TL:DR
- Cobrowsing refers to a technology that allows two or more people to use multicursor screen control and interact with a website or web application together.
- Cobrowsing has applications in technical customer support because it can be used to speed up the resolution of complex support tickets.
- Cobrowsing can increase customer engagement by 2x because calls happen in-app and users don't have to download additional applications like Zoom.
- Cobrowsing can help reduce customer frustration because, by taking control of a user’s screen, agents can troubleshoot problems much faster than it would take then to instruct users on how to do it.
- Cobrowsing can positively influence customer satisfaction by increasing first contact resolution (FCR) rates.
- Cobrowsing can save you time — some users report saving as much as an hour a day.
- Cobrowsing can help you save support costs by reducing wait times and average time-to-resolution.
We’ve talked extensively about what cobrowsing technology is before. In today’s article, we wanted to get a little more specific about how exactly it can help you take your customer support setup to the next level.
Since the future of customer support is moving more and more towards video, cobrowsing should make up one part of your multi-channel support arsenal — especially for level 2 and 3 support tickets, which are often far too complicated to solve effectively over chat.
What is cobrowsing?
Just a little bit of a refresher before we dive into the meat of this article: cobrowsing refers to a technology that allows two or more people to use multicursor screen control and interact with a website or web application together.
They can interact with elements, use annotation tools to draw on each other’s screens and navigate together.
Cobrowsing is used across a number of business functions, like sales, internal IT help desks and customer support.
Cobrowsing for customer support
For customer support in particular, it makes it easy for support agents to quickly solve complicated technical support requests because, instead of having to explain to a user how to troubleshoot a problem, they can hop on a cobrowsing call with them to commandeer their screen and solve the problem themselves. Or use annotation tools to show the user how to solve the issue in a much more visual and dynamic way than they could over chat and by sending screenshots back and forth.
At this point you may be asking yourself: isn’t that what screen sharing is for? And while it is true that screen sharing and cobrowsing share some of the same functions, the technology is completely different. We’ve explored that in more detail in this article, but the essential difference is that screen sharing involves streaming pixels and cobrowsing involves streaming code, which also makes it much more lightweight to implement on a web app, for example.
And of course, the biggest difference is that you can control someone else’s screen when you’re cobrowsing with them. You can’t do that during screen sharing.
The top 5 ways cobrowsing can differentiate your customer support
There are several reasons giving your support agents and customers the gift of cobrowsing is a good idea. But we wanted to pare this list down to the ones with the biggest business impact, so here are five of the top reasons to choose a cobrowsing solution, already.
It increases customer engagement
Cobrowsing is a great way to increase customer engagement. Not only does it ensure that complicated support tickets are solved in a much faster and more efficient way, companies have also managed to increase user engagement and customer response rates 2x after implementing a cobrowsing solution.
This may come down to the fact that, unlike solutions such as Zoom, for example, customers do not have to leave your application and download another to talk to you. Cobrowsing calls happen right in your app when your customer is live, so they’re much more likely to answer your call.
It reduces customer frustration
82% of customers say that the number one contributing factor to good customer support is having their issue resolved quickly. Cobrowsing can help significantly speed up your time-to-resolution because, by taking control of a user’s screen, agents can troubleshoot problems much faster than it would take then to instruct users on how to do it.
When it comes to SaaS especially, not all users are technically-savvy, meaning that it can be difficult for them to help themselves, as it were, even if they’re being instructed by your agents about what to do. With cobrowsing, that isn’t an issue anymore — especially for technical support requests that are complicated to solve or that require a lot of steps. Cobrowsing with a user can also make it easier for them to explain what’s going on — instead of having to say what the issue is, they can just show you what it is.
It improves customer satisfaction by increases FCR
CSAT scores are a metric customer support teams take very seriously and are constantly looking for ways to increase.
One of the most reliable predictors of good CSAT scores is a high first contact resolution (FCR) rate, as demonstrated in the graph below. Cobrowsing can help you with FCR because of all the reasons we’ve already mentioned above.
It saves time
But nearly 60% of customers report that long holds and wait times are the most frustrating parts of a service experience. They also lead to significantly poorer CSAT experiences. Cobrowsing can speed up the time agents spend on each ticket, reducing ticket volumes and wait times. Some users report saving as much as 1 working hour a day.
It saves support costs
It’s estimated that the average cost-per-ticket (i.e., the price businesses pay in terms of total monthly operating expenses for each customer support ticket that is opened) in North America is right around 16 dollars for tickets that are handled primarily through chat or voice calls. That is a pretty penny and it’s not surprising that businesses are looking for ways to cut those costs as much as they possibly can.
One of the biggest contributing factors is ticket handle time, which shows a very clear positive correlation with cost-per-ticket, as demonstrated in the graph below:
This is a fairly intuitive correlation: for such a labor-intensive business function, the longer an agent spends on a ticket, the more it’s going to cost the business in terms of wages. So by speeding up time-to-resolution, businesses are not only increasing CSAT, they’re saving costs by increasing efficiency.
The long and short of it is…
Cobrowsing can help your business cut costs and increase the efficiency of your customer support function, while increasing CSAT, decreasing customer frustration and increasing engagement. That isn’t something you want to dismiss out-of-hand.
And luckily, with solutions like Fullview Live, it’s easier than ever before to implement it as part of a well-thought out omni-channel support strategy.
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