Brands are losing major sales online without taking action

14/03/22 Wavenet
Brands are losing major sales online without taking action placeholder thumbnail

One reason is because most companies ignore customers who try to convert online when they bump into troubles… our contact centre vendor, Puzzel, tested 12 large brands and the result was staggering.


Among the brands tested were banks, insurance, furniture and electric utility companies. In one scenario,  a high-value shopping cart was created , while in the others we simply started to apply for loans or a service online.

Doubts or problems in the very last steps of these processes were then simulated.

For example, they simulated adding 80k’s worth of beds in our cart! We did this to see if we would get any help to complete our purchase. With the banks, we left the loan applications incomplete at the last step by clicking on the “back” button – away from the web form application.

 

Who was tested?

  • 3 insurance companies (house and car insurance).
  • 3 banks, where we tried to apply for a 5 million kronor (SEK) loan each.
  • 3 leading retailers where we had shopping carts of a value of 80K.
  • 3 leading electric utility companies, where we tried to sign up for a subscription with a value of 66K.

 

The result?

It was staggering. None of the companies tried to help complete the purchases. If they were physical stores, it would have been like if they had closed down. The testers were left completely alone at the checkout with their full shopping cart when they abandoned it.

Would that have been accepted by managers at a physical store?!

*Puzzel’s Business developer, Jan Wärmlind explains:

“Millions are spent on developing nice web pages, but almost nothing is done to add a human touch and actually help customers convert once online.

Are companies still so naive that they think that only a good-looking website will increase sales?"

 

Losing conversions by forcing customers offline

“Am I blind or is there no one here to help me?”

There was no proactive help, no notification to the online store’s staff that ‘here is someone who needs help to convert.’ At the most, there was a phone number that we could call. That is a long and fairly circuitous way for a customer to get help. Why force customers to go offline to get proper assistance? Why not help customers there and then, in context, on the webpage? That would surely increase conversion rates.

"60% of customers calling support started their customer journey online. Why force them to go offline? It’s just like putting up a ‘we’re closed’ sign at your physical location to tell your customers that you’re not there for them. That’s not the way to build trust with a potential customer waiting to swipe their card and spend 80K on beds." says Jan Wärmlind.

 

Puzzel Image 2

 

What proactive engagement could have done in this situation

With the help of *Puzzel Engagement Platform, we supported several companies to achieve amazing results by increasing their sales and conversion rate online (ie. from 3% to 24%).

Puzzel's platform monitors the behaviour of visitors on a site. Depending on certain triggers, as well as on business’ rules and potential order value it will prompt you to initiate an interaction at the right moment with the right customer.

Amazingly, we still see a daunting number of brands that don’t use proactive online engagement, even though this technique is a proven path to greater conversion. This results in lost revenue and dissatisfied customers.

Conversion effect A/B test over a 6-month period. Customers with problem(s) in the checkout were either left alone OR offered proactive help. The result was a 21% increase in the conversion rate when offered proactive help through advanced chat!


Some guidelines for success

  • Stop ignoring your customers and be present on your website at the moment of need.
  • Start understanding what your customers are doing on the web by monitoring their customer journey.
  • Learn who you should interact with, and when, in order to get the best conversion rate.
  • Invest in an engagement platform that lets you interact with your customers in real time based on set triggers and rules.

 

Formally known as Vergic. Puzzel acquired Swedish digital engagement company Vergic back in October 2021.


 

Contact Centre

Latest blogs

See all posts
Placeholder thumbnail
Cloud, Data & Apps – meeting you in your digital journey

For years, businesses saw the cloud as the key to digital transformation, but it often created complexity instead of clarity. The problem isn’t technology itself, it’s how it’s used. Our Cloud, Data & Apps strategy shifts the focus from platforms to outcomes, delivering measurable business value through a blend of technology, expertise, and guidance. We’ve worked with our customers to map the stages of their digital evolution and adopt an outcome-led approach that ensures we have the right conversations with our customers and deliver the right services and support, at the right time. It means we can be specific and deliberate about our advice and our execution. Here’s how it works… 1. STARTING OUT “We’re thinking about change” OUR SOLUTION ▼ How we help customers starting out: We can identify the value for you We bring in subject matter experts, allowing you to focus on your core business We will find the tech way to solve the problem and be your expert advisors ADVISORY SERVICE Assessment solutions: Technology assessment Vision, modernisation & migration readiness assessment Data discovery & strategy assessment 2. PLANNING “We know what we're going to do, we just need to do it” OUR SOLUTION ▼ How we help customers with a plan: We will work with you to help write the business case We bring experience of doing this for thousands of customers, you dont need to do it alone, instead, you will be partnering with an expert ADVISORY SERVICE Workshop solutions: Modern infrastructure design Data profiling Data platform Design AI/ML use-case identification & design 3. MOBILISING “Let's go...” OUR SOLUTION ▼ How we help customers to mobilise: If you can't do it on your own, we will support you or do it for you (any tech stack etc.) We can deliver meaningful change with our highly customisable, commercially flexible delivery method - OnDemand PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, MANAGED SERVICES AND ONDEMAND OnDemand Change Squad Landing zone & cloud fundamentals Infractructure Build Pipeline automation Data platform deployments AI/ML deployment & pipelining 4. OPERATING “Its in, does it work as we said it would?” OUR SOLUTION ▼ How we help customers to operate: Focus on your business, let us run it for you, or partner with you to run it together We can provide end-to-end management, either through a structured Managed Service or with the flexibility of our tailored OnDemand offering PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, MANAGED SERVICES AND ONDEMAND OnDemand Run Squad Operational support SRE powered operational resilience Support to extend across full technology portfolio 5. OPTIMISING “Can we make it better?” OUR SOLUTION ▼ How we help customers optimise: Your agility is our reputation, let's optimise with your best interests at heart Optimisation opportunities can be activated quickly and easily, delivering rapid time-to-value through OnDemand PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, MANAGED SERVICES AND ONDEMAND OnDemand Quantum for Azure remediation (FinOps) Aligned to the Cyber Assessment Framework Infrastructure as Code optimisation

Read more

Stay service-savvy

Get all the latest news and insights straight to your inbox.