Best Practices in Deploying Proactive Service

A conversation with Zachary McGeary, Associate Analyst, Jupiter Research

Proactive service in the form of click to call or click to chat has the potential to make a big impact on online sales; but to get the results you're after, merchants must know how and when to use it effectively - and have the right practices and resources in place to support it. To get deeper insight into this important topic, we sat down with Jupiter Research's Zach McGeary for some tips on how to get proactive service right.

eStara: You've mentioned in previous research that engaging customers proactively with chat or click to call could play a big role in increasing online sales, but you also warned that being too aggressive with proactive invitations could hinder task completion. Do you have any tips or suggestions on when and how to use proactive invitations?

ZM: That's correct. The goal is to clearly engage consumers, but not too aggressively. Placement of proactive outreach offers, typically pop-ups or Web site links, should be contextual and easily noticed, but they should not hinder task completion. Lands' End puts a link on every product page next to the "add to bag" button. Amazon.com places a link on pages for expensive or high-consideration products (i.e., for a $2,400 flat-screen TV, but not for a $7.99 paperback book). Additionally, availability of proactive outreach must be toggled by agents' availability. Consumers should not wait more than one minute for an available agent after they have accepted the invitation and filled in any required information about themselves.

Ultimately, the business rules that companies use to trigger proactive outreach must align with site goals surrounding problem resolution and driving sales. Timeliness and relevance is really the key here.

eStara: What are some things companies should have in place before even considering implementing a live help solution on their site?

ZM: Service organizations need to focus on developing their competency in existing touch points. Customer satisfaction with most touch points has remained stagnant for the last six years, with real-time and agent-assisted touch points (e.g. phone, chat, click-to-call) demonstrating the only gains.

A robust online self-service offering can also go a long way to resolving customer issues within the context of an online interaction.

eStara: There's a growing desire on the part of consumers for companies to bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds. Aside from chat or click to call, what are companies doing to deliver seamless cross-channel customer experiences?

ZM: For the most part, companies continue to present fragmented customer experiences. The technologies and applications deployed to support customer interactions often are not well integrated, if they are integrated at all. Still, most companies continue to respond to consumer demand for a broad range of touch point choices. Without a holistic approach to managing these interactions in a cross-channel manner, companies are almost guaranteeing a fragmented and repetitive customer experience.

Proactive outreach represents a means to customer satisfaction, not an end. More complex processes, high-value interactions and issues involving sensitive information may best be handled via phone. Common and less complex issues may best be resolved by online self-service. The disadvantage that most companies face is lack of ability to pass consumers from touch point to touch point in a strategic and consistent manner. In these instances, the addition of real-time online interactions as a service touch point for consumers may simply serve to perpetuate an already fragmented approach to customer service.

eStara: What are some other factors for improving customer loyalty online?

ZM: Our past research on loyalty in the online retail industry has revealed that retailers have had the most success attributing loyalty measures to tactics that promote efficiency (e.g., account management, automated processes online), inform purchasing decisions (e.g., rich content) and recognize and reward consumers for past behavior (e.g., personalized offers, rewards).

Retailers with high ROI calculations for their loyalty efforts are more likely to track customer lifetime value and gross margin per customer. Both metrics shed light on customers' current value and their potential value over time. These metrics, combined with frequency, spending, and trust and advocacy metrics, make retailers with high ROI from loyalty efforts better informed when allocating spending on loyalty as well as in tactic selection. The combination of a holistic approach to tactic selection and a better understanding of the value of their loyal customers enables such retailers to achieve a higher penetration of loyal customers among their total base and greater sales from this loyal segment.

Incidentally, these measures may be used to target consumers for real-time online interactions, however, the anonymity of the online shopping experience may limit the usability of these metrics for triggering business rules until the consumer has authenticated himself. Typically this occurs during, or near the end, of the checkout process. With some retailers claiming a 25 percent lift in conversion rates via click-to-call, the checkout experience will continue to remain a prime opportunity for real-time online interactions. Metrics such as average order value, shopping cart abandonment and likelihood to make repeat online purchases will be the key success metrics. Service organizations should monitor key website pages for abandonment activity and consider proactive outreach as a strategic tool for revenue retention