business provides automated, humanized communication channels, it will help customers achieve exactly what they want: to be everywhere and anywhere at the same time.

Here are five benefits of omnichannel customer experiences for businesses:

• Communication and analytics: When your business has multiple communication channels, it makes it easier for business owners to generate analytics and data from their messages. This will help you to get to know your customers better, and restructure your CRM system accordingly.

• The ability to meet customers where they are: When your touchpoints reach customers in moments that matter, you will be able to manage your customer relationships more effectively. Now, you will be able to track and communicate with your customers based on their location, their requests, and their behavior. This allows businesses to be more intelligent with their brand communications and really enhance their customer experience with the smallest of detail.

• You’ll be able to target specific audiences: When you are confident in your marketing strategy, you will have more time to focus on your audiences. Customers will be targeted through multiple channels, based on their data feedback, to increase their chances of them choosing your brand over others. This is all because of the type of customer experience you choose to implement.

• Integrated business operations: In order to be successful, your business needs to offer an integrated customer service approach. This is what omnichannel does. It offers enhanced customer services, combining sales, merchandising, inventory, and planning into one. Each part of your business now works together to provide the best possible customer experience.

• Focus on service shopping: Omnichannel management is not only for product shopping but also for service shopping. This is one of the most beneficial CRM systems for all industries because it offers customers multiple communication channels to choose from.

If businesses want to be more connected with their customers, from product to location, they will require a flexible management solution where data is the foundation of it. Have a look at Clickatell Touch which makes use of machine learning technology to help customers find solutions they’re looking for themselves in a personalized, immediate and intuitive manner.