Whereas a website often works like a funnel – the customer searches for a car, specifies their needs and requirements and a selection of suitable models rolls out – conversational commerce allows more room for the dream.
But how do you get started with conversational commerce? As usual with new concepts, there is no paved path yet to roll out the concept smoothly across. A new concept does not obey the laws of the traditional organisational structure. How do you get management on board? And how do you make the success of your new concept measurable? You can read all about it in this part of ‘Maximise Your Conversations’!
Start at the Beginning
Although a new idea often starts with making plans on paper, for conversational commerce this is not the best starting point. With many unknown factors – what will a tool cost? How many fte is it going to take? What is the attribution? – it is difficult to write a conclusive business case. So the tip is: don’t start on paper, but start by listening to the customer. You do not know for sure if chat will work for your company and what it will deliver. The only way to find out is to talk to customers.
Spend a day in customer service to learn from the customer and discover their buying needs. Or choose a chat tool and go try it out for a few days. There are plenty of plug-ins available that are free to use for thirty days. Deploy them within one specific product group, for example, kitchen appliances. A few days of chatting with customers will already give you an impression of the questions, doubts and uncertainties that customers have. And it provides a set of data that is useful for supporting your business case.
Look For the Smallest Form of Conversational Commerce
Start with small projects. That way you will discover what works and what doesn’t. From there you can expand. Ask yourself the question: what is the smallest form you can start with? For example, start on a channel that is already used in your organisation, whether that’s WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS or chat. Deploy two employees for a few days just to really engage with customers, with no time constraints, no targets, to discover what customers need. The advantage of starting small is that there are no technical barriers: if the employees can access the inventory system and send a payment request, that’s enough to guide the customer through the entire sales process.
How to Choose a Case?
The customer journey shows all the moments in which the customer comes into contact with your brand: hearing a radio commercial, visiting the webshop, messages and advertisements on social media and ordering and receiving the new purchase. By looking closely at the customer journey, you can see where many people drop out. That is an interesting place to start applying conversational commerce.
Look for cases that have a commercial effect, whether that’s direct sales or adding a new potential customer to the database. Translate the goal to the individual customer and think about what you want to achieve in a conversation together. Take the liberty and allow everything you normally have no room for. Because that is precisely where the added value of conversational commerce lies. Whereas a site often works like a funnel – the customer looks for a car, indicates his wishes and requirements and a selection of suitable models rolls out – conversational commerce leaves more room for the dream. Would this customer like to drive a convertible? You’ll never find out through the website, but you will in a personal conversation.
When thinking of cases, it helps to think from your own experiences as a consumer. What makes you enthusiastic? And how do you translate that to your business? Then work out the case using the customer journey, so that you have something to go on when implementing each step. Each case provides information that makes it increasingly easy to see what conversational commerce does.
Only available in Dutch – Scan the QR code (or click on this link) to see more examples)!
Maximise Your Conversations: Part 4
In part 4 of the series ‘Maximise Your Conversations’, we’ll be covering having a good conversation. So keep an eye on our blog and our social media channels! Conversation24 is also happy to help you deploy conversational commerce. Click here to contact us.
Want to know more? Download the entire bluepaper.
