How do you attend to 40,000 new customers who are knocking on your door every day?

That was the question posed by Jirayut Topp, founder and CEO of Bitkub, at 8x8’s most recent webinar. And, it’s a timely question because the pandemic has put many businesses into a pressure cooker, forcing entrepreneurs to transform digital channels from secondary concerns to the main mode of customer interaction.

The business environment has seen uncanny phenomena over the past year and a half, with some businesses experiencing hyper-growth as a result of mass digitalisation, while others have been faltering. So the million-dollar question is: how can your business fall into the hyper-growth group? And that’s the question that our panel tackled in this webinar.

The webinar’s panelists are no strangers to change. Over the past decade, Etienne Dupont, Senior Director of Business Messaging Solutions at Rakuten Viber, has seen customer service staff adapt from the humble corded telephone to the multi-screen displays that are now indispensable in the accelerated customer service industry. For Viber, the spotlight falls on communications platforms as a service (CPaaS) technology, which has helped them to optimise their communications strategies.

Marc Magnin, Head of Product, CPaaS, at 8x8, elaborated upon the growing popularity and consumer demands for quality customer service and round-the-clock availability. Michael Brandenburg, Analyst at Frost & Sullivan, echoed these sentiments, describing how embeddable communications APIs can expedite customer service workflows and be integrated into business with ease.

The overarching message was clear: customers want to engage with companies that hear them out. Increasingly, people want to make informed purchase decisions, and they won’t part with their money unless they can reach businesses on the other end of the line.

Meeting consumer demand: BitKub’s key to fuss-free hyper-growth

In the short span of three and a half years, Bitkub has positioned itself as the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform in Thailand. Its customer base ballooned by 1000% over the past year, and the founder attributes this success to effective communications in an industry fraught with skepticism. Despite such exponential growth in customers, Bitkub’s early preparation allowed the company to stave off unwanted surges in traffic while simultaneously enabling it to provide consistent, quality service.

From Bitkub's perspective, if you're suffering from an influx of customers dialing in, it really is a symptom of a larger problem—namely, a lack of tools and information to help customers get what they need. Equipping customers with knowledge by way of publishing information on a website that is easy to navigate can do wonders in preventing hotlines from overheating. Apart from localising the website, and aggressively hiring qualified English-speaking customer service to cater to the international market, BitKub’s founder explained that the company also provided service options on the website to match customers types.

This comprehensive level of service minimised the number of customers calling in to request or ask about specific coins, as the company was already ahead of the curve when it came to meeting consumer demand.

Everybody’s happy when the service staff are happy

No matter how comprehensive websites are, customers will still want verbal reassurance before making their purchase. This is why 24/7 availability is critical to drive conversions.

Did you know?

  • 40% of customers expect customer service to respond within an hour, even on weekends
  • Once an hour has passed without a real person getting online via chat or phone, 8 out of 10 say that they would abandon the cart altogether

Embeddable communications APIs can help alleviate that burden in a number of ways.

For one, digital tools like video calls can greatly bump up the human touch factor in customer interactions. Even if the interaction does not result in a purchase, talking to a receptive customer service agent with a pleasant demeanour makes customers more inclined to reach out again—especially after receiving visual confirmation that there will be someone on the other end of the line willing to help resolve their problems. This is not only key to netting new customers, but also to ensuring long term sustainability through customer loyalty.

8x8’s Marc Magnin also spoke about how digitally-powered customer service teams that aren’t overstretched are also more likely to stay at the peak of their game. With so many social media platforms to manage these days, CPaaS tools like 8x8 Connect greatly improve the lives of customer service agents by integrating all communications channels into one convenient touchpoint. This allows businesses to maintain a presence across different channels, while also allowing their service staff to focus on what they should be doing—providing service with a smile.

Viber entertains guests with chat apps

While acknowledging that it is indeed difficult, the webinar panel mused over how businesses can use chat apps to maintain quality service at any time of day. Chat apps like Viber not only allow free-flowing human conversation, but they also provide rich content that people can relate to in the form of videos and emojis. With consumers spending more and more time on their devices, it absolutely makes sense for businesses to get in on the action.

The panel agreed that to keep customers coming back, frictionless customer care is a must-have and chat apps make this possible.

The icing on the cake is that chat apps are also a cost-effective option. With apps like Viber, companies can reach out to new audiences, and communicate better with their existing customers, in a native environment. It’s possible to send targeted offers and promotions that turn prospects into paying customers, and then gain their loyalty over time by building deeper relationships. While the future ahead is indeed uncertain, all signs indicate that chat apps will only get bigger and better in the business world.

Of course, live service staff will always be required to do the heavy lifting—especially for high priority tasks and emergencies. In that sense, chat apps have been proven to be useful during interim periods, working symbiotically with service agents to keep customers informed.

Learn to speak the language of your customers

If you want to learn how to crack the customer experience code, watch the 8x8 webinar. These business leaders share their tips and best practices, and they talk us through how their strategies have bridged communications gaps and kept them ahead of the game.

No time to attend a webinar? See for yourself how 8x8’s embeddable communications and APIs work. It’s the only way to put your best voice forward and transform your customer experience.

Watch our on-demand webinar to gain insights and tips that will win you brand loyalty now, and well into the future.

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