This week, Gorgias and Simplr announced a partnership to help provide ecommerce brands with a customer service stack that is built to turn contact centers into revenue drivers via 24/7 rapid-response digital customer engagement.
And, with consumers operating on a “NOW” schedule, we’re pretty excited about how this partnership will enable ecommerce brands to engage more customers in valuable CX moments.
If you put on your consumer hat for a minute, think back to even two or three years ago- a time when we had to wait just a little bit longer for a meal delivery, for the arrival of an online order, or for a customer service email response. Today, everyone’s tolerance for waiting is lower than ever, thanks to the sky-high standards set by world-class companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify. These are the brands that are setting the tone for every other experience your customer is having. Your business is not only competing with others in your industry, you’re competing with the best brands in the world.
Elevated customer expectations in our instant gratification culture have created a new kind of consumer that CX professionals haven’t been forced to deal with before.
We call this consumer the NOW customer.
For ecommerce brands in particular, the NOW customer, who is always “on” and expects immediacy in every experience they have, both online and offline, is looking for exceptional CX from the brands they shop and engage with -- they won’t (and shouldn’t have to?) settle for anything less.
In the new Simplr Consumer Online Shopping and Customer Service Study, published in December 2020, Simplr found that NOW-centric, exceptional customer service is a must (unless you like losing customers):
- One-third of consumers say they’ve felt ignored or neglected by brands they shop with
- 47% of consumers have decided not to buy from a brand due to poor customer service
- 41% of consumers have stopped shopping with brand altogether due to poor customer service
NOW customers are quicker than ever to leave you and shop with someone else if they aren’t getting the service they expect. So how does the NOW Customer define “exceptional” service?
From the same study, we found that:
- 61% of consumers base their expectations for exceptional service off the best retailers they shop with
- 59% of consumers say that fast response times to service questions contributes to making customer service “exceptional”
- 41% say that providing 24/7 service makes for exceptional customer service
- 37% say that being able to communicate with a brand over any channel they want provides exceptional customer service
All this boils down to providing fast, always-on service, on the customer’s terms, over any channel they want, 24/7. That’s all. Oh, and if you can’t deliver this type of experience, your customers and would-be fans will leave, and your brand ends up missing out on revenue. No big deal.
Tongue-in-cheek-ness aside, providing this type of experience has historically been extremely hard, and few brands have actually been able to crack the NOW customer code.
The fact of the matter is, the traditional contact center model is not able to scale and flex to meet these new expectations. The fixed and rigid nature forces you to make compromises and tradeoffs that are ultimately trade-downs for your customers- resulting in limited hours and channels, deflection, and slow response times- all because the model you’re using today is so fixed and rigid, along with the costs that go with it.
Now, brands don’t have to be held back by a contact center model that can’t scale. CX professionals can access a new model and approach the rise of the NOW customer as an opportunity to set themselves apart from the rest of the pack. By taking a “NOW” approach to CX and providing a level of service that boosts your reputation with buyers, you’ll be in a position to take advantage of every revenue opportunity in the moment.
To provide the NOW customer with the service they expect and deserve, and to capitalize on every revenue opportunity, brands should break free from their traditional contact center model and embrace a newer model that was designed to deliver for the NOW customer. This model needs to scale easily, enable you to always be ready and responsive for customers, and engage them whenever and wherever they want.
The NOW customer can’t be ignored. And the brands that will rise in the NOW era will be the ones that have this realization and make the necessary adjustments, well, now.
Find out more about how the Simplr + Gorgias partnership can help you rise to meet the NOW customer and capture revenue opportunities in every moment.
