What is conversational commerce and why is it important for brands?

Imagine that you enter a store and find that no one greets you. You go shopping and you don’t find anything. Do you have questions about products that interest you? But no one can answer. You leave empty handed.

Without conversational commerce, this happens all the time online. More customers shop online than offline. This is no reason to give up quality customer service.

Learn how to digitalize your customer experience with conversational commerce.

What is conversational commerce?

Conversational commerce (or social commerce or conversational marketing) uses dialogue to better serve customers. Conversational commerce digitizes your customer service. This makes it possible to communicate with thousands of potential customers at once.

These conversations happen wherever customers are: on social media, messaging apps, and on your website. Conversations take place with live customer service agents, chatbots, or both.

Why is conversational commerce important?

Dialogue commerce makes online shopping easier, more fun and more personal for customers.

The Future of Customer Experience Survey by PwC shows that customers are looking for speed, convenience and friendliness when shopping. The survey also revealed:

• 73% of customers consider experience an important part of their buying decision. But only 49% of customers say that companies provide good customer service.
• 1 in 3 customers (32%) will permanently leave a brand with one bad customer experience.
• 65% of customers say that a good experience is more important than good advertising.

Companies that use conversational commerce see:

• Increase in income by 10% in the first 6 months
• An average of 30% savings on customer service costs.
• Automate up to 80% of the most common customer interactions. AI chatbots can improve the efficiency and accuracy of customer conversations.

Source: PwC Future of Customer Service Experience study.

Types of conversational commerce

You don’t have to be the fastest chatter in the west to join the conversation. Many brands use these tools to connect with more customers online:

Conversational chatbots with artificial intelligence

An AI chatbot is a robotic customer service agent. Yes. We live in the future.

Through automation, a chatbot allows customers to instantly connect with a brand.

When people think of personalized service, a friendly robot might not come to mind. But chatbots like Heyday use machine learning to give personalized responses to customers. These answers become more accurate and effective over time. Like a real agent, the conversational AI chatbot remembers its customers.

Chatbots like Heyday can also answer all the FAQs that come in, saving valuable time and resources for your team.

Live chat apps

The live chat app gives customers the opportunity to send a message to a real customer service agent. Gone are the days of terrible customer service and 1-800 numbers.

Live chat apps let you automate common responses to common questions. Human customer service can focus on the people who need extra help the most.

64% of customers would rather use a chat app than call customer support.

Live chat allows customer support to respond to many customers at the same time. This increases efficiency and improves the customer experience.

Voice assistant software

Conversational commerce also includes the use of voice assistants to answer questions. More and more people are asking Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant questions to make a purchase.

One survey of online millennial shoppers found that almost half (47%) used a voice assistant to complete a purchase.

Marketers should be thinking about general questions or orders from customers. It’s much easier for a customer to ask Alexa to order something than it is to click through your product pages.

Survey of 1038 online shoppers

Messaging apps

People use messaging apps more than social networks. The user base of the top four messaging apps is larger than the user base of the top four social networks.

Customers decide what to buy before visiting a company’s website. People use messaging apps more like search engines. Additional questions come through the company’s Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. Make sure someone or something is there to answer them!

Messaging Apps Report, Business Insider

Social media

A new study by Publicis and Twitter says that “social conversations are the new online review.”

• 92% of people search for information about a brand on social media.
• 64% of people change their mind about a brand after reading about it on social media.

The conversations around your brand drive sales. It’s time to get involved in these conversations and encourage customers to post photos and testimonials on social media.

Read our guide to creating a great social media customer experience. And also learn more about social selling.

Twitter

6 benefits of conversational commerce

When shopping, customers look for speed, friendliness and willingness to help as the main qualities.

Here are our top six ways that conversational commerce delivers that experience.

1. Provide 24/7 customer support

It’s called instant messaging for a reason. Customers want answers to their questions right away. Without this, it is impossible to offer a high level of 24/7 customer support.

With chatbots, companies can respond to customers faster. Chatbots can also answer general questions right away. Or give customers the option to schedule a call with a live agent when they are available.

2. Drive sales through chats and relationships

Customers contacting via messenger or chat provide valuable information. Chatbots or live agents can suggest products depending on the customer’s needs.

For example, the Canadian brand Dynamite uses the Heyday chatbot on its website. If a customer is looking for a red sweater, the chatbot will offer him different products. He can even buy in the chat!

Source: Dynamite

Adding a personal touch sells more products. With chatbots, brands can learn more about their customers.

By assigning agents to loyal customers, brands can build relationships online. Just like in stores, shoppers are more likely to make a purchase and return when a brand appears to be willing to help.

3. Reduce Cart Abandonment

Abandoned shopping carts are a huge problem in e-commerce. The e-commerce industry is losing $18 billion a year due to abandoned shopping carts.

A conversational commerce tool can help reduce this number by:

• Send cart abandoners reminders or prompts to complete their order.
• Check to see what stopped customers from buying and get valuable insights to close the deal.
• Sending customers searching for specific products, such as a tennis racket, an automatic link directly to the product.

4. Collect customer data and feedback

Your relationship with a customer doesn’t have to end after they buy the product. Your chatbot can contact the client to get feedback or testimonials, saving live agents valuable time.

You can also send automatic follow-ups to customers to increase the likelihood of a recall. 63% of customers are willing to provide more personal information if they have a good experience.

5. Generate More Better Leads

Conversational commerce opens up a new world for meeting new customers.

With a chatbot, you can

• Send your best customers a message to ask them for a review or a recommendation.
• Automate sales call bookings via chat to get more appointments and fewer no-shows.
• Send a message to sell an additional product of interest.

55% of companies using conversational commerce also get better leads.

6. More languages

Now customers have the opportunity to shop all over the world. Many companies miss the opportunity to attract customers who do not speak the same language.

Multilingual chatbot breaks down language barriers. Answer frequently asked questions in other languages ​​without hiring a new team.

You can use AI to answer questions and complete simple tasks in the client’s preferred language. For example, Merci Handy serves customers in French and English using the Heyday chatbot. No need for a live agent or translator.

Source: Rise

Best practices for using conversational commerce

Conversational commerce plays a different role depending on where your customer is located. Find a balance between being helpful and not annoying.

Be the digital version of a helpful customer service agent. Not a digital version of a used car dealer.

These guidelines will help you get the most out of your conversational commerce.

Awareness

Communication aimed at raising awareness takes place in instant messengers and social networks. This happens even before customers visit your site. The goal here is to be responsive, helpful and up to date.

Do:

• Set up automations for frequently asked questions to provide immediate answers to customers.
• Make a welcome message for people visiting your site to attract them.
• Keep it simple and clear so that customer support is open and available via chat 24/7.

Not:

• Spam clients.
• Wait too long before responding to customers. Most clients expect an immediate response.

Consideration/Decision

When customers make their final choice, make sure you have a live chat option on your website. Close this deal!

Do:

• Short and specific answers to clients.
• Associate clients with specific questions or concerns with a live agent.
• Enable the obvious “live chat”button. Simplify customer communication, especially on product and contact pages.

Not:

• Put pressure on clients to close deals.
• Be afraid to follow. Research shows that interest fades over time.

Retention

When a person visits your website, you want to make sure that the visitor becomes your customer, and if he bought the product, then a regular customer. You can try to do this in several ways.

Do:

• Create a welcome popup.
• Refer customers to page views or surveys and ask for feedback.
• Greet a famous client on your website with special offers or promotions.
• Send thanks when customers complete an order.

Not:

• Follow up aggressively and try to make a new sale.

According to Twitter research, 71% of people are more likely to consider buying if they talk to a brand before buying.

Twitter

Best Interactive Commerce Platforms

heyday

Heyday by Hootsuite is a conversational commerce platform. Heyday uses machine learning to automate up to 80% of the most common customer interactions.

Heyday also manages customer service on the same platform. It is a smart chatbot that can manage FAQs, is multilingual and will connect the customer with a live agent if necessary.

Heyday integrates with leading e-commerce platforms like Shopify. You can set up in just 10 minutes!

Facebook messenger

In terms of free tools, Facebook Messenger has recently added many new business chatbot tools. Messenger is the most widely used chat app in North America. The number of messages sent to businesses on Facebook has doubled over the past year.

Facebook Messenger is the first place customers want to find out more. Facebook Messenger has automation tools that allow businesses to answer common questions. It also helps organize posts from Facebook and Instagram feeds in one panel.

Please note that Facebook Messenger does not integrate with other platforms or your site.

To manage your Facebook Messenger conversations, try Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a social media marketing and management tool. This allows you to easily manage all incoming messages across platforms.

live chat

LiveChat is a one-stop live chat platform for your customer support team. The platform organizes all your customer interactions with live agents.

LiveChat will automatically segment your website visitors based on what they do on your site so you can better serve your customers. It can also anticipate questions when customers are typing to help your team respond faster.

Source: live chat

Drifting

Drift is another live chat platform option. It connects real sales reps with customers on your website and is quickly becoming a popular choice.

It has several automatic chat features. People can contact live agents immediately or make an appointment. Drift has beautiful dashboards and lots of live chat features. It can be a great tool for building simple chatbots.

Engati

Engati is a rising star in the world of chatbots. This is an easy option for those who are just getting started in conversational commerce. The main selling point of Engati is its intuitive chatbot builder. It allows you to automate simple chats on your website and messaging apps like What’s App.

Start automating customer service. Provide an easy and convenient platform for your customer support with Heyday.