customer

CustomerZone360 NEWS

Free eNews Subscription

Chat Becoming Powerful Tool Driving CX, Business Revenue and Growth

By Laura Stotler April 11, 2022

A new report from Clickatell shows that 99 percent of customer service representatives understand the benefits of using chat to enhance the customer experience (CX) as well as drive business revenue and growth. Clickatell, which specializes in CPaaS and chat commerce, revealed the findings in its new Chat Commerce Trends Report.

According to the report, customer service representatives are increasingly being held responsible for business revenues. Clickatell found that 81 percent of representatives are compensated based on the performance and sales statistics of their teams. A whopping 95 percent reported technology or process challenges within their customer service departments that are hindering their success. This includes customers that find their organizations' payment technologies difficult to use, while 41 percent said their teams' reporting and analysis technologies are disjointed.

When it comes to chat apps, WhatsApp, Google Chat and Facebook Messenger are the most frequently used by customer service teams. Those are followed by Instagram Chat, Apple Messages, WeChat, Telegram, Discord, Snapchat, Line, Viber and Signal.

Customer service representatives reported a number of benefits of using chat with their customers. Faster response times and simplicity and ease of use for customers were among the top selling points. These were followed by improved customer satisfaction and increased customer engagement. Additional benefits include customer convenience, building stronger customer relationships, improved agent efficiency, reduced costs for call centers, a lower risk of fraud and the ability to continue from existing or saved chat histories.

“Revenue-generating responsibilities of customer service departments have significantly increased, while many of their technical capabilities have remained the same,” said Pieter de Villiers, co-founder and CEO at Clickatell. “With rising revenue expectations should also come the tools and investments that help customer service departments meet them. Chat commerce providing seamless and secure engagement and transactions that allows representatives to support customers along their entire path to purchase, while also encouraging the opportunity for increased sales.”

Thirty percent of customer service agents named email as their preferred communication method, followed by chat apps at 27 percent. Only 19 percent of agents preferred phone calls.




Edited by Maurice Nagle
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]

CustomerZone360 Contributing Editor

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Related Articles

Traditional Call Quality Assurance Programs are Ineffective at Improving CSAT

By: Tracey E. Schelmetic    9/27/2023

Research conducted by SQM Group found that only 19 percent of call center managers strongly agree that their call center's quality assurance program h…

Read More

More Enterprises Turn to CCaaS to Deliver Better Customer Interactions

By: Greg Tavarez    9/27/2023

Many enterprises are turning to automation and the cloud to address a growing number of customer interactions efficiently and with the agility to adap…

Read More

The benefits of Salesforce phone system integration

By: Contributing Writer    9/27/2023

Salesforce, the global leader in CRM solutions, provides various software options to assist companies in effectively managing their customer relations…

Read More

Now Available from Zoom: Workforce Engagement Management Suite for Contact Centers

By: Alex Passett    9/26/2023

Now available for Zoom Contact Center customers, Zoom's new Workforce Engagement Management suite (including its Workforce Management and Quality Mana…

Read More

The Great Generational Shopping Divide: Feedback and Patterns of Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z

By: Alex Passett    9/25/2023

A new report titled "The Great Generational Shopping Divide" studied plenty of distinct differences between generations' expectations and preferences.

Read More