Ten years ago, when customers had an issue with a website, they may have had the luxury of utilizing the website’s contact form. Perhaps they utilized some live chat service. In most cases, they may have emailed the all-accessible webmaster or picked up the phone.
But over the last few years, the online landscape has become increasingly more social. Email is still a pretty ubiquitous communications medium. And it’s used by those seeking more traditional touchpoints. Live chat has, as a general category, grown by leaps and bounds.
Live chat assumes you’re constantly available, always on, and those electing not to offer phone support usually don’t want live chat either. They want to take a breath between customer issues and customer tickets. Live chat offers no interruptions, no breaks.
Then, the webmaster got busy. He was busy building the website, after all. And he usually got frustrated when he received emails from disgruntled customers about issues he couldn’t solve. A webmaster representing a media site might receive a complaint like, “Why did I get double-charged for my subscription?” or “Why am I getting this offensive ad?”
Neither of those issues could be solved by the webmaster. So over time, his email disappeared from the website.
While phones still play an important role in support scenarios, they can be costly, requiring an investment of time and staff. Tools that supplement this have made for a decrease in financial investments.
In 2011, in-app customer experiences started replacing the old tried and true ways of communicating about a product or service. Spearheaded by venture-backed Intercom, a little chat bubble would show up on the bottom of a website, and one would click to receive in-app messaging about the product or service. This way, businesses could easily communicate with their customers within the app and via email if desired.
Nudgespot is an in-app messaging platform, letting you map conversation history, talk to visitors, and build relationships without the overhead. At the present time the app is free for an unlimited number of users and customers, but has two monthly plans at $49 and $199 per month based on additional features and functionality.
Nudgespot takes in-app messaging to the next level, letting website owners take control of widgets that are customized to fit within the website’s design and functionality without being intrusive and while being mobile-friendly. Further, it sees what actions were performed by specific users, so you can make educated assumptions about the person you’re speaking with, by determining what steps they’ve taken on the site to date. This also extends to intelligent conversation. Conversations can be triggered based on what actions have been performed (or not) on the site, such as visiting the site three times in the last three days, or not logging in to the site in over a month.
One of the cooler things that in-app messaging offers is the ability to run concurrent sessions, so that you can have real time conversations with multiple people at the same time. There’s no expectation of real time response not in the way live chat has conventionally delivered the service. So the load is not too heavy on any customer service person at any given time. Another neat feature of in-app messaging is the ability to assign a conversation to another team member easily and to offer internal notes that only the business side can see. All of the public conversations on a user’s account, however, are visible to both the customer and the business representative. So any new person jumping in on a conversation can see what’s been discussed.
In-app messaging like Nudgespot takes advantage of giving customers the ability to have conversations with businesses at a low cost and with a great user experience. It’s one solution for customer onboarding, engagement and support.
Nudgespot says “there is no reason why businesses should be restricted from having a conversation with their customers and visitors.” They say that is why they offer no or low cost solutions because high costs are demotivating for businesses with smaller budgets. They discourage them from joining the in-app messaging game.
Image: Nudgespot
[“source-smallbiztrends”]