Search by Algolia
An introduction to transformer models in neural networks and machine learning
ai

An introduction to transformer models in neural networks and machine learning

What do OpenAI and DeepMind have in common? Give up? These innovative organizations both utilize technology known as transformer models ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

What’s the secret of online merchandise management? Giving store merchandisers the right tools
e-commerce

What’s the secret of online merchandise management? Giving store merchandisers the right tools

As a successful in-store boutique manager in 1994, you might have had your merchandisers adorn your street-facing storefront ...

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer

New features and capabilities in Algolia InstantSearch
engineering

New features and capabilities in Algolia InstantSearch

At Algolia, our business is more than search and discovery, it’s the continuous improvement of site search. If you ...

Haroen Viaene

JavaScript Library Developer

Feature Spotlight: Analytics
product

Feature Spotlight: Analytics

Analytics brings math and data into the otherwise very subjective world of ecommerce. It helps companies quantify how well their ...

Jaden Baptista

Technical Writer

What is clustering?
ai

What is clustering?

Amid all the momentous developments in the generative AI data space, are you a data scientist struggling to make sense ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

What is a vector database?
product

What is a vector database?

Fashion ideas for guest aunt informal summer wedding Funny movie to get my bored high-schoolers off their addictive gaming ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

Unlock the power of image-based recommendation with Algolia’s LookingSimilar
engineering

Unlock the power of image-based recommendation with Algolia’s LookingSimilar

Imagine you're visiting an online art gallery and a specific painting catches your eye. You'd like to find ...

Raed Chammam

Senior Software Engineer

Empowering Change: Algolia's Global Giving Days Impact Report
algolia

Empowering Change: Algolia's Global Giving Days Impact Report

At Algolia, our commitment to making a positive impact extends far beyond the digital landscape. We believe in the power ...

Amy Ciba

Senior Manager, People Success

Retail personalization: Give your ecommerce customers the tailored shopping experiences they expect and deserve
e-commerce

Retail personalization: Give your ecommerce customers the tailored shopping experiences they expect and deserve

In today’s post-pandemic-yet-still-super-competitive retail landscape, gaining, keeping, and converting ecommerce customers is no easy ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

Algolia x eTail | A busy few days in Boston
algolia

Algolia x eTail | A busy few days in Boston

There are few atmospheres as unique as that of a conference exhibit hall: the air always filled with an indescribable ...

Marissa Wharton

Marketing Content Manager

What are vectors and how do they apply to machine learning?
ai

What are vectors and how do they apply to machine learning?

To consider the question of what vectors are, it helps to be a mathematician, or at least someone who’s ...

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer

Why imports are important in JS
engineering

Why imports are important in JS

My first foray into programming was writing Python on a Raspberry Pi to flicker some LED lights — it wasn’t ...

Jaden Baptista

Technical Writer

What is ecommerce? The complete guide
e-commerce

What is ecommerce? The complete guide

How well do you know the world of modern ecommerce?  With retail ecommerce sales having exceeded $5.7 trillion worldwide ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

Data is king: The role of data capture and integrity in embracing AI
ai

Data is king: The role of data capture and integrity in embracing AI

In a world of artificial intelligence (AI), data serves as the foundation for machine learning (ML) models to identify trends ...

Alexandra Anghel

Director of AI Engineering

What are data privacy and data security? Why are they  critical for an organization?
product

What are data privacy and data security? Why are they critical for an organization?

Imagine you’re a leading healthcare provider that performs extensive data collection as part of your patient management. You’re ...

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer

Achieving digital excellence: Algolia's insights from the GDS Retail Digital Summit
e-commerce

Achieving digital excellence: Algolia's insights from the GDS Retail Digital Summit

In an era where customer experience reigns supreme, achieving digital excellence is a worthy goal for retail leaders. But what ...

Marissa Wharton

Marketing Content Manager

AI at scale: Managing ML models over time & across use cases
ai

AI at scale: Managing ML models over time & across use cases

Just a few years ago it would have required considerable resources to build a new AI service from scratch. Of ...

Benoit Perrot

VP, Engineering

How continuous learning lets machine learning  provide increasingly accurate predictions and recommendations
ai

How continuous learning lets machine learning provide increasingly accurate predictions and recommendations

What new data points have you learned lately? Learning is never ending (hence the phrase “lifelong learning”), so chances are ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

Looking for something?

facebookfacebooklinkedinlinkedintwittertwittermailmail

Customer service represents a large piece of any company’s sales and growth strategy. There is no doubt that great customer service has an impressive ROI. According to a recently published Salesforce Research, 89% of customers are more likely to make another purchase, and 78% are willing to do business again after a mistake as a result of a positive customer service experience. 

Corporate spending on customer service teams and support is taking a larger chunk of companies’ budgets every year and spreads among multiple online businesses and industries, such as retail, ecommerce marketplaces, media, SaaS, and social media. Despite the high costs of support, the impacts of bad customer service are significant in their impact on the companies’ profitability. Poor customer service results in 58% of customers willing to switch companies, according to Microsoft’s analysis. Moreover, this number grows to 80% if such experience repeats more than once, based on Zendesk’s report.

Following the massive shift in consumer behavior towards the online space, companies must adapt to the new user behavior and customer expectations in order to stay relevant and optimize their transaction processes and user journeys.

Why invest in self-service customer support?

According to Zendesk’s Customer Experience Trends Report, consumers have a clear preference towards independent problem resolution, with 69% preferring to find support-related information independently. Unfortunately, only one-third of the companies are offering self-service options, such as a knowledge base, to their customers. Adding into the equation the cost of a live help/support service per call, averaging at around $6 according to ICMI analysis, self-service customer support represents a win-win situation for both the customers and the companies.

Customer Support Center: Retail

Online retail companies provide their customers with seamless customer journeys on the site by integrating support-related content into a federated search experience, displaying support banners when users enter customer service-related queries, and having an easily discoverable dedicated support center section on the website.

Redirect to customer support pages on help-related queries for sports & goods retailer: Arc’teryx

When customers on sports retailer Arc’teryx’s ecommerce website enter a query related to customer service and support, they are directed to a dedicated support page, eliminating the need to spend time browsing the website.

 

 

 

Support banners in search for electronics desktop: PC Componentes

Spanish electronics website PC Componentes directs users to a comprehensive support resources page when they enter support-related queries in the search box.

 

 

 

Highlighting and snippeting for retailer customer service page: Arduino

Arduino uses Algolia highlighting and snippeting on their help center website. Highlighting shows the user why Algolia shows a particular result, while snippeting extracts the relevant context.

 

 

 

Customer Support Center: Marketplace

Ecommerce brands and marketplaces often handle a large catalog with hundreds of thousands of products. Integrating support centers allows them to connect users with the most relevant help center resources when they look for assistance. Users are offered the comfort and flexibility of having all the necessary information at their fingertips, without having to spend time making phone calls to the customer support line and waiting long times for an available representative or extensively browsing the site in search of information.

Conclusion

Customer service is an essential part of any ecommerce company’s sales and growth strategy. An excellent customer service experience, and the resulting increase in customer satisfaction, supports sales efforts and benefits ROI and customer retention. In the era of extreme customer-first approach, sometimes called customer obsession – a trend set by major industry leaders – customers are acquiring a high degree of expectations from every ecommerce business site or app. The risk of providing your customers with sub-par customer service translates into a loss of customer loyalty to your competitors. Additionally, the importance of self-service solutions is rising. With more customers preferring to find answers to their support-related questions independently, support service solutions have to evolve in order to keep up with the new trends and expectations. 

About the author
Tanya Herman

Product Manager

Recommended Articles

Powered byAlgolia Algolia Recommend

How leading media, gaming and SaaS companies increase brand loyalty by offering a fast, informative customer service
product

Tanya Herman

Product Manager

Four ways to empower your customer support team to provide great customer service
product

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer

“Help yourself!” Avoid these 7 mistakes and rock your self-serve customer service
product

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer