Even before the pandemic, 92 percent of consumers chose their smartphone as their primary device for customer service.
Perhaps this is no surprise. After all, it has been 16 years since the advent of the iPhone.
Yet, in all that time, many of the same pain points still irritate customers as they interact brands on their mobile devices.
For instance, they cannot simply escalate a phone call to a video to show a live assistant a visual of the problem they are facing.
Then, there are other issues. Contact forms that offer no contact information, multimedia content that auto-plays, and – of course – those hopeless bots that pop up with no connection to the customer’s intent.
Thankfully, new technologies are emerging to make smartphone experiences even more convenient and powerful for consumers.
Companies have never been in a better position to leverage the power of smartphones for enhanced customer experiences, and software vendors have introduced various robust solutions to explore.
4 CX Solutions for Next-Gen Smartphone Experiences
Here are five excellent examples of how businesses may leverage Guided CX solutions to maximize the power of smartphones and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
1. Cobrowsing
Co-browsing solutions are one of the most valuable, – and underutilized –forms of visual engagement companies can implement into their CX strategies.
With the right technology, agents can join a shared browsing experience with partners, customers, and prospects, ensuring everyone can access the same visual insights and information.
Also, cobrowsing allows representatives to deliver an experience to customers similar to being in the same room with a professional, without the need for expensive travel.
2. Mobile App Sharing
Mobile app-sharing solutions allow customer service agents and sales professionals to share behind-the-scenes insights with customers and vice versa.
Mobile app sharing helps agents to deliver in-app customer support, provide intuitive onboarding experiences, and even enjoy customized training.
Some platforms even allow users to access app-sharing tools alongside video and audio communications for a more convenient, streamlined interaction.
3. Mobile Camera Sharing
Video is everywhere in the mobile world – except, oddly, CX. Not only does video allow for convenient face-to-face interactions, but it can also unlock other opportunities for customer service too.
Enter mobile camera sharing. It allows customers to point their camera at something, so the agent sees it too, giving them the necessary context to resolve many issues much faster.
Moreover, camera sharing tools allow agents to visually identify customers during account creation and purchasing processes, minimizing the risk of security issues.
4. Screen Sharing
Companies can leverage screen-sharing solutions to provide customers with a step-by-step demonstration of how a product or solution works during a sale.
Screen-sharing sessions can even be automatically logged into company CRM systems to help businesses collect valuable information about the customer journey.
However, the critical piece here is choosing a secure solution, which hides potentially sensitive data when the agent shares their screen. That should be top of mind for smart service operations.
Building These Solutions into Customer Journeys
Consider this statistic: the average time spent on mobile apps was four hours and 48 minutes per day in 2022, up 30 percent from 2019. That is a significant jump, which will continue to drive up the value of the solutions above.
Nevertheless, successful customer experience deployments often require significant planning.
As such, here are some excellent steps companies can follow to improve their chances of success in the mobile CX landscape.
1. Understand Customer Preferences
As more people use smartphones as computers to store information, search the web, and complete transactions – many new customer engagement use cases come to the fore.
However, businesses must avoid implementing a new channel or solution just for the sake of it.
Instead, understanding the balance between what customers want and the business’s ability to deliver remains mission-critical.
The best mobile apps and customer service experiences are designed by people who understand the needs of their target audience. They address specific needs and pain points.
With this in mind, before companies start designing new customer journeys, they should engage in customer research, create a set of customer commitments, and move forward from there.
2. Build Strategies Around Common Customer Intents
Understand what drives customer demand – perhaps with the help of conversational analytics tools – and note the most prominent customer contact reasons.
First, fix the root causes upstream or give customers the tools to solve their issues autonomously.
If that’s not possible, consider the processes agents follow to solve the problem and how the above solutions may enhance their – and the customer’s – experience.
Then, build on the existing contact center journey – using customer preference research – and create a strategy that sets out how customers can easily access the ideal channel for resolving their issue.
Amazon does this exceptionally well, recommending different routes for customers on their website when encountering various problems.
3. Humanize the Experience
One of the reasons customers are rapidly embracing mobile customer service solutions is that they want a more convenient, streamlined way to interact with businesses.
However, just because clients wish for a more straightforward service delivered on the channel of their choice doesn’t mean they want formulaic experiences.
Indeed, 78 percent of customers are actively looking for more human interactions with brands.
With this in mind, enterprises should constantly look for ways to make interactions more human and connected.
Guided CX, which includes cobrowsing, screen share, and video, is often appealing for this reason, allowing agents to provide personalized guidance to customers and streamline their journey.
Delve Deeper into Smartphone-Driven Customer Experiences
Glance, a Guided CX vendor, recently presented a webinar showcasing how companies can power omnichannel Guided CX across web and mobile.
In it, Jill Newberg, VP of Product Marketing, highlights how brands can meet customer needs in the moment and in context to bolster sales, customer onboarding, and issue resolution. View the webinar here.
