Knowing what your customers want is crucial to delivering an exceptional mobile experience. Millennials, who have the highest purchasing power, value timely service through their preferred channels. They favor self-service over waiting in call queues and prioritize ease of use and seamless experiences.
This means your customers expect a first-class mobile customer experience. With this in mind, adjust your customer service strategies to enhance the experience for mobile-savvy customers.
How Can Businesses Improve Customer Service Experience Through Smartphones?
Mobile devices are rapidly becoming the primary way people access the Internet, potentially replacing laptops and desktops. Pew Research shows that 91% of U.S. adults own a mobile phone, with over half using their phones to go online. Due to its widespread use and real-time convenience, mobile is a disruptive technology that customer service providers must address immediately.
Here are tips to better connect with your mobile customers:
1. Check That Your Content Is Conveniently Readable on a Smartphone
With limited space on mobile screens, businesses need to make sure their customer-facing content works.
Here are some best practices:
- Simplify content to minimize scrolling.
- Highlight key information in bold.
- Include text with images and videos since not all mobile devices are smartphones.
2. Support Omnichannel Service
When enhancing your mobile customer experience, it’s easy to focus solely on your mobile app—how users will navigate it and accomplish their tasks. But remember, your mobile experience also includes customer support, which can often be overlooked.
Here’s how customers can connect with your company via mobile:
- Live Chat: 51% of consumers are more likely to make repeat purchases from companies that offer live chat support. When done right, live chat provides a sense of human connection and shows that someone genuinely cares. It also gives agents access to customers’ purchase history and previous communications, reducing repetitive questions and enabling quicker, more effective solutions.
- Texting: Customers prefer texting for service because it’s faster, more convenient than calling, less frustrating, and allows them to request callbacks or text responses.
- Social Media: Quick responses are crucial on social media—42% of consumers expect a reply within an hour. Surprisingly, customers are twice as likely to recommend a brand that responds quickly (even if the response isn’t perfect) over one that responds slowly but effectively.
3. Don’t Overload Your Customer Communication Channels
A big problem with companies is that they push a lot of advertising, send dozens of notifications daily, and are pushy in every possible way. If you don’t have an individual or highly valuable offer, don’t send a notification. Also, create a notification schedule that won’t burden users but will keep you top of mind.
If a company keeps sending a lot of notifications or constantly calling, what happens? Soon, users will launch a mobile cleaner and delete the app. Yes, an iPhone cleaner app is a kind of yardstick. If your app retains value for the user, it will stay on the device. If you don’t know how to clean up your iPhone, go to the App Store and install the app. It optimizes the device’s internal memory. Do this every 1-2 weeks to keep the smartphone running smoothly.
4. Ensure Ease of Use
Remember, a seamless mobile customer experience goes beyond just your app. It’s about offering responsive and efficient support across all mobile channels.
Offer your customers a mobile app that makes account management hassle-free. With features like click-to-call support, photo submissions, and location-based services that direct them to the nearest service center or send help, convenience is at their fingertips.
Make the most-used functions easy to access, requiring no more than three taps. Include start/stop and easy edit features, allowing users to save their progress and return later if interrupted by time constraints, low battery, or other issues. This way, they can pick up right where they left off without any frustration.
5. Create More Informal, Conversational
Customers often use their smartphones to connect with friends through social media and messaging apps throughout the day. They expect the same type of informal, conversational interaction when they reach out to your team through your app.
Supporting customers via smartphones lets them contact your team as soon as an issue arises, so your agents should be prepared to handle potentially more animated or frustrated customers. Your team should adopt a personalized, conversational tone, whether they are engaging via voice or live chat.
A friendly, informal approach doesn’t detract from the customer experience; it can boost satisfaction and strengthen relationships. Aligning your support interactions with the informal nature of smartphone communication will meet customer expectations and reinforce their overall experience.
6. Work on Mobile SEO
Google’s Research report revealed a staggering 500% increase in mobile searches over the past two years.
Your customers won’t always reach out directly for support. Instead, they’ll often search the web for answers and information. Ensure your online presence not only provides support but also attracts new customers comparing products and services before making purchasing decisions.
7. Build Your Mobile App
When designed with the user in mind, an app experience can be truly seamless.
With just a swipe, your customers should be able to accomplish almost anything they need. Mobile apps are also ideal for gathering key marketing data—like location, purchase history, and demographics—so you can tailor your strategies and improve the customer experience.
But simply having a mobile app isn’t enough. A stellar app experience is built on customer feedback. Make sure you give users plenty of opportunities to share what they want from the app.
This feedback shouldn’t be limited to surveys—make conversations with your customers the norm! They are often more than willing to share insights that months of market research can’t provide—you just need to ask and create those connections.
8. Offers 24/7 Support
In an emergency, you need to be reachable immediately. Depending on your company’s communication needs, consider setting up a 24/7 emergency support line.
Some companies automate this process with chatbots, which can be effective. However, if you really want to stand out, offer human call agents who can provide personalized assistance for urgent requests. This approach not only increases the likelihood of resolving issues but also helps calm anxious clients, leading to happier, more loyal customers.
The best part? With an advanced phone system, your on-call agents aren’t tied to their desks 24/7. They can maintain flexibility while still delivering top-notch service.
9. Shortcut to Find Important Information
Whether you have a mobile app or a mobile-friendly website, always highlight your customer service links prominently. Make these links accessible with one tap so customers can reach your support team effortlessly. In the mobile era, convenience and speed are crucial. A single-tap customer service link can significantly enhance your customer experience.
10. Implement Mobile Self-service Support
Many customers prefer finding answers themselves rather than contacting customer service. Making it easy to find those answers improves their digital experience.
Even with the latest large-screen devices, user experience can be challenging when users search for FAQs, photos, pricing, product descriptions, and other essential information.
A smooth self-service experience is crucial to improving mobile customer satisfaction. Otherwise, you risk losing customers to brands that prioritize mobile optimization. Here are some tips:
- Simplify Navigation: Whether in-app or on your mobile landing page, make sure navigation is straightforward and intuitive.
- Optimize Images: Reduce file sizes to ensure quick loading without compromising image quality.
- Align with the Customer Journey: Identify touchpoints and potential obstacles, and offer support whenever and wherever needed.
11. Ensure Convenient Information Exchange
Smartphones can greatly simplify information sharing with your team. When your contact center software supports smartphone features, customers can easily snap photos, take screenshots, or verify their identity with a fingerprint scanner. This not only streamlines information transfer but also empowers your team to quickly identify and resolve customer issues.
For instance, if a customer reports a damaged product, they can send pictures of the issue instead of describing it over the phone. This reduces the effort required from the customer and minimizes the need for follow-up questions, helping agents resolve issues faster. With all the necessary information readily available, the average interaction time can decrease significantly.
Platforms like UJET also let customers verify using smartphones. Customers can link their fingerprint scanner to their account, making identity verification quick and easy. This eliminates the need to remember specific account details or security questions, such as a favorite book or password, improving the overall customer experience.
Conclusion
With endless options available, customers won’t tolerate confusing or frustrating mobile interactions. Poor mobile experiences make customers 62% less likely to return. Conversely, a well-designed mobile experience can attract new customers, strengthen existing relationships, and boost overall satisfaction.
Although many companies are considering improving phone-based customer service, not all have taken action. The sooner you recognize the value of smartphone users and the need to serve them, the sooner you will increase your income and customer base. Try not to overload your communication channels, be friendly and open to communication with any messengers and services, and also provide comfortable surfing on your platform – these are the surest ways to make significant progress.
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