How to Create Winning Customer Experiences with Employee Engagement Strategies

Posted on by marketing

How to Create Winning Customer Experiences with Employee Engagement Strategies

Happy Team, Happy Customers

Guest Author: Heather Younger, Customer Fanatix Founder & CEO

Which comes first: the employee or the customer? This is a constant question that businesses of all sizes face as they struggle to balance employee and customer needs. There are plenty of arguments to be made in favor of putting the customer first every time. After all, without customers that are ready and willing to buy, it is impossible to support and maintain a business and the employees that serve that business. Supports of this mentality believe that businesses should focus 100% of efforts on delighting customers if they stand any chance of being successful.

However, we have all heard the “Employee first, customer second” philosophy on growing and maintaining a flourishing business. Supporters of this philosophy believe that companies should put employees first in all situations, and the rest will fall into place.

Why does employee engagement matter to my customers?

 

My personal experiences in employee engagement have shown me that an effective employee experience strategy directly affects the customer experience. When my clients want to transform their customer experience, they often list off well-known companies that are praised for excellent customer experiences and ask what they can do to achieve the same results.

 

When I get these types of questions, my answer often surprises clients: It’s very exciting that you’re prepared to move forward with a customer experience strategy, but let’s take a look at your employee experience strategy first.  Continue reading “How to Create Winning Customer Experiences with Employee Engagement Strategies” →

How to Maximize the Latest SnapEngage Updates

Posted on by marketing

How to Maximize the Latest SnapEngage Updates

At SnapEngage, we’re constantly finding new ways to improve the user experience and drive customer engagement forward. With that, we’re proud to share with you a quick round-up of some of our latest product updates, as well as tips to make the most of each within your organization. Check ’em out!

New Minimized Chat View

We’ve recently applied a new minimized view of the chat for enhanced end-user experience. When the chat is minimized, visitors now see the agent’s avatar displayed along with a preview of the agent’s message(s). A message ticker count will also display beside the agent avatar. Learn more about minimized view improvements here.

 

Tip for Sucesss: This feature will soon be implemented automatically on all SnapEngage accounts, but you can still take advantage of this update now. Just head over to your Admin Dashboard’s “Design Studio” tab, and click “Save Changes” to implement the new minimized view on your account. Also, consider your agent photos carefully when choosing them. They provide an easy way to add a human element to the chat experience. Check out these tips to choose effective agent photos.  Continue reading “How to Maximize the Latest SnapEngage Updates” →

Release notes for June 5th: A new minimized chat view and message preview

Posted on by Niki Finegan

Hi everyone,

Some exciting updates to share with you today:

We applied a new minimized view of the chat and updated message notifications! We now show the picture of the agent and a preview of the message if the agent replies:

Other Updates:

  • Related to this update you can now also select to ‘Show No Button’ in the Design Studio -> Online Button tab. (Previously this was only available on the Offline Button tab.) This way you can make the chat available only on proactive prompt.
    Our next upcoming feature is going to be a setting to enable this new minimized view for the proactive chat, to have a smaller, more subtle chat invite. Contact us if you want to be notified about this feature!
  • The mobile image button image size is now automatically reduced in size by 40% to fit better with mobile screens.
  • Improved automatically removing Facebook Messenger connections (beta feature)

Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed a bug in the call-me configuration where not all country flags and pre-dials appeared automatically.
  • Fixed a non-severe security issue, where a visitor could self-XSS themselves through the chat box.

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7 Mistakes to Avoid in SMS Customer Support

Posted on by marketing

7 Mistakes to Avoid in SMS Customer Support

Avoid these common pitfalls to deliver top-notch SMS customer support

Guest Author:  Alexa Lemzy, Customer Support & Content Manager

 

Text is one of the most popular forms of communication. When you think about it, there are many reasons why. It doesn’t require an internet connection like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. It doesn’t even require a smartphone, most any kind of cell phone has the ability to send and receive texts. Even when cell phone reception is weak, texts can still get through. And once they do get through, they’re usually opened within 3 minutes.

 

phone-whiter-1All of these reasons also make text an excellent channel for customer service. Businesses can reach a wider range of customers more quickly and efficiently, and they can offer clients the luxury of instant customer support via a preferred communication channel.

 

That being said, there are good ways and bad ways to use text for customer support. Time zone snafus, messaging clients who haven’t opted in, giving long-winded explanations via text and other no-no’s can all lead to frustrating customer experiences – rather than successful resolution of issues and inquiries.

Here are the top 7 mistakes to avoid when using SMS for customer support:

Continue reading “7 Mistakes to Avoid in SMS Customer Support” →

How to Craft a Unified Customer Experience Using Design Studio

Posted on by marketing

Take your brand’s chat experience to
the next level with our Design Studio.

Contributors: Abby Schmautz, Kent Riggs

Have you had a chance to get your hands on our new Design Studio yet? (Or, are you sitting there thinking, what’s that? If so, we’d encourage you to check out this previous blog post to get up to speed before diving in here). 

As many of our clients are quickly discovering, the Design Studio (released in January) provides an array of opportunities to unify your entire customer experience and ensure that live chat plays a seamless role within that experience. It’s more important than ever for companies to create compelling brand experiences if they want to stay relevant in today’s landscape, which is why our team has worked tirelessly to bring you the Design Studio.

But, why is branding so important?

As industries become saturated with competition, each component of the user experience plays a key role in ensuring that companies stand out and get noticed. While first impression may start with a name or logo, the other elements of the user interaction (such as live chat!) all work together to continue shaping this initial impression. Branding is no longer limited to a single element of design such as a snazzy logo. It’s become a top-to-bottom experience. We’ve witnessed the emergence of two camps of brand identification — both identified by the “out-of-the-box” approach in name, but with very different meanings.

Continue reading “How to Craft a Unified Customer Experience Using Design Studio” →

New Analytics Enhancements Provide Better Reporting

Posted on by Niki Finegan

Learn more about how our enhanced,
events-based live chat analytics
produce even more precise reporting.

SnapEngage clients may have noticed some recent updates to the Analytics section in the Admin Dashboard. In short, we’ve added some new reports and made improvements to give you more consistent, reliable and accurate data in your reports.

Here’s a breakdown of the new Analytics enhancements:

New data sources for response time reporting

Our new reporting method breaks out actual agent response times from wait and queue times to provide a more accurate representation of the true causes behind visitor wait times.

Prior to the recent updates, we were using time stamps on chat transcripts in the database to determine response times. We came to realize that there were some shortcomings with this approach. Agent response times, in particular, weren’t always telling the complete story. In effect, agents could be unnecessarily penalized for factors outside of their control, such as behind-the-scenes actions (i.e. routing, agent availability checks) and queued chats.

The new reporting method logs a series of events in the chat timeline that allows for more detailed and precise reporting. The updated agent response time report now also accounts for chat transfer times as well.

Continue reading “New Analytics Enhancements Provide Better Reporting” →

Optimizing Your SnapEngage Live Chat + HubSpot Integration

Posted on by Niki Finegan

Does your integration strategy
deliver maximum value?
SnapEngage-HubSpot_integration-logos-1

Here are 7 ways to optimize your efforts.

You spend a lot of time and energy attracting the right eyeballs to your website, and once you fish those leads in (fingers crossed), your strategically placed CTAs send visitors down the appropriate conversion paths. Chances are there’s a lead capture form at the end of each of these trails, and that’s all great!

The HubSpot Marketing and HubSpot CRM platforms give you all the tools you need to generate leads and manage your pipeline, but there’s a key piece in the middle that requires special focus – talking to your prospects. All conversions start with a conversation, and that’s where live chat fills a critical gap in your marketing and sales processes. Use these 7 tips to ensure you’re making the most out of the SnapEngage + HubSpot integration.  Continue reading “Optimizing Your SnapEngage Live Chat + HubSpot Integration” →

Feature Release: SnapEngage Design Studio Available Now

Posted on by marketing

Feature Release: SnapEngage Design Studio Available Now

Elevate and Enhance Your Brand with Powerful New Chat Design Tools

Your brand is important. It’s unique. It’s not (nor should it be) confined to a singular image, color, pattern, or name. At SnapEngage, we truly believe the user experience is a culmination of a company’s earnest, varied efforts across all touchpoints large and small – and this includes perception of your brand. We’ve now made it easier than ever to tailor the chat experience to your brand with the recent unveiling of the SnapEngage Design Studio. This exciting new release infuses our customization options with powerful new design tools to help you fully customize your brand’s chat experience.

Continue reading “Feature Release: SnapEngage Design Studio Available Now” →

4 Ways to Keep Remote Teams Connected

Posted on by snapengagestaff

Out of sight, out of mind?

Written by Jasmin Rosenboom, SnapEngage Sales
With contributions from Kent Riggs, SnapEngage Sales

The best teams are happy, motivated, and productive. They get there by being connected, consistent, and using clear internal communication. Yet how do we ensure our teams are working cohesively with the unique challenges that remote, modern work environments present? We’ve touched on the importance of autonomy in the workplace and the value of knowing the other teams in your organization. Let’s dive into a challenging dynamic that our team encounters on a daily basis: building a company with two international, remote teams. At first glance this element poses immense difficulties, but ultimately it has infused our company with diversity and strength.

Working with remote teams poses unique challenges – there’s no getting around that. Team SnapEngage is separated by half the globe (with offices in Boulder, CO, USA and Berlin, Germany), in addition to employees often working remotely in other locations while visiting clients. Over the last eight years, we’ve learned how to ensure your co-workers across the pond don’t stray out of mind even though they may be out of sight.

remote-teams1

Continue reading “4 Ways to Keep Remote Teams Connected” →

Take Advice from a Pro for a Winning Sales Chat Strategy

Posted on by wpengine

Navigating Sales
with Help from Hitch

Contributed by Kent Riggs, SnapEngage Sales

In this blog post I’m going to teach you how to be Will Smith. Ok, not actually Will Smith… but his character in the movie Hitch. If you happened to catch this 2005 flick you’ll remember Smith’s character is a tactful dating coach that facilitates manufactured serendipity. Much to the delight of his clients, he employs surefire tactics to woo the lady of their dreams no matter how many left feet they possess. Hitch crafts situations to paint his clients in a favorable light, and it works!

I’ll let you in on a little secret… sales is a bit like dating. It’s an old analogy that still holds true. It takes tact, attention to detail, and consistently staying ahead of the curve to win business in this crazy competitive environment. But if you go for the first kiss (or sale) too soon you’re going to get slapped! SnapEngage gives you amazing Hitch-like powers to make your customers feel like you are the only ones for them.

hitch-dance-lesson-oCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Continue reading “Take Advice from a Pro for a Winning Sales Chat Strategy” →