The concept of video chatting has become so embedded in our everyday lives that we no longer realize its value. The rapid introduction of such technologies has opened a vast area of imagination and companies are trying to keep up the pace. The success of online shopping has been growing, with 41% of global Internet users having purchased products online in 2013 (Statista, 2013).
In accordance with Murphy (2016), one of the main concerns of online shoppers is the lack of employees who could offer support and answer questions via the web in real time with precision. Adding the live chat feature to websites has proved to add significant benefits to customers by providing convenient answers, which in turn improves a company’s performance.
The live video chat feature takes online shopping to another level; especially with product lines like skin care, makeup, and beauty. Such products – while may be ordered online – are mostly bought from stores, especially when buying new brands or items for the first time. Enthusiastic customers want to consult specialists and curious shoppers ask for details. Therefore, this stage requires that customers be in store. However, being able to complete this phase while still being at home will undoubtedly be successful in such a technological age.
Such software naturally will be costly, especially when considering international chains who have millions of customers worldwide. Nonetheless, this may be compensated when considering the possible benefits. For instance, sales are anticipated to heavily increase. This is because such services, which may be initially used out of curiosity, are likely to prompt need recognition in customers. Not only will the service sell new products to existing customers, it will also be the tool to translate online activity and traffic to offline sales. This also adds a new dimension to the customer shopping experience that is not commonly found amongst other stores; the comfort of a live, informative shopping experience in your living room (Ripton, 2016). The added feature will also enable experts to offer the right advice by virtually looking at the customer and assessing their product needs according to skin tone, skin type, and facial structure. Innovative businesses are using these interactive services to improve service levels and reduce operating costs, increase customer conversion and transaction values.
For example, SightCall is the leading global cloud platform transforming industries with live video and adding rich communications to businesses accessible with a single touch (SightCall, 2017). The feature SightCall brings a human touch to an online business, which may be especially important in sales. According to their website, this improvement in customer service increases customer satisfaction, improves customer loyalty, increases conversion rates, and ultimately, makes more money.
When considering a smaller sized business than an International brand, the resources required decrease significantly, which make this feature all the more feasible. And while providing these live interactive services requires more than just video chat technology in terms of needing a comprehensive system to run every aspect of video chat services, it can essentially be controlled (Bitner, Ostrom and Meuter, 2002). However, as mentioned earlier, this will be a gateway for businesses such as Sephora into a newer and bigger customer base. For smaller business, it will be a tool for improving service quality.
Although this improved feature could be very beneficial for companies, one of its possible limitations is technological barriers such as network disruptions and loss of signal. Although it is always better to offer beauty consultation sessions in person, doing it through a computer screen via the web could lead to a less satisfying user experience due to slow Internet speeds and poor connectivity. Adding these features also means that the company would have to incur extra costs related to purchasing servers to accommodate to the large customer base. According to Tony Zhao, CEO of Agora.io,
“The big problem for easy, hassle-free embedding of real-time communications within Internet-based applications is the lack of quality of experience (QoE). If connections are unreliable, voices keep cutting out, and video images break up, then people will not use these embedded real-time capabilities.”
This just shows how important it is to weight the pros and cons of installing such a feature. What do you think are other possible limitations?
Keep an eye out for my next post on the remaining possible limitations of introducing live video chat customer service.
Reference List:
Bitner, M.J., Ostrom, A.L. and Meuter, M.L. (2002) Implementing successful self-service technologies. The Academy of Management Executive, 16(4).
Ripton, J. (2016) 5 Reasons Why Live Video Chat Is Untapped Potential For Your Business. [online] Digitalist Magazine. Available at: http://www.digitalistmag.com/digital-economy/2016/02/23/5-reasons-why-live-video-chat-is-untapped-potential-for-your-business-04030707 [Accessed 13 Apr. 2017]
SightCall – Video Assistance Reinvented (2017) YouTube.
Statista (2017) E-commerce Worldwide – Statistics & Facts. [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/871/online-shopping/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2017]
how to use that app? is that available on ios?