How to improve customer service using a mobile app

Whether you run an ecommerce store, deal with customers face-to-face or you offer software as a service (SaaS), delivering exceptional customer service is essential.

78% of consumers have pulled out of a transaction because of poor customer service, and twice as many people tell others about a bad service than a good service, so it pays to treat your patrons well.

We’ve already talked about the benefits of smartphone apps for your business, but one of the biggest is customer service.

Today, we’re delving deeper into the ways you can use a new app for your business to keep customers on your side and encourage them to stick around.

Let customers message you in-app

New data suggests that online chat has overtaken phone as the number one customer service channel – and there’s no doubting why.

Speaking to a customer service representative over the phone can be time-consuming and frustrating, especially if you’re put on hold or disconnected from the call.

Online chat is more responsive, immediate and helps users get answers to their questions as quickly as possible. Implementing chat on your mobile app is a sensible move.

Rather than directing users to your mobile website or asking them to send you an email with any customer comments, you should enable in-app chat functionality so that they can get assistance without effort.

Take the Monzo app as an example; if a user is concerned about a transaction on their account, they can speak to a customer service operator immediately and have their issue resolved in an instant.

And thanks to push notifications, responses are delivered in real time.

Offer in-app FAQs

According to Amdocs, 91% of consumers are happy to use a knowledge base to find answers to their questions and concerns, so create articles and tutorials that are easy to find and search from within your app.

Although you won’t be able to create resources for every problem, you can write out answers to your most commonly asked questions, and redirect others to a live chat or email address for more assistance.

The key here is to make it as straightforward as possible to find the right information; users shouldn’t have to leave your app to get help for their problem.

One way that you can quickly flesh out your FAQ section is to take canned responses from your business email address and tweak them for your app.

You can also add to your knowledge base over time as new questions are asked.

If you’re running a community project or have thousands of app users, you could even create a customer forum where users can help answers each other’s questions about your products and services, as seen by mobile phone network Giffgaff.

Humanise your brand

Humanising your brand is one of the best ways to improve your customer service.

Users want to feel like they’re talking to a real person rather than a robot, so empathise with them when talking your app and adopt their writing style to build confidence.

You can build a personality for your brand by thinking like a human and investing in relationships with your customers.

Once you’ve defined a clear personality, you can incorporate some of your traits into your app – by using emoji in your knowledge base, adding puns to your contact form, and sharing photos and videos of your team to give people an insight into the people behind your customer service team. The results will speak for themselves.

Allow users to make changes to their purchase or subscription

If you’re selling products or services within your app, make it as simple as possible to amend orders and cancel subscriptions – without the assistance of customer service representative.

By giving your customers the tools and power to resolve their own account and order-based issues, you’ll not only reduce customer service enquiries but take away the frustration of incorrect orders.

However, if you allow users to cancel their orders and subscriptions from within your app, you should implement a feedback system to allow users to explain why they’re off.

Getting data from your customers will help to improve your service and decrease cancellations across the board.

Wrapping up

The intimacy of an app means that your brand is literally in the hands of your customers, it’s essential that you’re responsive, empathetic and resolve issues right away.

Unlike customer service via email, post or telephone, apps require immediacy and urgency, so make it your aim to speed up response times and deliver the best service to your customers. Good luck!

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