Industry News

7 ways Freshchat is transforming customer engagement

Realm Digital 11 November 2019

Freshworks have reinvented the customer support wheel and continually set the benchmark for what meaningful online engagement actually looks like, with Freshchat a leading figure in the support revolution. From rich, context-driven conversations to automation and company-wide communication, Freshchat is a giant leap from legacy live chat systems and below we unpack how this solution has reshaped online support.

1. Forget ‘Live Chat’, bring on ‘Modern Messaging’

Customer support 10 years ago looked a lot like this: John visits your company’s website and attempts to speak to an agent via live chat. He must first, however, provide his personal information, in the form of an email address, phone number, or maybe even just his name before initiating a live chat session. John is then connected with an agent and explains his issue, query or complaint, and the agent does their best to resolve it. John then closes his browser and carries on with his day.

A few hours later he would like to check the status of his query, reopens the live chat and attempts to speak to an agent, where he once again, must first provide his information before he can start chatting.

This is not the first time John has reached out to your company. In fact, John is one of your biggest-spending customers and has been with you for several years. He has been forced to give his information every time he has a query and is, quite simply fed up with being treated like a faceless website visitor. John has started shopping around for another company.

Now, let’s look at the same engagement, but with modern messaging leading the way: John visits your company’s website and attempts to speak to an agent via live chat. He is able to view his entire conversation history through the chat widget he just opened and, more importantly, the agent has a full overview of that same history on the back end.

“Hi,” says John. “Hi there, welcome back! How can I help today?” the agent replies. John explains his query and the agent does their best to resolve it. “Thanks,” says John. “Before you go, I see you have a refund request pending. Just to let you know, it takes up to 3 business days to process a refund, so you can expect the funds returned to your account before the weekend.” John is thrilled, has had a meaningful engagement and will now definitely be a returning customer.

The difference between these two scenarios? Context. It’s how your agent is able to identify and engage on a human level with the people who drive your business: your customers.

You now have the ability to proactively engage with your client base thanks to the detailed profiles and contact information you have been able to build. You are also able to see this is the second time this month John has requested a refund due to a faulty product and, for example, a gift voucher for 30% off the next purchase can be sent to his inbox or cellphone, or delivered through the live chat window to be read the next time he logs on to your website.

2. Connect your customers with the right agents

As with the scenario above, there are few things more frustrating than having to explain your issue, query or complaint multiple times to different people in various departments. A discussion may start with Customer Support and end up going through Sales & Marketing before eventually landing up at the intended destination; Billing and Accounts. By then, your customer has explained their issue three times and is almost more eager to log off and be done with the discussion than they are to have their issue resolved.

With Freshchat, you are able to help your customers navigate their way to the intended department via pre-set message channels. For example, in the General Enquiries channel, website visitors would be connected with one of your support agents, while Refunds & Billing would direct them to your finance department.

But what if the customer doesn’t know which department they need? Surely they’ll need to bounce around between agents explaining the issue each time as he goes?

No, your customer has spoken to a support agent and explained his issue. The agent is maybe still unsure whether this is related to Sales or Billings, though, so they “invite” both those departments to the conversation, either by tagging them, adding a Private Note, or through Discussion – Freshchat’s unique back-end live messaging system. Now, all of Sales, Billings and Support have the same overview, history and context, and as such are able to effortlessly and timeously attend to the issue.

Once again, your customer is overjoyed with the speed and efficiency with which their issue was resolved.

3. Ticket deflection – free your agents for what really matters

Ticket deflection refers to the ability to free your agents from unnecessary interactions and processes that would otherwise take attention away from the issues that really matter to your company and customers.

What is your return policy? Do you have branches in my area? How do I add my payment details? These type of questions can very quickly start clogging your live chat funnel, adding unnecessary work to your agent’s load.

With Freshchat, you can actively put that kind of information into your customer’s hands through the use of FAQs, that sit within the chat widget itself. You are able to present your pre-set articles and answers straight to the customer, who can service his own needs, reach a satisfactory resolution, and all without the need to create a ticket or interact with an agent. Your FAQ content can also be as rich as you like, in multiple languages, using images, videos, tables and deep-links to deflect common customer queries.

4. The rise of the bot

Bots can be a sensitive topic when it comes to brand representation, with most concerns revolving around the impersonal interaction one would expect when “speaking” to a robot. Further fears also extend to the workforce, who may see the rise of the Bot as a sign that their days with your company are numbered.

With modern messaging, the role of the bot is specifically designed to elevate workflows, optimise lead generation and conversions, and to alleviate the mundane, monotonous tasks that diminish an agent’s capacity to provide effective customer support and focus on the things that matter.

That could mean sparing your visitors and customers from manually filling in pre-chat forms, reducing chat drop-off rates by asking the right questions, and auto-loading leads into your CRM. The Bot is also the ideal portal to empower your customers to solve their own issues by its smart delivery of your Knowledge Base content when integrated with Freshworks’ customer support and ticketing system, Freshdesk.

The Bot is really your ally, your colleague and your assistant, and one that continually learns and improves to best suit the needs of your agents and customers.

5. Triggered messages – get the right message to the right client

Running a promotional campaign? Want to reward your most committed customers? Looking to decrease the drop-off rate at checkout? With Freshchat’s Triggered Messages, you are able to communicate the right message to the right customer, at the right time. Triggered Messages provide the ability to proactively engage with customers throughout their journey across your website, either by guiding them, empowering them with information or by giving that final nudge over the conversion line. Triggered Messages can be scheduled based on several factors, including geographical location, user attributes, and ongoing offers or promotions.

For example, you can schedule a Triggered Message about a 15% discount to appear on the checkout page if a customer’s cart value exceeds a predefined amount. Or, if a customer is idle for more than 10 seconds at check-out, the chance of losing that sale starts increasing exponentially as each second ticks by. At this stage, it is vital to proactively engage and ensure the conversion, and this would be achieved through a pop-up message which might read: “Hi there! I see you haven’t checked out the item in your cart. Need help finding a different size or colour?”
The customer is now provided solutions and connected directly with an agent, greatly improving the chance that a successful purchase will be completed.

6. Maintain your brand identity

A major shortcoming in the live chat arena sits with the appearance of legacy chat and support widgets, which are almost exclusively a plain, uninviting white bar that sits in stark contrast with the look and feel of the website you’ve worked so hard on.

Freshchat, though, knows exactly the power of maintaining your brand image and identity throughout the online journey and allows users to mirror that through a fully customisable widget appearance.

From the widget size to its position on the website and the colour pallet employed, Freshchat’s customisations make it simple to maintain the theme that your website, business or products have built their foundation on.

7. One funnel, one view, multiple platforms

One of the key aspects of Freshchat, and the entire suite of Freshworks solutions, is the ability to maintain full overview of all your chats and tickets in one central inbox. Whether you’re engaging with customers via the live chat widget, or through social channels such as Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp, your agents are able to seamlessly and effortlessly tend to all queries across multiple platforms, without the need to switch between programmes or log in and out of your numerous accounts. The single-view inbox is, therefore, able to provide a complete and holistic view of all your engagement channels, making it simpler and easier for you to connect, engage and resolve customer issues via the platforms of their choice.