Photo by Petr Macháček on UnsplashA new age of commerce
Throughout this difficult time of lock-downs and quarantine, doing business the traditional-physical way has become increasingly problematic.
In order for a business to survive it must adapt, and in the same way that we have learnt to socialise online, smart business owners are moving online to meet this new age of commerce.
Customer Service – the missing ingredient
One of the biggest setbacks for online business… The “missing ingredient” so to speak, is a lack of customer service.
Having a physical store with no staff – where customers have no choice but to self-service, would be a horrible experience.
…So why would we expect that experience to be any better online?
The team at My-Designer have come up with a solution, which when you think about it… seems obvious.
What if you could greet your customers the old fashioned way, with friendly, smiling, here-to-help sales staff.
Convenience and communication is key
With live audio, video, and text chat on your website, customers can easily interact with your business in a way that feels comfortable and natural.
At a time when we are being encouraged to “work from home”, isolate, and social distance – Clients can come to your website to ask questions, get recommendations, attend appointments… just like they would have done in person.
So… What’s the solution?
There are many options when it comes to live chat on your website, but we wanted to take it one step further by offering voice, video, and 2-way screen sharing directly from our website… without the need to create accounts or install extra software.
Our weapon of choice is a single application developed by our Partners at Tawk.to, that does all this and more.
Tawk.to chat widget
Visitors
Can initiate a chat from your website or mobile apps
Once installed on your website, the tawk.to application adds a fully customisable chat widget to the front end of your website, just like the one you see here on our website at the bottom right corner.
From here customers can initiate a live text chat, or call us via video/audio in their browser, whatever feels more comfortable.
We have ours set to ask for the customer’s name and email address prior to sending a message or making a call. This makes any future communication much easier, allowing us to convert conversations into support tickets that are directly emailed to the customer and can be updated simply by replying to the email.
Video and Audio calls are as easy as clicking on the relevant icon and can be initiated by either the agent or customer. The inclusion of two-way screen sharing is invaluable when you need to show something on the screen.
The quality is spectacular, crystal clear audio and video, and next to no lag when screen sharing.
Agents
You can answer questions from the dashboard or apps
The admin dashboard
This is where the real magic happens. When a customer requests a chat, Agents who have the native app on their smartphone, or a logged in to the admin dashboard will receive a ringing notification indicating a customer is waiting.
The admin dashboard is well organised, with the ability to monitor website users in real-time, initiate chats, create support tickets, and a whole bunch of other features that I’ll list below.
27 Languages
Javascript API
Froup Messaging
Video & Voice
Agent > Agent Messaging
Screen Sharing
Desktop Notifications
1880+ Emoji
Geo IP Tracking
Unlimited Agents
Track Sentiment
Unlimited History
Track Engagement
Detailed Reporting
Ban/Unban Visitors
Agent Alerts
Aliases
Departments
File Transfer
Tags
Attention Bubble
Domain Restriction
Scheduler
Mail Notifications
Message Filtering
High Load Dashboard
Secure Encryption
Custom Tabs
Message sneak-peek
Visitor Information
In-Chat Payments (beta)
Automated Translation (beta)
The Bottom Line
Tawk.to have re-defined what it is to use a website for business communication.
With their free offerings of live chat and support email ticket system you simply can’t go wrong.
Although voice/video chat is only available for a fee, in our books it is a worthwhile investment, and ties together a complete customer service system.
Overall we rate the tawk.to application a solid 10 out of 10 stars.
It is truly leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, and a complete package worth integrating into your online workplace.
We find it invaluable for our daily business operations.
Making the internet a place for business
I’d like to leave you with a final thought…
Working from home can be a blessing or a curse.
Compared to the ridiculous rental prices being charged by shopping centres and commercial landlords, you can expect a much greater return on investment when it comes to driving customers to your online work-place
Don’t wait until it’s too late to shift gears. Contact us at My-Designer to find out more.
