Telecom Industry
Financial Industry
Retail Industry
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Automated Enterprise Agent
Retail Overview
The online retail market is an exceptionally competitive environment. Of the 80 million U.S. online households, 75% have purchased products over the Internet, according to Forrester Research. The report further states that retail sales online (excluding travel purchases) are set to grow to $270 billion in 2011 from $174.5 billion in 2007.
At the same time, while some 65% of online users said they research products online before buying online, 56% said they research products on the web and then purchase offline, according to Jupiter Research. Therefore, both internet-only retailers and traditional retailers with an online presence, compete for consumers that have more choices and higher expectations than ever before.
Consumers' behavior and expectations in online and offline stores are quite different though. The industry-wide conversion rate for online retail remains very low, at around 3%. And according to Forrester, the shopping cart abandonment remains over 50%.
Consumers visit online stores to gather information, compare, and browse, whether they intend to purchase immediately or in the future, and whether they'll buy online or offline. And in order to improve the online store experience, online retailers have deployed various applications such as: product ratings & reviews, comparison tools, videos that show how to use the product, themed categories (e.g. most popular, top rate, seasonal, etc).
Today, industry leaders are responding to this challenging environment with more customer-focused strategies that are based on "guiding and helping" rather than "selling" in order meet the consumers' expectations, reinforce the brand experience, and increase sales. They are moving towards a more personalized service that includes providing personal advice, targeted offerings, and building a relationship with the prospect. This means a more personal service through all the sales phases - from engaging consumers and creating desire during the "just looking" phase, to supporting them with expert advice during pre-purchase research, product comparisons, selection, up-sales, shipping, payment and post-sales support.
Consumers Online Service Expectations
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| Intentional experience |
Consumers expect an experience that is enjoyable and personalized,
and which encourages them to participate in the brand. At the same time they
expect it to be immediately valuable. |
| Available 24x7 |
Consumers expect to get help whenever they need it, day or night |
| No waiting in line |
Consumers expect to be able to ask questions and be served
immediately, no matter how many other people are being helped at the same time |
| Expert advice is always available |
Consumers expect to get accurate answers and expert advice whether
they have questions during pre-sales research or during post-sale service and
support. They expect to be able to ask as many questions as they need to, for
as long as they need to. |
| Help completing tasks |
Consumers expect help is provided to complete tasks, apply to
services, and order products. |
The Problem
Providing superior customer service is the single most powerful way for online retailers to establish sustainable differentiation. And if retailers succeed to personalize the service and build a relationship with consumers, the impact on sales conversion rate can be dramatic.
First, they must be able to serve visitors based on their personal needs, answer their questions, and resolve problems in real-time and at any time of the day or night. Second, they need to be able to brand their customer service interface in order to differentiate from competitors.
Over the past few years, some web sites have introduced human sales and support people to serve visitors using online chats and live calls - usually found behind "Can I help you?" or "Click to chat online" buttons. However, for online retailers with low average deal sizes, low margins, and consumers always demanding for more information during their online research; selling through humans is a very expensive proposition. Traditionally online retailers have build on fully automated services in order to keep cost of operation low and remain competitive in their market.
Typical cost of a transaction via a call center is $8 to $20, and via human chat is $3 to $10, while the same transaction via automated online channel costs $0.10 to $0.80.
So, if the cost associated with human support is around $5 per conversation, and out of each 10 conversations that take place there is one actual sale, the additional cost per sale is totaling $50. That is why online retailers will want to offer human support only in a limited number of cases (e.g. salvaging shopping cart abandonment for high potential customer).
Hence, online retailers are turning to automated solutions to create a compelling online experience and meet the consumers' expectations, while keeping low cost of operations. However, when it comes to online customer service, frustration from current web sites and tools is increasingly the norm rather than the exception. Today's tools such as Search and FAQ, or even email, are perceived by customers as ineffective. Too many consumers find web sites hard to navigate or incomplete - resulting in frustrated visitors that give up or pick up the phone.
Companies Online Service Challenges
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| Compelling online experience |
How can companies provide a compelling and branded online
experience that will grab the attention of visitors, generate more interest in
the company's offering, and create a desire for specific products and services? |
| Increase sales |
How can companies support the consumers during their online
research for products (pre-sales) - preferably with targeted offerings that fit
the consumer's personal needs? How can companies leverage more cross-sell and
up-sell opportunities during the online service? How can they increase sales
online while protecting thin margins? |
| Human support costs |
How should companies deal with the costs of human service by
email, chat or live calls? |
| Scaling support |
How can companies scale their operation to ensure professional
service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? |
| Users frustration with current tools |
Search/FAQ cannot resolve customer issues and have little impact
on sales. Unsatisfying Search/FAQ results cause the escalation of routine
interactions to human support thereby driving costs to the company and
leaving the customer frustrated.
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Therefore with today's online customer service solutions, the online retailers are left between options that are either too expensive (human support by chat or phone) or perceived as ineffective by customers (FAQ, Search, email, etc).
Facing these new challenges, online retailers are looking for an innovative solution that combines compelling online customer service experience with the low costs of self-service solutions.
Solution Benefits
vSpirits Automated Agent solution for the online retailers enable them to transform their web site into a high quality, interactive, personal service that supports sales, build relationships and reinforces the brand.
It enables retailers to provide consumers with expert advice they want, when they want it, from pre-sales research and questions to customers' ongoing service and support.
The Automated Agent is a virtual CSR that chats with visitors and customers in order to provide them with product advice and recommendations that best fits their personal needs. They enable your customers to get immediate and accurate responses based on chat-like interaction and without requiring them to search through a long list of links and FAQs.
Automated Agent Solution Benefits
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| Deliver superior experience to your customers
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Available Online 24x7. A customer can get help whenever he/she has a question
or a problem, regardless of what day or what time it is.
A customer will not have to wait in line to get attention, regardless of how
many other customers may be asking for help at the same time
Respond immediately and accurately with knowledge of the best-trained human
CSRs. A genuine alternative to individual consultation and product
recommendations
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| Branding and promotional added value |
Universal customer interface with branded avatars
Enhance the companys reputation for high-quality service, which both attracts
new customers and increases retention of existing customers.
Grab the attention of consumers, and generate interest for products
Increase visibility and traffic to web site
Leverage market communication opportunities
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| Increase Revenues |
Engage shoppers during product research (pre-sale) to introduce
the variety of products to potential clients
Visitors get the right product with targeted offerings for their personal needs
Recognize and act on up-sell and cross-sell opportunities
Increase revenue by increasing customer satisfaction and reducing customer loss
due to frustration and an inability to resolve issues
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| Significantly reduce online human support costs |
Serve customers for a fraction of the cost associated with human email, chat or
phone support.
Encourage adoption of web self-service
Humans are freed up to focus on higher-value cases
Scales infinitely to accommodate any number of concurrent sessions
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| Business Intelligence |
Identify and leverage high-value customers
Enable follow up emails for campaigns, discounts, and events
Collect market information and trends. Generate online reports for a variety of
parameters
Easily track what consumers are looking for to constantly improve provided
information, CSR training, market communications
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