How Newegg is upping its customer support game by adding Facebook Messenger for Business
Newegg is a well known ecommerce retailer that focuses on electronics. It boasts more than 28 million registered customers and regularly touts its industry leading customer service ratings. Like any ecommerce merchant it faces competition from the likes of Amazon and TigerDirect as well as from traditional brick and mortar retailers like Best Buy.
One way Newegg is differentiating itself is by being open to a variety of customer service channels. Newegg understands that its customers don’t care about the convenience of the company’s call center managers or about the systems the company put in place to handle ticketing and emails. Customers want to reach Newegg on their own terms, using a channel that’s convenient to them. Take a look at how this manifests in the mobile version of Newegg’s homepage:
Newegg’s customer service page
There are a breadth of support options: phone, SMS text messaging, email, and starting yesterday (4/6/2016) Facebook Messenger, a live chat option delivered through instant messaging.
Newegg is among the first companies to pilot Messenger for Business by offering customer support via Facebook Messenger. Messenger is one of the most popular apps in the world with hundreds of millions of users. It’s simply smart mobile strategy to give customers the ability to engage with Newegg’s customer support representatives using an app that is already a part of their everyday lives.
“We are investing heavily in mobile – making it easier for our customers to use our apps (iOS and Android) and our mobile site,” said Merle McIntosh, SVP of Sales and Marketing at Newegg. “Offering support via Messenger is the next important step to provide our customers the best possible mobile experience.”
Newegg is displaying a mature approach to mobile strategy, one that doesn’t insist on customers downloading its own branded app. It’s a wise choice to meet customers where they are rather than push them to perform actions they are not interested in such as downloading yet another app.
There’s definitely more Newegg can do – such as extending responsiveness past business hours using bots – but already they’re ahead of the curve.