E-commerce businesses are the best way to attract customers and make profits. Parallely, they become an easy-to-use solution for customers to order and manage their favorite products effectively. However, there are times when they require customer support to help them tackle a few challenges.
With the usage of the cloud everywhere, it becomes easy for both businesses and customers to interact and get their queries resolved in minutes. Cloud Telephony is one such booming technology that most companies are implementing for faster query resolution and improved customer satisfaction.
In this blog, we will learn the role of cloud telephony in e-commerce and how it can maximize business sales and customer services.
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E-Commerce Customer Service: What is it exactly?
E-commerce customer service refers to addressing customers’ queries and complaints, taking care of their concerns, making suggestions for improvement, etc., during, before, and after the sale of the brand or service.
For instance, a customer may contact the business through any social media, such as text or call, and the agents may respond promptly to keep them engaged. Agents will be available across multiple channels and engage customer queries quickly.
Features of Cloud Telephony for E-commerce Sales & Support:
Let us explore various features of AI-enabled cloud telephony with respect to E-Commerce sales and support services:
Call Forwarding
When a customer calls the business, an agent is available to take the call. Suppose the customer needs further clarification or the agent wants the call to be transferred to a different department based on the customer’s query. In that case, the call-forwarding feature is being utilized.
Intelligent Call Routing
When a customer calls the business, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is activated. It provides the customer with a set of options. The customer call is routed to the desired department/agent swiftly based on the response. Sometimes, IVR can also handle common queries such as,
Order status, Payment status, Refund status, etc. In that case, the customer gets their query resolved instantly, improving their service.
Call Screening
Call screening is yet another feature responsible for prioritizing and handling customer calls. It can showcase the priority calls and help agents/businesses concentrate on them initially and direct them to the respective team or agent. It displays with caller ID and other primary information, which signifies the importance of the customer call.
Local Presence
By implementing cloud telephony, businesses can also establish a local presence across various parts of the globe. It offers virtual phone numbers, which provides an opportunity for global customers to contact the business efficiently. On the other hand, businesses can also contact customers at minimal costs compared to traditional modes of calling.
Robust CRM Integrations
CRM integration is one of the exceptional features that lets E-Commerce businesses integrate their existing work tools on a single platform. In this way, all the customer details, business details, and other major information gets synced, which helps agents communicate and deliver the proper responses in a timely manner.
Multi-level IVR
IVR is responsible for routing the customer calls to the appropriate team, agents, or department based on the customer response. As we discussed above, since e-commerce websites are online platforms, IVR makes the job easier. AI-centric Multi-level IVR can make the process more feasible by directing the customer call promptly.
Call Tracking and Analytics
AI-integrated cloud telephony also offers complete insight into customer calls, including missed, answered, and dialed ones. With this tracking and analytics functionality, E-Commerce businesses can gain a deep analysis of how their brand is performing, tracking the agent’s performance, customer needs and suggestions, etc.
Call recording
Business owners or supervisors can take care of the call recordings in order to analyze the customer needs, their concerns, feedback, etc. It can also be used by the E-Commerce business to keep track of the agent’s performance. Based on it, they can arrange for training sessions if needed and improve business productivity.
Virtual Phone Numbers
As E-Commerce business comprises customers all across the globe, it is a challenging and expensive task to buy a phone number for every country. With AI-powered cloud telephony platform, businesses can quickly get virtual phone numbers from any country of their choice, unlike traditional phones.
Call Conferencing
Call conferencing facility helps E-Commerce businesses and its agents to get on a call at the same time. It can promote internal collaboration as well as helps in resolving the customer query when a particular agent is not able to work on it.
Voicemail
Voicemail functionality allows E-Commerce customers to record their queries or concerns when the business and its agents are unavailable. Once they are back, they can quickly look into it and engage the customers for improved customer satisfaction.
How Cloud Telephony is Beneficial for E-commerce?
With rich features and functionalities integrated into the platform, cloud telephony can assist businesses in quickly making profits and maximizing sales.
Personalized options
Cloud telephony offers personalized options to customers with the IVR feature. This can build trust and loyalty among them. As an E-Commerce business deals with multiple pages, products, brands, etc, it is crucial to offer this feature for quick filtering and improved customer satisfaction.
Also, businesses can save customers’ preferences for future use and recommend those products to them via text, emails, etc. You can also offer special discounts or coupons for those products.
Multichannel communication
Cloud telephony is known for its unified communication strategy. It comes with an intuitive platform that connects multiple channels together. As an E-Commerce business deals with customers from various platforms, it is important to engage them promptly.
With cloud telephony, businesses can take advantage of this opportunity and improve their customer engagement across various channels, such as emails, calls, texts, etc. Quick responses can also undoubtedly build happy customers.
Round the clock availability
E-commerce businesses should ensure that they engage customers 24/7. Cloud telephony that supports a flexible work culture and is available across global time zones makes it easier to connect with customers and sort out their queries quickly.
Quick and Easy Setup
Cloud-based telephony systems offer hassle-free and instant setups. You don’t need a complex infrastructure to get started. A stable internet-connected device is feasible to initiate your setup process.
Mobility
Cloud telephony enables businesses to access and engage their customers from anywhere on the globe. Based on their comfort, it can be accessed through any device, such as smartphones, laptops, desktops, tablets, etc.
Flexibility
It also offers higher scalability to add, configure, or remove users/functionalities effortlessly with cloud telephony. As the business grows, it is crucial that the platform accommodates and remains flexible to operate based on it.
Better Service Opportunity
Cloud telephony offers better customer service opportunities than traditional modes of engaging customers. With its complex-free infrastructure, effective and streamlined communication, and quick interaction and response, it makes the customer engagement process easy and satisfactory.
Saves you Money
One of the best and most excellent benefits of cloud telephony systems is that it helps you save more money, paving the way for significant cost savings. You can save considerable amounts since you don’t require any physical premise, infrastructure setup, or anything else. Also, all the rich features are delivered at affordable pricing, making it easier for startups and small businesses to get started.
How can you improve customer service on your e-commerce site?
Here are a few factors that you can consider to enhance customer service and maximize sales with cloud telephony:
Requesting feedbacks
Feedback, suggestions, and complaints are the most significant things that can help any type of business grow. One can work on these factors, considering them as areas of improvement, and implement them.
Providing them with options
Instead of sticking with a single-channel communication strategy, you can offer customers multiple communication options. These include emails, chats, phone calls, etc., which can help customers connect with the business immediately when needed.
Work on seamless followups
It is equally important to work on follow-ups with customers. Once you purchase an item from the business, you will likely receive a follow-up email or call frequently. Implementing this strategy will increase the chance of conversion and make customers feel more connected to the business.
Enhance customer interactions
Also, try to improve customer interactions. You can identify common customer queries, preferences, etc., and start offering relevant responses, discounts, coupons, etc., to help them convert. Similarly, you can also determine the areas of improvement and tackle them by training the agents accordingly.
Remain available
One of the best and most important factors to remember is to be available 24/7 to support customers. As they may be available based on their time zone, it is important to engage them and help them resolve queries quickly.
Conclusion:
If you are an E-Commerce owner struggling to enhance your work operations and customer service, it is time to switch to cloud-based telephony for retail services. It comes with ample advantages that help handle complexities and also result in greater cost savings.
