Customer service is the backbone of every successful business. The more a business interacts with their customers when they need it, the greater is the customer’s satisfaction, the more positive the publicity and the overall good will. Customers expect quick response to questions and issues they may have regarding products and services they consider buying. Slow response or lack of it may result in vituperative campaigns on social media. For the company, this can be quite devastating in terms of customer loyalty, publicity, sales, and the perception of their brand. A single negative review can snowball across the virtual world literally demolishing the product or the service and the company. With the help of co-browsing technology, companies can take customer service one step further by providing instant live help by allowing customers to engage in person with vendors.

Co-browsing: The Next Big Thing for Customer Service

With co-browsing contact centers, representatives can see and interact with a customer as he or she browses through the website. At the same time, they can also interact with the customer and converse with them through live video chat, text chat, or even a phone call. This type of simultaneous browsing (known as co-browsing) lets representative show customers where to find certain item, how to find certain information, or product and even can help them in completing the shopping process. When relevant, sensitive or personal data can be masked out so representatives cannot see that. According to The Aberdeen Group recent study carried out by the company, co-browsing could easily be the cutting-edge of customer care trends in 2015. The research, presented in the firm’s “Cobrowsing in Customer Service: The Path to Just-in-Time Customer Engagement” report, shows that for companies that use cobrowsing, average revenue per call grew by 3 percent and annual revenue grew by 16.8 percent. For companies that did not use co-browsing, revenue per call dropped by 1.5 percent and annual revenue only grew 9.7 percent.

Finding the Right Co-browsing Software

Co-browsing is still relatively new capability available for companies. Keeping this in mind, customer engagement experts across various domains point out that there are five important points to remember if you are planning to use co-browsing in customer service.

  • Vendors – Not many vendors offer co-browsing solution and even less offer sophisticated co-browsing solutions. In order to maximize ROI, companies need rich in features and capabilities and highly secured solution. Companies need to investigate well the capabilities they be getting before deciding on a specific co-browser they should use.
  • Features – Using just co-browsing is not enough. For the solution to have maximum effect, it must be well integrated in the overall flow and the site of the client. Integration with CRM system such as Salesforce can be beneficial as the representative can review previous conversations and update tickets for future follow up.
  • Implementation – Companies are now starting to add co-browsing capabilities. With the growing need for better customer service, it is expected that companies would start using such tools. Moving early would give organizations an advantage over their competition as there is also element of agents training that is needed to maximize the benefit of such a solution.
  • Uses – Analysts points out that co-browsing can be adapted to almost every part of business. However, it does seem to have increased applications in finance (i.e. banking, insurance), high-ticket items in retail and healthcare. That is due to the magnitude of the transaction where human engagement is critical for clients feeling comfortable enough to proceed with a transaction or usage of a specific service.
  • Choice – The Aberdeen Group’s research paper is quite clear on this point. Co-browsing will be effective in almost every industry. With the right software package and integration, representatives could detect requirements, up-sell, or cross-sell products to ensure improved business.

Conclusion

Real-time features like co-browsing can have positive impact on several organizations online activities. Most experts recommend adding co-browsing as a part of a larger omni-channel customer service department. With co-browsing integrated into their websites, companies can better address customers’ needs for help resulting in lower cart abandonment, more sales and greater customer loyalty while minimizing negative reviews and comments. Simply said, it is a win-win deal for everyone.