Sendbird x Virgin Mobile UAE in-app customer support tips

Your customers shouldn’t be treated like support tickets.

And when we compare session-based, live chat support tools with in-app messaging based support, the latter is much better built for the mobile-first era we live in.

Let’s look at what a session-based support interaction can look like:

If a customer starts a support chat, explains their issues, and walks away from the chat while waiting for an agent to respond, they will typically get disconnected if they’re not back in the chat within the timeout period. This forces the customer to get back in the queue and wait for an available next agent or, worse, start a new conversation where they need to repeat their issue all over again to a new agent.

This creates two problems. First, it creates a frustrating experience for a customer who’s already trying to seek help, and this may result in further customer dissatisfaction.

Second, it creates multiple tickets for the same customer issue, eating up multiple agent cycles.

Messaging-based chat can be asynchronous, and your conversation history is readily available – and differentiated from other in-app chat instances – so there’s no disconnection, no new sessions, no multiple tickets for the same problem.

Virgin Mobile UAE + Sendbird

Virgin Mobile UAE has moved away from a session-based support chat to an always-on, messaging-based, continuous conversation powered by Sendbird.

Virgin Mobile UAE has improved its customer satisfaction with a consistent CSAT of five out of five, all while staffing fewer agents.

Related reading: 7 steps to improve your CSAT

Sendbird has even inspired them to build more use cases around the power of in-app messaging; including promotional content and operational account alerts.

Because of Sendbird’s APIs, Virgin Mobile UAE can seamlessly attach its entire ecosystem.

Customer support tips from Virgin Mobile UAE:

1. Evolve from session-based support to messaging-based

Having continuous conversations with customers can elevate the customer experience. Messaging history can be crucial for solving issues quickly and can even deepen relationships between customers and the brand.

Internally, contact center efficiency improves because of this conversation history and the issues associated with that customer’s account.

Developing long-term customer relationships is easier with messaging-based support.

2. Train agents on replying to in-app support messages

“Our performance is driven by the speed we reply to the customer and how we delight the customer,” says Ozgur Gemici, Senior Manager at Virgin Mobile UAE.

Delighting the customer through in-app messaging is easier than session-based support because you are building a continuous relationship with the customer. The interaction is more flexible, almost as if the customer were texting with a friend.

Giving your agents the right tools to create these relationships makes responding, and receiving a high CSAT score, more possible.

While training your support agents, you can also export a dashboard that shows the amount of messages an agent is sending, the times it took a message to be responded to, and more.

3. Adopt an FAQ bot

Knowing your customers’ top queries should be a priority of any support team. Virgin Mobile UAE created an FAQ bot to answer the most common questions customer came to the team with. They got to create the perfect responses as part of their bot development, as well.

The FAQ bot absorbed 26% of the overall demand, allowing agents to focus on the harder stuff.

4. Be efficient with replies

Crafting a personal support reply can be difficult when you have 5,000 messages daily. Then, that reply gets audited by a quality assessor. All of this comes with the need to respond to the customer efficiently.

When receiving monthly feedback at contact centers, support agents are commonly told, “Oh, you’ve missed this. You didn’t show the writer rapport, you didn’t demonstrate correct empathy. Your question is not in line with the process.” But what quick replies bring to life is the ability to take your quality methodology and build it into the replies your champions use.

5. Offering omnichannel support

Successful contact centers work with lots of different tools and partnerships.

The view of an agent is very important. Having an intuitive view across tools into the customer support claim is everything. Virgin Mobile UAE has synced what the customer sees as well as the champion with Sendbird, giving both the champion the right tools and guidance to have a foot-for-purpose interaction.

Omnichannel operating systems allow support teams to incorporate each tool through APIs. You’re not only supporting customers through in-app messaging, but also utilizing social and an FAQ bot.

Catch more in-app support tips in our webinar with Virgin Mobile UAE

Want more tips on operating a business with in-app support? Watch our webinar with Virgin Mobile UAE for more tips on how they increased their CSAT and NPS with Sendbird.