Digital Customer Communication: More Service For The User Experience

Customer communication is continuously changing. In the course of digitalisation, technological developments and mobile options have created more and more opportunities to get in touch with customers. Today, digital customer communication is an important part of the user experience and the orientation towards a digital customer approach has become indispensable – at the latest since Covid-19. Most shop operators have also recognised this. We show how you can improve digital customer communication.

What is Digital Customer Communication?

Digital customer communication means communication that takes place via digital media. Through digitalisation and the development of new mobile channels and platforms, you as an online retailer have the opportunity to seamlessly integrate digital customer communication into everyday customer life. You should too: Customers have long been used to contacting companies digitally and across different channels. If they don’t find them, this can have a negative impact on the customer experience.

Among others, digital customer communication can be done via email, social media, live chat, video telephony, own apps or WhatsApp. Interesting fact: Around 85% of participants in a survey in Germany prefer to be contacted by a company via email. Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram are also important alternatives for directly addressing customers.

Why Customer Communication is so important in Online Shops

The importance of digital customer communication in online shops can be seen on several levels:

• Image Strengthening: Those who know how to take care of their customers in the digital world create a positive perception and strengthen their image.
• Gaining Trust: At the same time, proactive customer communication gradually wins the trust of the target group, which is of central importance today.
• Customer Satisfaction: The customer approach is one of the most important elements of customer satisfaction. Here, the main focus is on creating a personalised experience and tailoring information to personal needs.
• Customer Loyalty: Digital customer communication that is geared towards customer needs strengthens customer loyalty in the long term because the customer and his or her wishes are taken seriously.

Many companies have long recognised the importance of digital communication. For example, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy found in the monitoring report Wirtschaft DIGITAL 2018 that 69% of companies in Germany have improved customer communication through the use of digital media and channels. The result also shows that digital customer communication is the most frequently cited success factor of digitalisation.

Even more recent are the findings of the Covid-19 Digital Engagement Report: In the study, 92% of participants said that digital communication is crucial to overcome business challenges in the future.

6 Ideas to master Digital Customer Communication

It is clear that digital communication is essential to create a positive shopping experience for customers and visitors along the entire customer journey. But how can communication be used for the user experience?

1. Be accessible as Customer Service

Good customer service must be accessible. We spend many hours every day in the digital world, even on holidays and weekends. If the customer has a problem, he wants it solved quickly. This means that a contact person should be directly available to him without a long search.

However, the resources of many online shops are very limited. A remedy is a live chat, which is displayed as a pop-up on the website, for example, and even welcomes the customer. Among other things, chatbots are used to relieve the service.

2. Use Messenger

WhatsApp is the communication tool par excellence today. Many companies have already discovered the possibility to improve digital customer communication with the messenger app. Here you can reach customers in a familiar environment and place yourself as a company in the chat flow between family and friends.

This creates trust and brings communication to a very private level. At the same time, Messenger is an ideal starting point for presenting and answering products and questions outside of the online shop, which can support the purchase decision.

3. Many (connected) Paths lead to Digital Customer Communication

Opening Facebook, checking emails, phoning and writing on WhatsApp – we are on the move in numerous media, used to changing them constantly and expect to be able to contact companies via these different channels as well. Phone, email, chat, messenger and social media: Everything should go hand in hand and be coordinated with each other.

Omnichannel marketing offers customers a high degree of flexibility in digital customer communication. The visitor can switch between different channels at any time and still continue his current action. If the customer calls a customer service and then writes an email, the consultation must seamlessly follow on from the previous telephone call. Such transitions ensure customer satisfaction. To achieve this, it is necessary to store certain data on one device or channel and make it accessible on other channels as well.

4. Continue to offer Personal Advice

If a company is not only active as a pure online shop or a brand, but also operates stationary branches and locations, it should continue to offer personal advice on site. The digital customer approach can act as a valuable additional option to stay connected and communicate with customers even after closing time. In combination, this strengthens the customer relationship in the long term.

5. Create Personalised Content

In the vastness of the digital world, customers want nothing more than to be seen as an individual with wishes and expectations. In terms of digital customer communication, this means creating personalised content and putting customer needs first.

An example of this is uptain’s personalised communication with purchase abandoners. In addition to deciding on the appropriate customer approach (you/they), the right tonality is also chosen. The contents of the exit intent pop-ups, dropout mails and newsletter pop-ups are tailored to the individual user and thus offer him real added value.

Likewise, the tool supports customer service by suggesting service offers for digital communication (WhatsApp, phone or email) if the user obviously needs them to complete the purchase. Depending on the result of the algorithm, older people, for example, are offered a telephone service, while a younger target group can be offered the service option via WhatsApp.

6. Maintain Profiles on Social Media

Social media is the place to get in touch with customers. Therefore, it is not surprising that a company’s customer service must also be represented here in order to enter into direct dialogue with the customer. Digital communication here can take place via private chat, the public comment function and, of course, posts. Any information can be easily integrated and benefit from the enormous reach potential.

Show Digital Presence

Digital customer communication is the form of customer approach that will continue to gain in importance in the future. Customers expect a seamless service experience across all channels and want to reach contact persons quickly. The order of the day is personalisation, because the customer wants to be seen, receive relevant content and offers and be looked after individually – especially when personal consultations on site are not possible. uptain supports shopping cart abandoners with a personalised approach to find the best service offer, to get automated advice or to find a quick solution.