Co-browsing is quietly being added by financial services companies. Here are 8
insights from Upscope co-browsing on why they're using it.
What is co-browsing?
Imagine you're on the phone to a customer who is stuck on your website and you
just teleport over to them to point at the screen and tell them where to
click.
That's what co-browsing does but without the teleporting into their living
room bit.
It's a new advanced form of screen sharing where you can see what your
customer sees instantly and you can point at where they should click.
Why are companies quickly adding co-browsing?
This one is simple. Customers like getting their problem fixed and they give
you 5 stars when you do it quickly.
Companies like co-browsing because it can quickly get the problem fixed and
companies like getting 5 stars from customers.
What is often misunderstood about how co-browsing is used?
You might immediately think of several scenarios in which co-browsing would be
useful but it's not that simple.
It's often used for sales, not support. It's often used for explaining
processes and key terms rather than guiding someone through a website. Below,
see 8 insights we've learned over time at Upscope
Co-browsing.
1. A core use case is selling a process to clients
While many people do use co-browsing to guide clients through complicated
interfaces, if you look at total hours used, a core use case is actually
taking clients through a presentation on their phone or desktop to explain how
their process works.
Listening to someone describe a process while seeing a presentation with
images and numbers is more effective than just listening.
For example, financial services companies call up clients and run through a
presentation with the client directly on their phone. The people who need it
are loan officers, insurance agents, debt consultants and more.
2. Pointing at the client's screen to direct them is a big feature
When we built co-browsing we expected a lot of people to use the remote
control capability of having your mouse appear on the client's screen to click
and typing for them to complete forms or navigate.
However, that's often not needed. Sometimes a revolutionary product is as dumb
and simple as being able to see what your client sees and point at a screen.
The client only needs guidance on what to click and with co-browsing you can
draw a circle around buttons, on the client's screen, to direct them to click
on it.
3. Yes, it saves support time but sometimes it adds sales time
Some companies find it reduced the amount of time they spent on support,
onboarding or sales demos. However, some calls ended up taking longer but then
the sales went up too.
Moo.com is a perfect example. When you have someone non-tech trying to design
a business card they might need more time with you and getting that help was
the one thing that gets them to buy. Moo found their time spent with some
people went up but so did their sales.
4. The nightmare non-tech savvy client is now quite fun
The call with the non-tech person that took an hour now takes 10 minutes and
you enjoy it rather than die inside. It's hard directing someone, over the
phone, through a complicated interface. Seeing what they see and taking them
through it makes you feel like a great teacher.
Almost all people we know like teaching. Sometimes they just don't have the
tools to do so. It's stressful doing it over the phone or via live chat. You
want to be standing next to them working together. That's how co-browsing
feels.
5. There are a lot of complex 90s style interfaces still out there
It's not all slick modern minimalist advanced UX apps out there. There are
many old school web apps with 50 boxes and those boxes have boxes within them
type apps. They naturally use co-browsing a lot.
6. Both young and old people struggle with technology
If your job does not involve using computers in your regular job then you're
not naturally going to have software app navigation skills. This applies to
both young and old people, to retailers, doctors, nurses and more.
Many people don't have the time and patience to learn a new technology when
they have a pressing need to get on with their day job. New tech feels like an
added stress and co-browsing helps speed up their onboarding.
7. Some companies do 70% of co-browsing on the phone
You'd think that most co-browsing sessions take place on the desktop. That's
not true. You yourself might fill in forms and do meetings on your desktop but
there is a surprising number of people who will fill in a query for a mortgage
on their phone.
They'll then receive the call on their phone and have the agent cobrowse
through a presentation or website on their phone. For some companies 70% of
co-browsing sessions are on the phone.
8. The customers LOVE co-browsing
Yes, they love it. The support and sales agents love it. Customers give 5 star
reviews for customer support using co-browsing and agents give 5 star reviews
for using co-browsing.
Why? Seeing what the customer sees and being on the same page is something we
always should have had. It just took a different kind of tech to make it
happen.
Learn more about Upscope Co-browsing here.
