What is more important for e-commerce companies—their core technology infrastructure or their call centers? The answer is both.
To give an analogy of the human body, if the core technology infrastructure is the heart of an e-commerce company then its call center is its central nervous system.
With the help of call centers, an e-commerce company receives inputs, processes them, and responds appropriately to the inputs. But to run e-commerce operations smoothly, its call centers face some unique challenges.
In this blog, we will discuss the challenges faced by call centers of e-commerce companies and how they can overcome the challenges by leveraging the right call center software.
Challenges Faced By Call Centers of E-commerce Companies
The call centers of e-commerce companies face a lot of challenges, some of which are unique to the e-commerce sector. Here are some of those:
1. Huge Call Volumes
If you drop by any e-commerce company’s call center, no matter what time of the day, you will witness one thing—i.e. the steady flow of calls. From queries about orders to product complaints to issues with payment, the calls an e-commerce business receives from its customers are wide-ranging. Many online retailers find it challenging to manage high call volumes day in and day out.
2. First Call Resolution Rate
Even though the first call resolution (FCR) rate of some leading e-commerce companies, such as Amazon and Zappos, is above 75 percent, many organizations in the sector still have to improve their FCR rate. When customers get their issues resolved on the first call, it results in enhanced customer satisfaction and it takes your customer service to another level.
3. Data Breach
Threat Intelligence.com recently published data that revealed that 54 percent of e-commerce organizations reported at least one successful cyberattack, data leak, or fraudulent activity. Out of them, 38 percent were able to deal with the attacks successfully. In several cases, data breaches happen in call centers while unsuspecting agents provide customer service.
4. Generation of Quality Leads
According to a study by HubSpot, nearly two-thirds of the businesses polled said generating quality leads and website traffic is one of their biggest challenges. The huge online population makes it challenging for e-commerce companies to generate high-quality leads.
5. Rise of AI and Machine Learning
AI, Machine Learning, and other rapidly changing technology are extremely beneficial for e-commerce companies. But they also pose a big challenge for their call centers. That’s because e-commerce call centers must adapt to the rapid changes as well as equip their customer service agents with the right tech stack.
6. Customer Experience (CX)
Did you know that 86 percent of customers are willing to pay more for better customer experiences? But how many e-commerce companies are aware of the stat? The answer is many online retailers struggle to provide the desired customer experience to shoppers. The mantra is: “The better the customer service, the higher the customer experience.” Every e-commerce company must keep it in mind.
7. Customer Turnover Rate
Did you know that at most three out of every ten customers are likely to stick with an e-commerce company for a year? Yes, as per several industry experts, the customer retention rate for the e-commerce industry is about 20-30 percent. That’s not good. To bring that down, e-commerce companies must work on the way they deliver customer service and customer experiences.
8. Agent Attrition Rate
Last but not least, e-commerce companies need to reduce the agent attrition rates in call centers. In some e-commerce call centers, the agent attrition rate is higher than 30 percent. The employee attrition rate needs to be below 15-20 percent.
9. High Cart Abandonment
High cart abandonment is a grim reality of the e-commerce sector. The shocking thing is it’s increasing with every passing year. A study conducted by Baymard Institute revealed that seven out of every ten customers abandon their carts before checking out. Sometimes, customers abandon their carts if the customer service of an e-commerce company is not up to the mark.
How the Right Call Center Software Can Resolve Call Center Challenges
The right call center software not only can enhance customer service but also resolve various call center challenges, such as
1. Omnichannel Communication
In today’s age, nine out of every ten customers expect omnichannel communication from businesses. Going omnichannel is the best thing an e-commerce company can do for its agents and customers. It can combat many challenges faced by the call centers of e-commerce companies. Let’s discuss one by one.
When e-commerce companies adopt omnichannel communication, they can easily deal with the high call volume. Instead of getting customer calls alone, they will also receive text messages, chats, instant messages, emails, social media comments, and more. By adopting omnichannel they can also improve their FCR rate as well as agent productivity. When an agent solely focuses on audio calls, then your agents can interact with one customer at a time. That means they can resolve one problem at a time and provide customer service to one person at a time. But when they leverage omnichannel solutions, they can interact with multiple customers using their respective communication systems.
2. Sophisticated Tech Features
Delivering an exceptional customer service experience calls for the use of cutting-edge technology tools. In the rapidly transforming digital domain, e-commerce companies and their call centers must equip themselves with the right kind of tech stack. One such tool is sophisticated contact center software. The strongest points of the software are affordability, scalability, cloud based structure, and more.
Let’s discuss how the right call and contact center software can help e-commerce companies overcome the various challenges their call centers face. Sophisticated call center software comes equipped with an interactive voice response (IVR) system, which provides multiple options to callers and routes their calls as per their preferences or requirements. After that, the skill-based routing in call center software directs the call to the agents with the right skills, expertise, and experience to resolve customers’ issues. Sophisticated call center software also comes equipped with a wide range of self-service resources, starting from the good old FAQs to highly advanced AI-enabled chatbots.
3. CRM Integration
As we have already discussed, a majority of online shoppers not only want personalized customer service but also personalized product recommendations and tailored messages from e-commerce companies. The question is, how can e-commerce companies provide personalized customer service to customers calling their call centers? The answer is simple–by integrating customer relationship management (CRM) applications with their call center software.
When any customer calls a customer care number, the agent not only knows the name of the customer but also their transaction history as well as previous purchases. That gives a lot of contexts to personalize conversation as per the customer’s liking and their tastes and preferences.
All in All,
E-commerce companies can overcome a wide range of challenges with their call centers by leveraging the right call center software.
As an owner of an e-commerce business, if you are experiencing a wide range of challenges in your call center, you need to handpick the right communication systems and tools.
At HoduSoft, our HoduCC call center and contact center software has helped many e-commerce companies of various sizes in overcoming challenges associated with their call centers.