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The concept of ecommerce covers all sales and purchasing of goods or services, as well as the transfer of funds and data, over the Internet. Ecommerce is also referred to simply as “online shopping”. This business environment relies on email, web services, file transfer protocol (FTP), shopping cart systems, and other similar applications.
Over the past several years, ecommerce has experienced rapid growth. As a result, competition among ecommerce sites has become very challenging. To widen their accessibility, provide strong customer support and thus increase sales, growing ecommerce businesses should integrate their web presence with call center solutions.
In these days of extensive mobile phone and social media use, customers expect multi-channel choices for interacting with companies. In addition, many people still prefer human contact to online interaction and value the one-on-one attention provided by call center agents. Also, the benefits of call centers to ecommerce businesses include the possibility to measure and analyze important call center metrics for further customer insight.
Call Center Metrics
Ecommerce businesses should track and analyze call center metrics to provide more focus on customer needs. Analysis of metric can provide insights that lead to both more profitable methods and enhanced customer experience. Businesses need to consider the following call center metrics:
The Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC)
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CAC is the total cost of convincing potential customers to purchase company products or services. This metric allows companies to gauge profitability by comparing CAC to the revenue extracted from customers.
Customer Acquisition Cost can be used to gauge and optimize the return on advertising investment. It is calculated by dividing the total cost of customer acquisition by the number of customers acquired within the marketing period.
The caveats to using this method may arise in the early stages of marketing campaigns, as it takes some time for the full effects of marketing efforts to show. Performing several variations under these circumstances can help account for these changes in CAC results.
Average Handle Time
This metric includes both the average talk time and average after-call work time for each call. Call centers rely on CRM integration to reduce handle times. This software integration allows agents instant access to relevant customer information.
CRM allows agents to improve customer satisfaction by having accurate data available in order to promptly answer questions, thus improving the customer experience as well as shortening handle time.
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First Call Resolution
FCR refers to providing all the information necessary to convert prospects into paying customers during their first call. It is possible to achieve first call resolutions by integrating the ecommerce platform with a particular call center software.
First Call Resolution relies on technological solutions as well as on agents’ interpersonal and emotional skills. In addition, this metric allows for strategic planning of agent training and call center improvements.
Customer Satisfaction Score
Customer Satisfaciton Score provides measurement of how well call centers meet or exceed customer expectation. Customer satisfaction may be described as the percentage of total customers who report their experience with a company, its products, and its services as being satisfactory or exceeding expectations.
Customer feedback is far more important to driving sales and revenue than investing in online marketing. The call center is an ideal place to gather feedback from customers in order to obtain more insight into customer needs.
Net Promoter Score
This is a metric typically associated with high customer satisfaction scores. It reflects the number of customers willing to recommend an ecommerce business or product to others. With all the digital channels available, word-of-mouth marketing has become crucial to ecommerce.
In genral, Net Promoter Score helps ecommerce businesses earn loyal customers and predict customer behavior.
Service Level
This metric refers to the percentage of calls that get answered within a specific time frame. Real-time monitoring of customer service levels provides a measure of current call and contact center performance.
Poor service levels or dramatic fluctuations call for immediate investigation and resolution. Increasing the level of service may require upgraded technologies as well as agent training programs to improve their customer service skills.
Call Center Technology
Ecommerce platforms should be integrated with the call center software. Call center software features beneficial to ecommerce business include the IVR technology that forwards the calls to the right agent based on caller data, as well as enhanced caller ID which provides agents with relevant information about the caller.
Ecommerce websites should include click-to-call and click-to-chat solutions. Click-to-call involves a button, link, or phone number which mobile device users can click on. This prompts the users’ phones to auto-connect to a call center where they can obtain answers and assistance. With click-to-chat, website visitors simply click a button that connects them to live agents available for communication in real-time via text.
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To conclude, ecommerce businesses face firce competition. In order to succeed, ecommerce platforms should be well-integrated with call center solutions. Many customers prefer human connection to online interaction. In addition, call center agents can help gather customer feedback that supplies metrics important to improving customer satisfaction and driving more sales. These metrics include Cost of Customer Acquisition, First Call Resolution, and Service Level scores to determine the impact that agent performance is having on the customer experience. Ecommerce can also benefit from integrated technology solutions such as CRM, and click-to-call or click-to-chat web features that connect customers easily to live agents.
Our Solution
Our company offers a wide range of services in order to help integrate ecommerce platforms with call center solutions. We monitor calls, analyze key metrics and provide technological solutions that best fit your organization’s needs. In addition, we provide extensive agent training based on your agents’ performance scores.
Integrating your ecommerce business with call center solutions enables you to achieve first-class customer service delivery and build long-lasting relationships with your customers. Our aim is to fully develop your organization’s potential as well as provide you with a set of skills and tools for a continuous growth of your business.