Most of us find it almost impossible to spend time without a smartphone or tablet close at hand. These days, to quote the famous ad for Martino Rosso, we expect to be connected and online ‘anytime, anyplace, anywhere.’
Indeed the mobile device has become not only a constant companion but also an essential tool. Witness our shopping habits. According to research organisation IMRG, around half of e-commerce sales in the UK are accounted for by mobile devices. Meanwhile, a 2014 survey by Econsultancy found that 13% of us engage in the art of 'showrooming.' Or to put it another way, we check out goods in store before buying online, using our mobile devices to compare prices and then make the purchase.
And not only do we shop on the move. These days, just about every transaction is mobile-enabled. We contact customer service, move money between bank accounts, check flight details and book restaurant tables. It's a mobile world.
But if the mobile revolution is driving a sea change in e-commerce, online marketers are playing catch-up. Few businesses remain unaware of the importance of mobile and many have developed apps or taken steps to ensure their sites are rendered properly across a broad range of devices.
But that's not quite the same as having a comprehensive mobile strategy. In an increasingly competitive online marketplace, simply enabling e-commerce transactions is not enough. If you're selling to or communicating with customers via mobile, it's vital to remember that this is no longer a secondary adjunct to better established PC/Laptop channel. For many, mobile is the primary route to online services. Mobile users rightly expect a high quality customer experience, just as they would in store or sitting in front of a big screen.
But becoming a mobile-aware business is not just about replicating existing services or converting via the device. It is also about providing enhanced service and assisted sales support that plays to the strength of the medium.
For instance, when an airline sells a ticket online, that's just the beginning of a relationship that continues as the customer prepares to leave home to catch the flight, arrives at the airport, negotiates security and waits for the gate number to show on screen. Throughout that relationship, the smartphone provides an ideal medium to provide additional information. Similarly, a retailer can provide product information as customers walk around a store.
More fundamentally, mobile devices offer consumers a chance to seek information ahead of making a purchase or access after-sales care regardless of time and where they are.
Text based messaging provides a cost-effective way to deliver additional layers of service. For example, live chat is already familiar to (and popular with) online customers who use PCs and laptops. The same chat based engagement can be delivered easily via apps and mobile websites.
Using LivePerson's LiveEngage platform, chat sessions can not only be triggered by on screen buttons, allowing customers to talk directly to agents. Alternatively chat can be actioned by the customer scanning an QR or bar code when in store, again providing easy access to an agent.
As any good angler will tell you, the best place to drop a line in the water is the location where the fish are gathered. And by communicating via mobile chat you are effectively going to find your customers on their devices of choice. Equally important you are meeting their expectations.
Those expectations are increasingly high. Customers want to be able to contact organisations at a time of their choosing, and that is a challenge to in terms of the resources available. However, text based messaging is a cost-effective channel as a single agent can handle multiple engagements simultaneously. This is in sharp contrast to the voice channel on which agents are locked into a conversation with just one person for the length of the engagement.
That's an across-the-board benefit regardless of whether the customer is using a handset or laptop but mobile chat/messaging offers a specific cost-saving. Our experience at LivePerson suggests that customer issues are resolved much more quickly on the mobile messaging channel than is the case on PCs and laptops.
In other words, companies with a focus on customer service can engage with their consumers much more efficiently in the mobile space.
Mobile devices are with your customer from the moment the alarm rings to the point at which they fall asleep. There's a good case for saying that your company should also be close at hand via messaging options.
Copyright/Image: 123rf.com
Thanks to Tony Heyworth for sharing his advice and opinions in this post. Tony is a Senior Marketing Director for LivePerson International and is responsible for marketing and business development across both EMEA and Asia Pacific. LivePerson is a Content Partner of Smart Insights. Tony and his team lead the strategy for growing LivePerson’s online engagement revenues and establishing the online channel as a critical force for new customer acquisition and customer service. With over 25 years experience in software and services marketing, and with a unique blend of finance, sales and online marketing experience, he has held various Marketing Director positions held for market leaders including Interwoven, Polycom and Business Objects. An authority in marketing strategy and planning to enabling LivePerson to understand the needs of the customer in a fast moving online, social and mobile world we live in. You can follow LivePerson on Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+.
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