Right now, consumers, overwhelmed with worry about loved ones, financial pressures and keeping the ‘new normal’ going are relying more than ever before on online shopping. What are the 2 things that can help them?
1.) A personalised, human touch online
2.) A simple, easy, stress-free search and shopping experience
It’s time to personalise, humanise and simplify.
Help me. Your customer is overwhelmed
As we know, consumer confidence is the outlook that consumers have towards the economy and their own personal financial situation. This outlook can be optimistic (high consumer confidence) or pessimistic (low consumer confidence). The level of consumer confidence will be an important factor that determines the willingness of consumers to spend, borrow and save. More than ever, due to ongoing micro and macro uncertainty caused by Covid-19, your customer is looking to be understood and have their needs met quickly and efficiently online. Consumers are looking for help and content from a trusted source. If your company can’t provide the guidance they need, quickly and without overwhelming them, they’ll look elsewhere, and consequently buy elsewhere.
Whether information gathering, purchasing a service or subscription, or buying products, choice overload or a shortage of specific products both cause consumers to feel stressed and overwhelmed. The ability to survive and even flourish during Covid-19 online hinges on your ability to understand a shopper’s pain points and make “yes decisions” easier for your target market.
1.) See me. Your customer is seeking the human touch online.
Whilst it has always been important for retailers to humanise their online presence, it becomes particularly crucial during a time in which consumers are physically unable to create face-to-face connections and where in store advisors are no longer available to counsel, advise and provide reassurance when purchasing.
Until now, customers have been completely fluid in the choices of channels they choose to interact with, but Covid-19 and the subsequent restrictions are driving those who would often choose in store as their preferred channel, online.
At the heart of every great online user journey is an intuitive experience and conversational search and personalised recommendations. Smart questions, words or images – setting out not only WHAT the customer is searching for, but also the MINDSET they’re in. The aim is to segment the product category by a customer’s personalised needs and then, perhaps even more importantly, summarise their preferences and relay them back for absolute clarity.
It’s hardly revolutionary to say that personalising customer experiences typically improves sales and loyalty, but implementing intelligent guided selling online as a priority during the coronavirus outbreak helps retailers and brands to quickly achieve the holy grail of both personalisation and relevance – using customer and real time data to get it right every time.
See them, ask them, show them you know them.
2.) Make it EASY for me. Your customer expects a simple, easy, stress-free shopping experience
Businesses that transform and refine online decision-making into a simpler, more personalised process and who shift product orientation online towards customer led, decision simplicity, and ensure that people can move through the purchasing journey with confidence are the ones that will prosper during Covid-19; increasing sales and gaining loyal, happy customers. There has never been a better, or more pressing time to simplify the ‘choosing process’ by helping your customers select the solution that’s right for them.
Implementing Intelligent Guided Selling is the fastest and most effective way to create a easy, stress free and personalised user journey, whatever your product or service. IGS allows you to become a consumer friendly ‘digital advisor’ and is the ultimate way to simplify the decision-making process. Asking your customers key questions and then providing personalised insights into what they might want to buy. Improving the customer experience by allowing them to bypass irrelevant products and services, with the added bonus of integrating known preferences and information about previous purchasing decisions is the
Why IGS is so important, during Covid-19 and beyond…
Intelligent Guided Selling, there are three objectives to a brilliant IGS
- To build rapport with the customer
- To segment the offer based on customer needs using conversational search
- To present the real time relevant personalized recommendations in the best way that resonates with the shopper mindset.
Our customers have seen double digit increases in conversion, and dramatically increased engagement rates, and bigger basket sizes.
Talk to us about quickly and simply implementing guided selling into your online presence today by filling in our Covid-19 response form, here. Conversity are a leader in IGS, helping retailers, telcos, brands and services to create incredible, personalised journeys for their customers.
Email us info@conversity.com and we’ll get back to you.
