Did you know that 47% of consumers prefer to communicate via chat rather than by phone or email?
Conversational commerce has been in the air for about five years. But the time has come to start a digital conversation with the customer. The tools are there, consumers understand it and companies can handle it. But where to start? ShoppingTomorrow, the network for digital commerce professionals in the Netherlands, appointed an expert group consisting of Conversation24 and Webhelp. They created the blue paper ‘The Start of True Conversational Commerce‘.
This paper helps companies to identify and seize new commercial opportunities. You can read all about it in the blog series ‘Maximise Your Conversations’!
The Start of ‘True’ Conversational Commerce
The fact that conversational commerce is only just getting off the ground has a lot to do with the technical possibilities that are now available: many tools now have functionalities for communication and for displaying products and payments. This enables companies to guide their customers through all the steps of the customer journey in a WhatsApp conversation or chat.
Another factor is that during the pandemic, consumers became massively familiar with communication via digital channels. All these circumstances together make the present time suitable to start conversational commerce now.
The paper discusses three success factors:
- Identifying the opportunities for conversational commerce
- Having a good conversation
- Support through tools and technology
What Is Conversational Commerce?
Conversational commerce means having a digital conversation with the customer. The conversation has a commercial purpose. The result can be direct or indirect sales. In the ultimate form of conversational commerce, the customer is fully assisted within the conversation: with advice, with ordering and with payment.
The conversation may take place within one channel, but it may also switch from chatbot to live chat or from a public conversation on Facebook to a private conversation on Messenger. Digital customer contact offers a wealth of commercial opportunities.
The Conversational Partner Doesn’t Have to Be a Salesperson
The goal of conversational commerce is sales, but the conversation partner does not have to be a salesperson. It could just as easily be the mechanic, the digital sports coach or the customer service employee. For sales from a conversation, trust is important. An existing conversation in which this trust is established, for example when dealing with a service question, offers an ideal basis for a commercial turn. On the other hand, the transfer of this trust to a commercial employee could damage it.
‘Maximise Your Conversations’: What to Expect?
In the coming weeks we will share all the ins and outs of conversational commerce in a series of blog posts, based on the bluepaper. Next week, we will tell you more about how to get started, so stay tuned! Conversation24 is also happy to help you in using conversational commerce. Click here for more information on our products and here to contact us.
Want to know more now? Download the entire bluepaper.
