Digital Engagement Blog

Every time a customer engages in a web chat you have an opportunity to make a sale.  If you’re a retailer with a web site, I bet you watch your web chat conversion rate like a hawk.  Improve the conversations you’re having with customers, and you can convert more chats to revenue. 

So what happens when customers get distracted or interrupted and leave the conversation?  Many retailers struggle with web chat abandon rates in double digits.  By focusing on the conversations you’re having instead of those that have been abandoned, you may be overlooking a treasure trove of revenue opportunity.  To find that hidden treasure, you’ve got to think like a parrot instead of a hawk.  Arrrrrrrrrrrr.

Traditional chat solutions create a CX that’s essentially a phone call with typing instead of talking.  It’s a strictly linear experience tied to a single session that begins and ends on a single device.  That may be a good fit for a customer journey that follows a nice straight line, but that’s not how consumers buy anymore.

Consumers jump between a mesh of digital devices

Today’s digital consumers live their lives differently, and they expect to engage differently. 

Your Customers Are Digital

By 2020, mobile commerce will make up 45 percent of total e-commerce (BI Intelligence) and require a different strategy than today’s online web strategy.  On the service side, Gartner says 35% of all support will take place on a mobile device by the end of next year.

Are you hot for chatbots?  They're certainly heating up the conversation among customer engagement executives these days.  Chatbots have been around since 1994 and have matured to the point that they (maybe) can be used effectively for real business applications.  And now thanks to Facebook announcements and a demo of chatbots the topic is top of mind.  So how do chatbots impact your digital engagement strategy?

Since 2013, we have been casting a critical eye on how enterprise engagement solutions solve problems throughout the customer journey. The exponential growth of mobile commerce has amplified both the need for better enterprise engagement solutions and the current lack of true solutions in place across the omnichannel customer journey.

Our latest white paper, Digital Disconnect: How New Consumer Behaviors Disrupt Customer Engagement, revealed some intriguing findings:

Missing out on critical moments when your customers, prospects, browsers, or shoppers are visiting you in your digital world—and by that I mean your website, mobile website, and mobile app—is like missing thousands of spectacular shooting stars passing you by as you briefly turn to look the other way. Who would deliberately do that? Well, unfortunately, a lot of incredible stars are passing by right under your nose and on your watch.

Sensing danger, I glanced up from my smartphone and stopped dead in my tracks.  Between me and the department store exit lay a shopping man’s nightmare: The Fragrance Gauntlet. A long row of atomizer-wielding trigger-happy “consultants” stood in ambush, ready to interrupt my journey and douse me with free samples of cologne.  I wanted to turn around, but it was too late.  I had already made eye contact.  All I could do was take a deep breath and hold it. 

We just made a big announcement. Huge in fact.

We have released the latest generation of our digital engagement solution, My:Time™ 3.0, which will allow enterprises to provide an entirely new way to proactively engage customers with a never-before-seen continuous service experience across digital channels.

Consumers love their smart phones, smart devices, and the ability to download mobile apps. There are 75 billion apps in Apple’s app store alone, and with more created every day, consumers have a lot to choose from. While the ever-increasing supply of apps provides a dream for consumers, it can create a nightmare for retailers and app developers.

As we discussed in a blog post last week, the mobile shopping landscape is rapidly changing, and more U.S. consumers are shopping via mobile device to both buy and redeem gift cards.

The holidays are upon us, and before we know it the weeks of planning, anticipation, decorating and shopping will be over with the blink of an eye. Although Black Friday and Cyber Monday are already over, there will always be a portion of the U.S. shopping population that is procrastinating and will be searching for last-minute gifts.