HAVE A CHAT WITH YOUR CUSTOMER

Talking is not a waste of time. Timing is the key. Just choose it well.

Maurizio Porcu
Aug 8, 2017 · 4 min read

If you blame the digital era for the loss of intimacy you used to have with your customers, you might be wrong for once. It’s time to restart to talk to them. Just through different channels.

The shopping journey is like an actual conversation between you and your customer.

The Power of Words

Do you remember the old times, when store managers used to greet you walking into the shop claiming that they saved your favourite item just for you?

Actually, those times are now back in many supermarket chains, when businesses realized that customer numbers were falling down due to the lack of connection and the sense of belonging to their brands.

Fish, meat and vegetables are served again by real people with the mission to engage you through valuable conversations.

From scratch

Try to imagine a customer journey like an actual conversation, from the moment you land on the website to the one you complete your purchase. Every single content, interface element and automation tool are part of an ongoing chat between you and your customer.

Compare the shopping experience you offer in your stores to a real conversation can help to highlight strengths and weaknesses of your business flows. For example, do you profile your users with some quick questions? The basic one is, are you looking for male or female outfits? See the Asos case below.

“Try to imagine a customer journey like an actual conversation”

Ask a couple of questions to your customers to personalize their experience.

Not only bots

They are the buzzword of the year. So yes, it can be cool and useful to adopt this kind of solution on your app or website.

Time saving and personalization are the major pros of the bot technology. Having said that, another important touchpoint is sometime not included in the conversational threads: the search tool.

Users always look for the shortest path to the product they want. If you are able to recognise the meaning of every search, from details like size and color to context, then you can anticipate the user with useful suggestions based on previous researches and behaviours. In addition, search is now moving to voice.

Today, voice queries represent 20% of the total and are estimated to be 50% in 2020.* To follow this trend can be a meaningful step towards a seamless and keyboard-free shopping journey.

“Users always look for the shortest path to the product they want.”

Content is the King

Tools and features are nice add-ons, but still, content rules every channel. Mediums can change the way you get in touch with other people, but the quality of the message is still the cornerstone of communication. Think about the products you display above the fold on your website.

“the quality of the message is still the cornerstone of communication”

In this way customers engagement will balloon. Because you start to speak their own language, they understand you and see that you care about their preferences and past choices.

If you have found this article useful, it means you probably are looking for a more powerful ecommerce solution for your business.

Discover Stentle for free today. Book your demo on www.stentle.com and see if it fits your business needs. Or email us a leads@stentle.com. We are always willing to chat about the present and future of fashion retail.

About Stentle

Stentle has just been born and already has a long story to tell. This is the paradox of having a team with over 40 years of experience in e-commerce, industry evolving towards new forms and solutions such as omnichannel dynamics.

The barriers between physical and online store are disappearing. The selling point as we understand it today will soon be transformed by tools that facilitate and support the shopping experience at every moment. The total union between reality and the virtual world. Stentle is leading this change, to redesign the store of tomorrow.

* https://www.iprospect.com/en/us/our-blog/google-home-accelerating-voice-search-growth/

Stentle | Just Commerce

Stentle | Unified Customer Engagement Platform

Maurizio Porcu

Written by

Stentle | Just Commerce

Stentle | Unified Customer Engagement Platform

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