In an era where boundaries between customers and businesses are continuously digital, the essence of trust is increasingly an important factor for success. The evolution of customer purchasing behavior, shifting from a focus on traditional stores to digital platforms, underpins the reasons why trust is important towards retention and growth. Trust, or its absence, becomes the defining factor shaping customer experiences and the support mechanisms surrounding them.
In the ecommerce space, the prevalence of online scams and data breaches has further made it harder to materialize this. A Baymard Institute report indicates that 17% of online shoppers abandon their carts due to security concerns. Furthermore, PwC’s Consumer Intelligence Series: Protect.me report highlights that 87% of consumers will switch to competitors if they distrust a company’s data handling.
How to Craft a Trustworthy Customer Experience (CX)
At Wasoko, we believe in cultivating a profound and enduring relationship built on trust and reliability with our customers. To achieve this, we have taken deliberate steps in crafting and deploying strategies that besides driving a positive customer experience, also focuses on building a trustworthy relationship with our customers. These strategies and focus areas involve:
- Wasoko App Design and Usability: We continuously focus on improving the user design and experience (UI/UX) of our app. We recognize that in today’s digital landscape, a seamless and intuitive app interface is pivotal in engaging and retaining customers. Statistics reinforce this notion, with Salesforce’s Customer Engagement Research 2022 report revealing that 76% of consumers anticipate and demand consistent experiences across all channels, including apps.
- Transparency and Honesty: Our customer growth team has ensured that the customer is at the center of everything we do. We focus on ensuring everything a customer needs is easily accessible and that there is clear communication. We provide detailed, accurate information about products and delivery time to ensure our customers’ expectations align with the products they receive – offering complete transparency.
- Customer Reviews and Testimonials: Genuine customer reviews, both positive and negative, play a significant role. Wasoko understands why it is important to loop customer feedback from all channels into our process improvement and customer experience optimization exercises. BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2023 showed that 68% of consumers trust reviews more when they see both positive and negative feedback, while 30% suspect inauthenticity in the absence of negative reviews. We consistently strive to improve trust with our customers through conducting testimonials, customer surveys and one-on-one field visits to understand their challenges and address them appropriately.
How do you build customer confidence?
Providing personalized customer support is a crucial aspect of running a successful e-commerce business. Operating in an ecosystem where face-to-face interactions are limited, personalized support becomes even more vital for building strong customer relationships. Key aspects include:
- Quick and Efficient Support: Customers appreciate an effective information flow within the shortest time possible. Wasoko ensures that our customer support agents are trained to ensure they stay knowledgeable, empathetic, and courteous, ensuring that customers receive accurate and helpful assistance. In addition, implementing the right customer relationship management (CRM) tools has enabled Wasoko to maintain a personalized and tailored customer experience. Leveraging automation technology also enhances personalization, such as using chatbots to provide instant responses and personalized recommendations based on the customer data we collect.
- Multiple Channels of Support: It is important to offer customers diversity that caters to different preferences in terms of channels through which they can contact the support team. With 60% of consumers expecting their interaction history to be accessible across channels, as per NICE inContact, we have focused on building an omni-channel contact center that allows the customer support agents to have visibility of all the historical interactions and resolutions of the customers they interact with.
- Social Media Display: E-commerce businesses need to showcase their services to customers through social media. This influences their purchasing decisions through building credibility and trust of the services it provides. To improve customers’ trust, Wasoko showcases its positive reviews, ratings, testimonials, and user-generated content, to demonstrate that its products and services have been tried, tested, and approved by real customers. It also creates a sense of reliability and reassurance, as potential buyers see that others have had positive experiences with the brand.
In conclusion, building trust is essential for winning customer confidence from a customer experience and support perspective. It requires a multifaceted approach that encompasses various aspects of an e-commerce business. From establishing credibility and reliability through transparent product information to ensuring security and privacy for customer data, every interaction and transaction should be built on a foundation of trust. E-commerce businesses that prioritize trust not only gain a competitive edge but also foster long-lasting relationships with their customers. In an ever-evolving digital landscape, where countless options are just a click away, trust becomes the differentiating factor that sets businesses apart and ensures their continued growth and success.
Victor plays the pivotal role of Head of Customer Support and Engagement at Wasoko, where he is tasked with upholding the highest standards across all dimensions of customer interaction services. His proficiency is seamlessly integrated into the core of Wasoko’s organizational culture and values, facilitating the cohesive coordination of customer-centric policies, systems, and processes. His keen insight extends to staying attuned to new consumer trends, benchmarking, and enhancing contact experience channels to elevate the overall customer experience. Victor truly embodies a strategy-focused approach, with his finger on the pulse of evolving customer dynamics.
Victor-Eddy Otieno, Head of Customer Support and Engagement.