How communications platform Webex Connect powers conversation at the Cisco Store.

In a recent study, we learned that 75% of connected customers prefer to interact with retail brands using digital messaging channels. And when they do, they expect rich and engaging experiences that retain context as they move seamlessly across channels.

How well you deliver this can significantly impact brand loyalty and market perception. And this applies to small businesses just as much as the largest enterprises.

It’s a challenge the Cisco Store and its small team faced in delivering rapid, personalized customer assistance at scale—regardless of when, where, or how its customers reached out. In this blog, we’ll look at how they use Webex Connect, an enterprise-grade Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS), to maximize customer engagement.

One platform, every interaction

Webex Connect transforms how businesses like yours connect to and communicate with customers. It’s a centralized, cloud-based platform that lets you easily add the latest digital communication channels to your existing apps and services using our vast library of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

You can use APIs and custom integrations to connect the latest digital channels to your existing backend systems—such as your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, order management, delivery management, or shift management tools. This connectivity enables a seamless two-way exchange of customer data between systems and channels to help personalize customer interactions, automate experiences, and inform strategic decision-making. And technical and non-technical teams alike can start building powerful customer journeys using a visual flow-builder.

Webex Connect can handle customer communications across more than 16 channels, including SMS, WhatsApp, Business Messenger, email, voice, and more. You can also use intuitive chatbots to manage routine interactions, such as basic queries, outbound updates, and notifications in response to contextual triggers.

Customers can also manage their consent and preferences at any time, and businesses can easily monitor traffic, engagement, and granular statistics through a centralized data dashboard, including visualization and analytics capabilities.

Streamlining store efficiency and accessibility

To complement its ecommerce activities, the Cisco Store hosts multiple pop-up outlets at annual events, such as Cisco Live Amsterdam, Cisco Live Vegas, and Cisco IMPACT. In addition to selling merchandise and Tech Lab equipment, the team offers daily event tours throughout the day.

To help them enhance the customer experience and streamline efficiency, they can program Webex Connect to share contextual prompts and answer simple customer queries about the events—such as store opening times and locations. Beyond event-related queries, the chatbot operates round the clock on the store's website, seamlessly facilitating orders and responding to questions during periods when live agents are unavailable.

Introducing live agent handover

While the Cisco Store chatbot delivered an impressive 42% containment rate in Q1 FY24, some scenarios still require help from a live agent. With Webex Connect, the Cisco Store team gets peace of mind knowing its chatbot will seamlessly escalate conversations to a human agent when appropriate.

The escalation process is quickly routed to a Webex Space where an available Cisco Store team member can claim the task and take over the conversation.

The Cisco Store currently uses Webex Connect for its online operations, with 77% of chatbot activity coming through its website and 23% from Apple Messages for Business.

By enabling its chatbot to handle simple queries, the Cisco Store team can spend more time with customers in-person and on value-adding tasks. For example, the chatbot can handle interactions related to order tracking, store timings, and store locations, leaving team members to handle more complex queries.

What’s next for Webex Connect and the Cisco Store?

Looking to the future, the Cisco Store hopes to expand its use of Webex Connect to offer flexible self-service capabilities, such as letting customers pay for goods in-channel or by scanning QR codes.

Further plans include enhancing its chatbot to offer more flexible fulfilment options, such as buy online pick-up in-store (BOPIS) and curbside delivery. Plus, it may soon integrate Webex Connect with its order management systems to provide customers with real-time order and shipping updates through their preferred digital channels.

Wherever its Webex Connect journey takes them next, the Cisco Store team will benefit from the latest developer resources, proactive account management, and 24/7 live chat with our expert team of solution specialists.

Speak to an expert

Get in touch to find out how you can transform customer communications with an enterprise-grade CPaaS solution.

Get in touch