Through live chat we can help customers quickly and personally. We want all our customers to benefit from that.
WITT WEIDEN’s typical customer is over 60 years old, and the mail order business is still their main division. But they prove that good User Experience knows no age limit. With the help of Userlike, they provide an attractive online experience that satisfies their existing silver-surfers customer base and helps attract a younger group as well.
Up until the spring of 2016, WITT WEIDEN relied on telephone, email, and fax to support their customers. To stay up to date and relevant for a younger, more "online" audience, they started looking for new communication channels to reinforce their service team.
"The use of WhatsApp and other chat-based tools has gone through the roof over the past years", explains Christoph Münch, Project Manager at WITT WEIDEN. "This doesn’t only hold true for millennials, communication expectations have changed for older generations as well."
WITT WEIDEN’s agreed on live chat as the best option to connect to this. They created a list of requirements to guide their search for the right live chat provider, including:
They compared the biggest international provider and Userlike, Germany’s largest live chat provider. "Initially, these two solutions seemed closely matched", Christoph recalls. "They both adhered to our first points, but when it got to the data privacy issue, we soon realized that the international provider was not an option for us."
The departments of customer service, e-commerce, and product development were involved with Userlike’s implementation, which was carried out via Google’s Tag Manager. The IT department did not have to be involved at all. "That’s such a plus", Christoph points out, "the implementation and setup are so easy that it doesn’t require IT involvement at all. Testing was fast and straightforward, and we could smoothly integrate Userlike in our existing processes."
Christoph did sense slight scepticism among the support reps about live chat. "They weren’t so sure about the impact of adding another channel next to our existing ones. But after working with it for a few months, they really liked it. It’s fun to interact with customers in a different, more informal manner."
Almost all the ratings we get have 5 stars, often with textual feedback like 'super service', or 'fast & friendly contact'.
Christoph indicates this difference in formality as one of the unique aspects of live chat support. And while the phone is still frequently used, live chat seems to be the preferred choice for quick questions. "We mostly get small questions in the chat where the customers want a fast answer that allows them to continue shopping. Stuff like, 'Where can I redeem this coupon?' But also when there’s a malfunction on our website, live chat is the channel customers notify us about it."
Customer feedback almost always ranges from positive to highly positive. They seem to enjoy the fast support and personal connection. "We make use of the rating feature to get a sense of what our customers are thinking. Almost all the ratings we get have 5 stars, often with textual feedback like 'super service', or 'fast & friendly contact'."
WITT WEIDEN plans to expand live chat support hours throughout their German and Dutch shops. "Through live chat we can help customers quickly and personally. We want all our customers to benefit from that."