The retail industry is one big competition. Businesses are jumping through hoops every day to be the best. Today’s meaning of being the best means having loyal customers who advocate for your brand. How is this done? It is done by integrating service applications into your commerce strategy. This blog walks you through the importance of your customers, their expectations, and, more importantly, how to apply service integration into your commerce strategy and reap the benefits.
The Customer First Era
It’s 2023; businesses are implementing the customer-first era. How customers feel about a brand can significantly influence where they shop. Data from Microsoft’s Global State of Customer Service Report states that 95% of consumers agree that customer service is an essential indicator of brand loyalty. If you can’t give your customers an excellent customer service experience, they won’t be your customers much longer. The benefits of integrating customer service into your commerce strategy are:
- You provide your customers with a seamless experience
- Reduce your response time to customers
- Engage with your customers with their preferred channel (email, social, text)
2023 Customer Service Trends for Business
Blake Morgan, a customer experience expert, and author, recently published an eBook for customer experience trends for businesses to follow this year!
- Automation and Self Service
- Phygital Experiences (Learn more about this with the link)
- Every Experience Matters (especially during inflation)
- Widespread Immersive Experiences
- Fragile Customer Experience Budgets Means Teams Need to Do More
It is time to get creative. Gen Z is on the rise with graduating college and becoming full-time employees. With many of them entering the workforce and starting their careers, they will spend more with businesses that fit their needs. Expectations are higher than ever for the customer experience.
Personalize, Personalize, Personalize
Gen Z is the first fully digital native generation that uses their phones for anything and everything and is a generation of instant gratification. Although Gen Z is tech-savvy, they prefer shopping on social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook). Businesswire research shows that a personalized digital experience is the number one driver for customer satisfaction, right next to the price.
Actions to take:
– Create Self-Service options for people to navigate general FAQs and walk themselves through returns
– Implement customer service into social media by responding to customers through DM’s
Importance of Integrating Customer Service into Your Commerce Strategy
89% of customers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer experience.
Key topics in a service commerce strategy include:
- Brand Loyalty
- Human Touch
- Instant Resolution
The perks of this include showing off your brand’s personality, it’s cost-effective, you will generate a loyal customer standing, and you will be known to offer high-quality customer experiences.
What Did We Learn
We learned that in this day and age, it’s all about the customer! Customer service can make or break you as a brand. Implementing service integration into your commerce strategy is a crucial element in being able to provide a seamless customer journey. Think about an angry customer taking to social media to tweet about a bad experience, but your team sees it immediately since you have a unified, integrated system. They reach out to the customer, offer them a coupon, and work with them on the situation. The customer was so impressed that the company responded so quickly with care; they will still be loyal and even delete their tweet.
Want to learn more?
Fill out the form below to download our eBook, The CX100 Quick Guide to eCommerce for Retail Businesses.
