In a press release from earlier this year, Gartner had predicted that by the year 2018 mobile devices would account for initiating 5% of consumer services cases, registering a marginal rise of 0.02% from 2014.
Research shows that most businesses lose around a whopping $83 billion owing to poor consumer services (Source: kissmetrics) in the US alone while globally, the average cost of losing a consumer is $243. It is only viable to think of automating support services as a way to lower the costs of losing a consumer and in a way contributing towards improving the revenues. Although some e-commerce enterprises already have some form of automated processes in place for providing consumer support, there is a need to streamline these support services. The implementation of data analytics, integrated applications along with other workflow-enabling processes can be one feasible option.
Now, a question might arise: What possibly could lead to a business having distraught consumers, when in all probability they are doing everything in their scope to ensure high levels of consumer satisfaction? With the burgeoning number consumers owning a smart device, it is all but tangible for e-commerce businesses to consider automating certain processes, particularly the consumer support segment. The extent as well as impact of ensuring high levels of consumer services is notable from the slew of available loyalty programs for customers and other marketing activities.
For any business venture, if acquiring a set of new consumers is only half of the battle won, then the actual challenge is to retain and keep these ‘new’ customers engaged with their particular brand or products. For this very purpose, a marked rise is visible in the number of consumer loyalty programs and other integrated consumer engagement strategies. Despite these loyalty programs for customers, in-app messaging or email marketing activities aimed at engaging with customers, both old and new, what matters is how the e-retailers respond to consumer queries and assist them post-sales. Various data analytics solutions are gaining momentum in deriving insights on these segments for mist business enterprises.
Analytics to Power Proactive and Intelligent Support
With the advancements made in the field of big data analytics solutions and Internet of Things, chances are we are headed towards a future where devices directly interact with consumers. Consumer experience or services are becoming more than a mere application of automated processes. They require businesses to work around ways to solve a consumer’s query in the fastest possible time, with the least amount of overheads.
The real-time availability of consumer data along with the implementation of a predictive analytics model would enable e-commerce enterprises to go beyond the basic automation of consumer support processes. These big data analytics solutions offer insights that empower e-retailers in proactively solving issues by understanding consumer locations, information on status, preferences or functionalities. This ‘middle layer’ of intelligent support would allow devices to interact directly with the automated and predefined automated process with the business layer of offering consumer support.
As the consumer’s dependence on mobile devices goes up the exponential curve, the presence of this middle layer of intelligent support services is poised to take over interactions to generate and send notifications on resolving issues.
