How to Resolve Your Ecommerce Users’ Problems with Video Live Chat Support

Video live chat is the new tech innovation on the block.

From allowing users to engage in “distant socializing” to empowering sales agents to sell online, these powerful tools are quickly establishing themselves as a must-have, especially for ecommerce businesses.

Take a look at what the data tells us:

• According to research, 33 percent of customers want a video live chat option to help accelerate the buying process.
• Another study claims that a staggering 96 percent of consumers find videos helpful when making purchase decisions online.
• Finally, as per research, 73 percent of customers are more likely to purchase a product after watching an online video that explains the product/service in question.

Clearly, video as a marketing and sales tool is here to stay.

In this blog, we will look at how ecommerce businesses can use this 360-degree technology to extend an extraordinary customer experience, and reduce the workload of the sales and the customer support team.

Let’s get right to it.

Why Businesses Should Offer Video Chat Support?

1. Keeps You Ahead Of The Trend

Integrating live video chat on the website has still got the first-mover’s advantage. With many businesses still stuck experimenting with communications tools such as live chat, there are very few combining the power of real-time chat services and video.

In fact, research by Aberdeen claims that “38 percent of leading CX experts are currently using a live chat to deliver instant support.”

– Image Source: Aberdeen

So video live chat has not gained a lot of traction in the ecommerce sector yet, despite the multi-dimensional advantages it poses, particularly for sales and customer experience support. Leverage video services with live chat and you’ve got a golden opportunity to raise your CX quality through the roof.

The Learning: Any ecommerce business that’s looking to stay a cut above the rest should invest in a robust video live chat tool to boost their customer experience and boost sales simultaneously.

2. Enables A Better Way Of Communication

Not being able to reach a real person when customers need one of the more frustrating struggles of the customer service experience. Not so surprisingly, 91 percent of customers would simply leave a brand without complaining when things like these happen!

Video live chat offers a great resolution to the problem. Like many visually driven communication mediums, video live chat allows for interactive, personalized, and real-time conversations between brands and customers. It’s one of the most effective upselling techniques as well.

Plus, if your customer experience support has certain guidelines in place and requires customers to first send photos of damaged products or complaint emails to get the issue resolved, using video live chat can help. This enhances the overall user experience and helps build brand trust and confidence in the user.

The Learning: Save on the time-consuming process of email/phone communication and simply get on a video call to address the issue within seconds!

3. Helps Cut Down on Customer Service Touch-Points

According to research by HubSpot, any avid online shopper will typically face the following pain points when shopping online:

• The frustration of having to explain the same issue to different executives–a problem that rattles 33 percent of customers.
• Waiting on hold for what seems like an eternity bothers 33 percent of customers.
• Slow and sluggish response times trouble 19 percent of customers.
• Going through varied touch-points (think: phone, email, etc.) to get their query resolved or not being able to resolve the issue online at all, according to 14 percent of the customers.

So how can video live chat help?

Basically, it acts as a one-stop tool that offers contextual, instant, faster, and centralized support to customers at the click of a button (quite literally). It helps agents to:

• Diagnose the root cause of the customer’s problem and provide relevant and contextual solutions in the first go, thereby lowering the number of touch-points required
• Solve complex technical issues that require visual understanding with relative ease (think: troubleshooting software issues, assisting in transactional queries)

For instance, let’s say a customer wants to buy plywood for his room but wants to see the right shade.

Using video live chat can accurately and instantly help them make a choice, without them leaving their home. All in all, customers can have an apex user experience!

The learning: All customers have to do is hop on a video call and resolve their issues, without the annoying back-and-forth that usually happens.

4. Empowers Businesses To Stand Out From Your Competitors And Reduce Costs

With the help of video live chat, long wait queues and angry customers hanging up will become a thing of the past.

There are numerous ways in which video live chat can turn out to be the edge your business, as well as your customer reps, need. These include (but are not limited to):

• Solving complex or really specific customers issues that require video guidance (think: offering product demos)
• Analyzing customer’s queries within seconds
• Streamlining customer support options and reducing communication touch-points to boost user satisfaction and loyalty
• Reducing costs due to lower number of customer support touch-points
• Driving real-time interactions and deeper client relationships–an experience that customers actively desire today

The learning: Video live chat has the potential to emerge as your business’s key USP and empower your brand to take your customer experience to the next level.

5. Knit Feedback With Customer Support

Ecommerce businesses typically spend a lot of time, effort, and money on product descriptions, and to assist users in making the right selection.

Video and co-browsing features have an edge over-reactive channels such as phone and email when it comes to answering your customer’s specific questions.

Here are a few ways in which video live chat can help:

• Your customer experience team can leverage the feedback and reviews that the customers provide during the video call to improve on the product or enhance the user experience.
• You can use the recorded video conversations to engage in quality assurance (QA), measure the team’s performance, collate feedback on focus areas to improve, and boost your team’s productivity.
• The video call recordings can also offer guidance on how to better handle customer conversations. This includes providing feedback on the team’s communication skills as well as the overall performance.
• Finally, you can use the video recordings to brainstorm ways to provide more customized support.

The learning: Video live chat recordings can be used for auditing the conversations between customers and agents.

This can vastly help to monitor team performance, improve areas of weakness, gather customer insights, and integrate real-time user feedback – all of which can collectively elevate the customer experience.

6. Offers Greater Opportunities For Upselling & Cross-Selling

Imagine this scenario.

Your customer experience rep is on a video call with a customer. The rep quickly solves the problem after identifying the issue.

The customer is impressed with this quick solution. All the rep has to do is take advantage of this positive experience and turn it into a selling opportunity.

The CX rep can share the latest deals before closing the call. He can talk about ongoing promotions, the latest discounts, new product arrivals based on customer interest. There are endless opportunities for upselling here!

Sp video calls not only help you solve customer problems, but also add value to your overall sales. How cool is that!

The learning: With video and audio becoming more and more mainstream in selling products on social media channels, you’ll see a lot of brands including videos along with images on product pages. We can safely say that the impact of video is on a different level.

Just think about the impact created by a dedicated executive solving your customers’ problems, and then educating them about a product on a personal level.

By integrating video live chat directly into your website, you can leverage a great opportunity to up-sell and cross-sell products, starting with your loyal customer base. They don’t even have to visit the websites and scroll through the details!

Why Live Video Chat? From the Customers’ Perspective

So what are the benefits of using live video chat from the customer’s point of view? Here are two compelling reasons:

1. Instant Service: Customers today want instant responses to their queries.

This is where using video live chat comes in handy. All they have to do is video call the agents and get their queries resolved in real-time.

2. Face-To-Face Customer Experience: Face-to-face customer support works similarly to in-person interactions.

As you can imagine, this allows agents to connect on a more human level with users, as they can read the customer’s facial expressions, understand their body language, and gauge their reactions.

It’s far better than second-guessing what the customers might be feeling or having to ‘read between the lines.’

On the customer’s part, they get better, more relevant, and personalized service – and ultimately, they leave the video platform on a happier note.

Moving on, let’s look at some real-life examples to draw inspiration from and extend a stellar customer experience.

4 Best Excellent Ecommerce Examples To Learn From

1. Goldsmiths Jewelers

Owing to the ongoing pandemic, businesses are embracing technological tools to extend a superior live chat experience.

Consider the use case of Goldsmiths Jewelers. Based in the UK, they offer customer video live chat services to assist them in their buying journey, and personalize the experience from start to finish:

– Image Source: Goldsmiths

Customers get to choose the type of interactive support they would like to go ahead with, and receive answers to their queries from the comfort of their homes:

– Image Source: Goldsmiths

What can ecommerce businesses learn from this?

• You can use video live chat to replicate the “in-person” experience that the physical store offers, and extend a personalized service without dampening your sales.
• Video live chat offers unparalleled convenience to customers as they can get answers to their queries and receive customized support without actually entering the store physically.

2. IKEA Sweden

Swedish furniture retail company IKEA plans to roll out video live chat services for their customer support. The company decided to use video because it helps:

• Address geographical issues that necessitate workers having to travel to customers to check installations, product errors, etc. This is time-consuming, and not eco-friendly.
• Streamline the customer support, and resolve customer concerns that require a lot of effort from the customer’s viewpoint such as sending emails, clicking photos of incorrect/damaged products, and so on.
• Address language issues and offer multi-lingual support by enabling agents from other stores to reach out to customers via video and offer the right support.

What can ecommerce businesses learn from this?

• You can use video live chat, as IKEA did, to drive a more personal connection with the customers, and to build a much happier and loyal customer base through speedy and accurate query resolution.

3. Poopsie’s

Poopsie’s is a gift and toy store in Galena, IL which offers the “Poopsie’s Live” service. Here’s a snapshot and a video of how this process works:

– Image Source: Poopsie’s Live

Basically, a customer service agent (known as a “Poopette”) hops on a video call with the customer to assist them in selecting the right products for their gifting needs:

– Image Source: Poopsie’s

After the customers fill out the Poopsie’s Live form online, a personal shopper uses the information provided and logs into Facetime or Skype to suggest customers with the right gift options.

Once the customer zeroes in on what they want to buy, they can either pick up their purchase in-store or have their items shipped to their doorstep.

What can ecommerce businesses learn from this?

• Ecommerce businesses don’t need to spend too much on complex video chat tools. Even video platforms such as Skype and FaceTime work as long as your primary customer base is digitally savvy and technology-friendly. And for those looking for tailored solutions, there’s a ton of tools specially designed for ecommerce.

4. Cadillac Canada

Cadillac Canada launched Cadillac Live – a digital website that doubles up as a virtually interactive showroom, allowing customers to interact with agents in real-time:

– Image Source: Retail Insider/YouTube

Here’s how this video chat service works:

• Shoppers need to first fill out an online form and input basic contact information, as well as their preferred day and time for the call. They can also mention the name of the vehicle they wish to see.
• Once they make an appointment for the call, they can enjoy a 360–degree virtual tour of the showroom.
• Once the call ends, the customer can book a test drive at the local dealership, or they can go ahead with the purchase.

Using the video live chat offers a multitude of benefits:

• Shoppers can ask questions live and view Cadillac models depending on their requirements.
• There’s access to on-screen tools that allow them to view options for vehicle models, colors, trim, wheels, etc.
• They can also preview the capabilities of the chosen vehicle and use a chat box to type in their messages if they so prefer.
• Moreover, if the call drops, the brand will send the customer an email link to reconnect or re-book a new session.

What can ecommerce businesses learn from this?

• Owing to COVID-19, more and more businesses are looking at virtual ways to sell products online and deliver a high-quality customer experience. This is where the concept of using video live chat to pave the way for “digital showrooms” can truly shine.
• Your customers can get their queries addressed, view the product’s features, and leverage instantaneous customer support, all at the click of a button. Check out web hosting support by Cloudways.

Finally, let’s look at some time-tested tips and strategies you can use to bring your video chat A-game on.

Tips To Improve Your Video Chat Game

When it comes to video chat best practices, there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach that works. So make sure to collaborate with your sales and marketing, customer support, and senior management to hash out the right strategies. To help you get started, here are a few pointers to keep in mind:

• Thoroughly research your target audience.
• Be crystal-clear on your objectives and end goals.
• Get into the specifics to understand when and how you’ll be using the video chat service.
• Drive a pilot test to understand its effectiveness.
• Test multiple video chat solution providers to understand the right fit.
• Ensure that your internet connection is consistently fast and reliable.
• Think about the premises or environment from where you’ll be driving the video live chat services.

Summary

Video live chat is exploding.

It is being hailed as a powerful visual engagement tool by the few ecommerce businesses that are already using it to step up their customer experience game and edge out their competitors.

Over the next few years, the rate of video technology adoption–be it on the business or the customer side–is poised to skyrocket. Clearly, we are living in a video-centric world, and ecommerce businesses need to make the most of this opportunity. Combined with fast online store hosting, you can easily improve your customer service experience drastically.

So make sure to do your homework and research, and choose a robust love video chat tool that can make both your agents’ and your customers’ lives easier.

Note: This guest post was published in collaboration with Kashyap Trivedi.