Not only are more customers contacting companies via live chat — they are also buying more through chatting. According to a Forrester report, customers using live chats are 2.8 times more likely to convert than those who don’t, and added that they also tend to spend sixty times more money on average. In addition, it found that live chats put customers at ease, especially first-time buyers, by giving them constant support and building their trust and confidence to try the product. Chatting also helps to minimize purchasing errors which further its popularity.
“Turns out 89% of customers want to be able to text the business and use different platforms to do so,” said Nick Galea, CTO, and founder of 3CX – a global leader in business communications that started back in 2005 when VOIP was emerging technology.
“What we need is a single integrated solution, one team for messaging and calls and the option to switch a customer to a voice call for better support,” Galea said in a YouTube video briefing on the platform’s latest upgrade, 3CX version 18, which was released last August. 3CX has offices across Europe, the US, Mexico, Dubai, Russia, and Australia, with more than 25,000 partners operating in 190 countries. It has over 600,000 installations, and over 12 million users are using the all-in-one communications system.
Source 3CX
Cross-platform integrations mean that customer queries from any platform can be responded to promptly from one central location, and seamlessly switched to calls if necessary.
The watchword here is preference — the customer’s individual preference, be it SMS, Facebook Messenger, web-based live chat, and so on, is catered for. No communication goes unanswered, because the personnel at the central point have access to all channels, in one place. Every comms channel, therefore, expresses the company’s professionalism as equably as every other.
Any support center professional knows that as calls or chats progress, it’s often necessary to switch channel: personal details are best given to a company by text or Messenger, or complex situations are resolved faster by voice.
Preserving the conversation’s flow is not only polite (improving overall CX) but leads to significantly better outcomes. When customers have to recount their issue for a second or third time, or re-establish their identity, it slows down or entirely prevents successful issue resolutions.
With 3CX, the switch from chat to call doesn’t involve dialing any phone number at all. Just click and connect with an agent ready to resolve customer issues. If customers prefer to see who they’re talking to, they can also switch to video calls with a click. Again, no dialing is needed — and there’s no need to repeat identity details or security answers
The live chat can now come with instant real-time call and chat tracking via Google Analytics to improve conversion rates. In addition, website visitors can click the “Call us” option in the minimized chat bubble to be connected with an agent for direct queries immediately. The live chat can be integrated on Drupal, Joomla, Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, and WordPress.
Video conferencing is also a standard feature of 3CX Web Client and mobile apps. It is free and doesn’t have a user limit. Up to 250 people can join a meeting from anywhere and on any device. With a simple click on the browser, the team can see each other in HD, real-time video. Advanced features, such as viewing and controlling remote screens, sharing documents, and whiteboard presentations, can make online collaboration more effective for the attendees.
Big and small, the 3CX feature-rich open standards communications solution is suitable for organizations of all sizes. Its customers include big multinationals such as McDonald’s, Air France, and Wilson Sporting Goods to smaller local companies like Video West and Seasalt Cornwall. In addition, it supports CRM software and helpdesks such as Salesforce, Freshdesk, Zendesk, and Hubspot. In short, it integrates and “plays nice” with the rest of your technology stack.
Source: 3CX
Agents can easily access customer records and identify incoming callers before picking up the phone, making for a great professional experience for both agents and customers. It syncs seamlessly with Microsoft 365 and Teams, plus access can be from SS0 portals, so users don’t have to fret about importing contacts and memorizing different passwords.
Woodstock Trading Company, a UK-based manufacturer and distributor of luxury bathroom and office furniture facilitated its staff’s transition to remote working by switching to 3CX, completed in 2.5 days, during one of the country’s recent lockdown periods.
“With the Covid-19 lockdown being enforced, we had to bring forward our plans to replace our legacy phone system with something that would allow our workforce to work from home. In a brief period, we managed to migrate over to our new hosted 3CX solution,” said Andrew Bell, IT manager at Woodstock. “This now enables staff to work from home or in the office without any interruption to the business. Customers calling into the business are oblivious to the fact that they are dealing with a member of staff based at home.”
Users can save up to 80% on telco and travel costs with a switch to 3CX. It has it all – web conferencing, mobile apps, live chat, business text messaging and Facebook integration, and more – and users can customize their SIP Trunk, end-points and operating system at will as it’s an open-source platform. They get to choose where it is hosted, too, in the cloud or on-premise. The pricing comes in three levels – Standard, Pro, and Enterprise – and the 3CX is free for one year.
Last quarter, 3CX was awarded a total of 28 distinctions in G2 Summer 2021 reports, the largest peer-to-peer business solution review platform. Its top placements are in the mid-market category, “Leader” in VoIP, contact center operations, and video conferencing categories. It also earned the titles of “Best Usability” and “Best Results” in the VoIP category; “High Performer,” “Easiest to Use” and “Best Meets Requirements” in UCaaS Platforms category; and “Highest User Adoption” in the contact center operations, video conferencing and UCaaS (unified communications as a service) platforms categories.
“Reliable, feature-rich, and doesn’t cost the earth.” That was the vision that gave birth to 3CX, and it has undoubtedly lived up to it and much more.
Click here to future-proof your business today by connecting your customers and co-workers with a guaranteed hassle-free PBX that requires minimum management.
