Foreword
Industry research by Statista has shown that 40 percent of customers say they will stop doing business with brands because of poor customer service, whether this is because the brand is failing to provide solutions to issues fast enough or is not available across multiple channels. With expectations at an all-time high, exceptional customer service has become imperative.
Without a dedicated customer service strategy companies will struggle to meet consumer expectations, exposing users and prospects to pain points along the customer journey. This accelerates the risk of frustrating customers to the point of churn.
Although small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for the majority of businesses worldwide, they often lack the resources and structure to serve customers at scale in comparison to larger companies. Basic level customer service approaches are damaged by data and tech silos, leading to disconnected customer service. Tech silos are created when various systems in a business fail to fully connect with each other. This obstructs the flow of information across the company and complicates coordination between departments.
Without access to automation, large volumes of customer enquiries can easily overwhelm SMEs, leading to agent attrition and burnout. Additionally, customer service teams may struggle to develop due to being distracted by various competing business priorities such as cost savings, as well as product innovation and development.
Also read: Digital customer experience insight ebook
Channel-based messaging services like WhatsApp can help SMEs overcome the issues they may face, including siloed channels caused by flawed connections between systems. They are also able to prevent missed customer opportunities caused by brands being unable to provide the service expected as they provide an easily integrated, single-channel solution for customer communication.
Drawing on CX Network’s poll results from a panel of 68 customer experience enthusiasts at SMEs and insights from smart conversations platform Trengo, this report explores the current state of customer service for SMEs in e-commerce. It also digs down into the untapped benefits channel-based messaging using channels like WhatsApp can offer SMEs to increase sales and improve customer service.
About the respondents
What is your job function?
“Connecting departments and functions is essential to ensure collaborations and improved customer service. We do not want our customers to repeat their stories to different departments every time they are transferred.”
Ouriel Lemmel
CEO of WinIt
What industry do you work in?
*Multiple industries could be selected
What is your seniority?
The current state of customer service maturity for SMEs
The current state of customer service at the SMEs surveyed
When examining the state of customer service in SMEs, CX Network’s research polls saw the majority of SMEs (just over 65 percent) declare they operate with small or basic customer service models. This means that their current customer service tools and tactics may not be resilient enough to handle a high number of customer inquiries. This can affect both employee and customer experiences as it can result in missed enquiries, missed revenue and extended service recovery timelines. This disjointed customer experience can lead to frustration and may hurt a brand’s bottom line due to the resulting customer churn.
Teri Shern, co-founder of storage container supplier Conex Boxes, explains that with a small customer service support team, customer enquiry surges can greatly affect their company’s ability to provide quick and clear responses. She notes: “As a small business, one of the customer service challenges we face is when demand picks up during busy periods and we need to keep up with more queries coming in. We want to make sure we can maintain a valuable experience on those channels throughout busy periods in addition to our current methods of communication.”
Also read: Safe and speedy CX for better customer protection
Patrick Meutzner, CEO of Trengo, explains that while SMEs may not automatically have the capability to deliver high-level customer service, the bar for customer service is higher than ever. “Companies have to keep up in order to satisfy customers, because if [brands] do not give [customers] what they want, it is easier than ever for them to hit the internet and find a competitor,” Meutzner remarks.
No matter the company, customers expect fast response times, availability on multiple channels like WhatsApp, email or live chat, and high-quality information. Meutzner adds: “Without the right resources and tools, however, [providing this level of customer service] can be challenging to do efficiently.”
Of those surveyed, only 13 percent said they were close to offering an omnichannel model of customer service. By not being available to their customers’ channels of choice, SMEs may miss further customer opportunities. This is due to customers choosing to do business with companies that can meet their customer service expectations.
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Using Trengo to centralize customer communication channels
Netherlands-based car company Muntstad collaborated with Trengo to manage conversations across multiple channels in one tool.
Previously, the after-sales teams of Munstad spoke to customers via WhatsApp Business and email, while the sales team communicated via Facebook Messenger and the live chat on the company’s website.
As a result, teams within the business found working together across these channels complicated, as the previous tool the company used did not allow for any collaboration.
Working collaboratively was crucial for the business, especially as the teams worked together across many different locations and teams. With Trengo, Muntstad’s teams are now able to easily pick up conversations across all channels, including WhatsApp, assign them to a colleague and collaborate on answering customer questions.
Now, agents answer about a thousand chats in Trengo every month, of which about 90 percent come in via WhatsApp Business. In the past few months, Trengo has sold more than 20 cars to customers who first got in contact via WhatsApp.
WhatsApp has more than two billion active users and is a preferred channel for many customers. A study by YouGov found that of those who use WhatsApp to communicate with businesses, 54 percent of respondents used the channel for customer service, followed by pre-sales service at 42 percent. Utilizing a channel-based messaging service like WhatsApp for customer communications is a popular option for increasing customer service capabilities without overextending current customer service agents, as many customers are already using WhatsApp to communicate.
“As a small business, one of the customer service challenges we face is when demand picks up during busy periods and we need to keep up with more queries coming in.”
Teri Shern
Co-founder of Conex Boxes
By using WhatsApp and collaborating with conversation platform providers like Trengo, messages can be centralized and automated, including WhatsApp messages. Brands can communicate with customers by centralizing messages from all communication channels in one tool, enabling their teams to add more communication channels, without being burdened with the challenge of monitoring each channel individually. This allows companies to speak to customers on a popular communication channel already used by millions of individuals for personal communication.
Additionally, automation makes it easy for customers to self-serve for more frequently asked questions, therefore filtering them out of the questions that need human interaction.
WhatsApp can be integrated into existing systems and used to proactively push information to customers, for example order notifications or promotions. Additionally, WhatsApp can be added to a smart conversation platform that focuses on automation to reduce repetitive tasks. This can overall improve the level of customer service offered, leading to increased customer satisfaction and repeat sales.
“Messaging has some distinct advantages that should also make it a boon for customer experience.”
Ian Jacobs
Forrester senior analyst
35 percent of SMEs say they struggle with lack of automation.
Customer service challenges and blind spots for SMEs
Customer service challenges faced by the SMEs surveyed
Respondents could select more than one answer
The size and infrastructure of SMEs can trigger complications with delivering seamless experiences for customers. CX Network’s research group of SMEs admitted that the top customer service issues they struggle with are a lack of automation (35 percent), data and tech silos (24 percent) and competing business priorities (24 percent). All of these issues can be linked with the size of the company leading to a lack of infrastructure to support CX solutions.
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Lack of automation
Competing business priorities like cost savings, product innovation and development within SMEs can see customer service departments become neglected in favor of other departments. These distracting variables can restrict an SME’s access to budget for technologies to enhance their customer service offering such as automation. Lack of automation capabilities can be detrimental to SMEs, as it means they are unable to offer customers enhanced customer experience like personalization at scale, faster time to issue resolution and 24/7 support.
Channel-based messaging solutions like WhatsApp are helpful for automating repetitive tasks such as order confirmations, shipment updates, and sending customers recommendations, discounts and alerts. By generating automated responses to frequently asked questions, these systems fast-track the time a customer must wait for issue resolution.
Templated messages can be used to reply more personally to customers at scale. “Messaging apps strengthen the warm and personal connection SMEs have with their customers,” Trengo’s Meutzner explains. “This is what often differentiates them from the larger businesses. On WhatsApp, the tone is often more informal and conversational than via email and comes way closer to a conversation you would have in a physical store. With the templates it is easier to automate your outreach to your customers”.
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Data silos
Over the years, many organizations assemble a large collection of channel and project-specific technologies that operate in silos. In many cases this creates a tangled mess of technologies struggling to integrate and communicate data to each other. Miscommunications caused by data silos can lead to longer customer wait times and blurred visibility on customer issues. This may cause frustration for employees and customers, resulting in customer churn and agent burnout – both of which can have a direct impact on a company’s financial performance.
“Companies have to keep up in order to satisfy customers, because if [brands] do not give [customers] what they want, it is easier than ever for them to hit the internet and find a competitor.”
Patrick Meutzner
CEO of Trengo
Eliminating data silos stands as the toughest customer service challenge for legal service platform WinIt’s, according to its CEO Ouriel Lemmel. “Connecting departments and functions is essential to ensure collaborations and improved customer service,” Lemmel states “We do not want our customers to repeat their stories to different departments every time they are transferred. We are learning how to employ technologies that reduce this type of touchpoint amnesia, so our customers feel supported through their journey with us.”
The use of WhatsApp can empower companies to overcome data silos by allowing them a simpler, more accessible way of communicating with their customers. By communicating with its customers on their preferred channels, telecommunications company Vodafone was able to get closer to them and inspire loyalty.
“With messaging solutions, you can increase preferability, upsell and have the right conversations at the right time, in the right medium,” notes Sacha Nikita Kraft, client partner and WhatsApp owner, Meta. “By offering your customers the opportunity to engage with the brand, the customers have fun and this, in turn, drives loyalty.
24 percent of SMEs say their number one customer service challenge is competing business priorities.
How WhatsApp supercharges customer service maturity at SMEs
The level of channel-based messaging services (e.g., WhatsApp) at the SMEs surveyed
The majority of the SMEs (58 percent) surveyed by CX Network use channel-based messaging services at some level, with 40 percent using them as a ‘very large’ part of their customer service model. One SME clarified that it utilizes WhatsApp to share attachments with customers regarding promotional offers and packages.
It is wise that SMEs have respect for channel-based messaging. As Forrester senior analyst Ian Jacobs notes in Plan Now for Customer Service in 2021, demand for service in messaging will rise as messaging becomes even more central in people’s lives. “Messaging has some distinct advantages that should also make it a boon for customer experience,” Jacob writes.
For the 16 percent of respondents who say they may not be able to implement channel-based messaging, however, this solution may not be viable for legal reasons. For example, those within the healthcare or pharmaceutical industry. Patrick Casey, director of growth marketing at Felix Health, explains: “Conducting customer service via WhatsApp might be problematic for archiving and could result in a number of security issues if such communications are intercepted by third parties.”
Also read: A buyers guide to smart customer experience investments
Meutzner explains that “we therefore see most interest in using WhatsApp in industries like e-commerce, retail, hospitality, travel and automotive. Besides, in Trengo you can set a rule that all history related to a contact will be automatically deleted after x amount of days since the first conversation.” “By using the right automations (rules, quick replies, chatbots), you would be able to add a channel without extending your team,” he shares.”
40 percent of SMEs used channel-based messaging services as a very large part of the customer service model.
Sam Speller, founder of matcha tea supplier Kenko Tea, who is considering implementing a channel-based messaging service as part of the company’s customer service offering, explains the dangers of relying on one channel as a business: “The main tool I use to engage with customers is email. However, one of the problems we face is that we use that email address for multiple things, so it can be hard to sift through all the emails and identify which ones are consumer service.”
To solve this issue, Speller is considering a channel-based messaging service, as by connecting WhatsApp to a company’s e-commerce software, businesses can manage the customer’s lifecycle on WhatsApp. By customers using WhatsApp for the majority of their interactions with a brand (e.g., from making purchases to receiving confirmation of the order’s arrival), that company has visibility on the history of the relationship they have with that user. This context can inform how the company engages with that customer in the future, for instance which cross-sell opportunities to use or repeat purchases that may need replenishing. Having the customer journey within a single message chain on a dedicated channel also enables a company to eliminate data silos and streamline the customer journey.
WhatsApp also allows companies to provide value through a centralized, personalized experience. Businesses can customize customer experiences by sending tailored cross-sell and upsell WhatsApp messages based on an individual’s previous purchases or their persona’s preferences.
16 percent of SMEs fear they won’t be able to implement channel-based messaging into their customer service model for a very long time.
“I spoke to a Hubo owner who currently gets 60 percent of his revenue through WhatsApp.”
Desiree van den Hoogen
Online marketer at DGN retail, franchisor of Hubo
Case study:
Using WhatsApp automation to provide instant service
Builder’s merchant Hubo, an SME has both in-store and ecommerce capabilities, worked with Trengo to implement a customer service offering for WhatsApp across its business.
WhatsApp was originally used by Hubo customers to ask for help during their home improvements by sending pictures of the project, but during the pandemic the company saw an increase in the number of commerce-based conversations. Hubo began to allow customers to use WhatsApp to place orders, which they could pick up the same day the order was placed.
Desiree van den Hoogen, online marketer at DGN retail, franchisor of the Hubo brand, explains: “I spoke to a Hubo owner who currently gets 60 percent of his revenue through WhatsApp. There is a full-time employee at his store who spends all of their time managing all the incoming orders through that channel alone.”
By collaborating with Trengo, Hubo is now able to offer customers fast, reliable help with their orders. Customers can start a conversation by clicking a button on Hubo’s website where they are then prompted to give their name and the name of the location they wish to contact.
Trengo’s location finder then automatically forwards their conversation to the right location, allowing them to get help quickly.
Final remarks
Customer service expectations are higher than ever before, and SMEs must find a way of delivering these expectations or risk losing customers.
Currently, SMEs face multiple issues within their customer service departments including lack of access to automation, competing business priorities, and data and tech silos. Customers want to contact companies on their preferred channels, but for brands managing multiple channels at the same time can be complex without the right tool.
Channel-based messaging services like WhatsApp can be a quick, relatively uncomplicated way for SMEs to enhance their customer service offering without overextending their current customer service agents. Additionally, customer service teams are able to use WhatsApp to provide automated responses to customer enquiries, personalized messages and streamline the customer journey by hosting it on a single channel.
By implementing a channel-based messaging service, especially one that their customers are likely to be familiar with like WhatsApp, SMEs are able to enhance their customer service offering in a way that not only brings value to their customers but also benefits their agents as well.
For the majority of SMEs, they are already recognizing the power of WhatsApp in enhancing their customer service offering. Those that do not utilize this solution should seriously consider it or risk affecting their revenue.
The power of WhatsApp
Reduce agent burnout and reduce repetitive tasks by sending automated:
- Order confirmations
- Shipment updates
- Delivery status messages
Consolidating all customer communications into one channel
Communicating with customers on a channel they are familiar with
Providing quick, personalized customer service, for example:
- Making appointments
- Sending reminders and sharing product recommendations
- Sharing discounts or alerts based on customers’ recent purchases