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~ Founder ~

COLUMN

BACK TO BASICS

he online world is focused on customer experience. These days, shop
owners are constantly on the lookout for new ways to better serve their
Tcustomers. To help the customer shop when, where and how they want.
This is about more than just providing the tools to do that. Businesses have realised
this, processes are changing, innovations have been made, platforms are getting
upgraded, all to meet the ever-higher customer experience bar.

Some digital innovations that I see have actually been around for quite a while. For in-
stance, chat is a well-known tool in e-commerce. However, proactive chat is an upcoming
innovation that is experiencing a lot of optimisation, all to be a future-proof channel and
help customers complete a purchase. With a proactive chat, we go back to basics. Visual-
ise what we have done for decades in brick-and-mortar stores. Store employees approach
customers to ask if they need any assistance while online, and at the moment, we primar-
ily see a pop-up message that says an online consumer can chat with a shop employee.

Tests show that people who shop online want to be helped, just like their brick-and-mor-
tar counterpart shoppers. Like in-store, people online experience
difficulties finding products or information online. A chatbot
helps with basic questions. Nowadays, there are self-learning bots
that can become smart. However, noticing someone is having a
problem and being able to offer your help proactively is far more COLOFON
valued. A real agent can answer in-depth questions, proactively sell
and improve the overall experience for consumers.

A proactive chat also allows you to collect useful data, for example, FOUNDER & PUBLISHER JEROEN LEENDERS
data that helps you improve your product offering. What’s more,
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF NICO HOEIJMANS
data can be used for marketing purposes, as it helps you to –
directly and indirectly – upsell. Research by Oct8ne, whose story EDITORS LAURA MARTIN
is featured in this issue, shows that conversion rates with proactive
GRAPHIC DESIGN & LAYOUT NICO HOEIJMANS
chat increase, alongside order basket value. The downside of proac-

tive chat is that people do not want any proactive assistance when
shopping online. Personally, though, I do not believe that this
outweighs any of the advantages a proactive chat has to offer.
WEBSITE: WWW.CROSS-BORDER-MAGAZINE.COM
Two or three years ago, I believed that chat – and especially
chatbots – were doomed to fail. With the innovations in the field
If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship or
of proactive support, I am convinced there are many chances for a advertising opportunities or you would like to discuss creating
chat to provide added value to the customer experience. It is about a customised plan to meet the needs of your company, please
contact: [email protected]
providing more and more service to consumers, and this might
The Cross-Border Magazine is owned and published by Salesupply BV.
just be the key to beating your competitors.
No person, organisation or party can copy or re-produce the content
of the Cross-Border Magazine or any part of this publication
without a written consent from the editor-in-chief or publisher.
Enjoy reading! The publisher, authors and contributors reserve their rights with
regards to copyright of their work.
Jeroen Leenders,
Founder Cross-Border Magazine
[email protected]

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