Yesterday, Seth Godin commented on a buzzword that we've been guilty of using from time to time..."seamless."  As Seth points out, there are certain instances where seams are important, like on a football.  However, in some cases (like if you're hanging wallpaper), seams can also be unsightly disturbances.  In the case of customer experience, seams are the latter.

A new study from J.D. Power and Associates finds that customer experience and service plays a big part in whether or not customers renew their auto insurance policies.  According to the study, customers view their interactions with companies as the single most important factor when it comes to measuring service satisfaction.  That means that how insurance companies interact with customers is more important than policy offerings, billing and payment, price and claims.

The report goes on to cite examples of best practices that companies are implementing to improve overall customer experience.  With one third of customers saying they interact online, enhancing the online experience is becoming increasingly important.  "Even though customer satisfaction ratings for Web interactions tend to be lower than those for agency or call center experiences, the gap is closing," said Jeremy Bowler, senior director of the insurance practice at J.D. Power and Associates. "Satisfaction is highest among the 77 percent of customers who were able to complete an entire service transaction online, such as making a bill payment. Some carriers have made substantial enhancements to their Web site functionality in recent years, which can generate benefits such as a reduction in servicing costs and, ultimately, higher customer satisfaction. For these reasons, it is important for insurance companies to provide online policy access, a user-friendly Web site and to effectively convey the availability of these services to their customers."

 In July, Forrester Research found that insurers have been slow to merge into the online world, but noted that click to call and chat could help ease the transition.  According to their findings, "Among applicants of other financial services products, Forrester has found that online services that "hand-hold" consumers through complex online activities via tools like online chat and click-to-call are even more helpful to prospects than traditional research methods."

Target Marketing profiled Jenny Craig's use of click to call last week for their TM Tipline newsletter.  According to the report, which features an interview with Jenny Craig's director of interactive marketing, Trish Arellano, "For marketers working to provide a seamless cross-channel customer service experience, click-to-call technology provides one more tool to help achieve company goals. The technology allows consumers to click a button embedded in a Web page or e-mail to connect with a company’s customer service representative. After the user clicks, customer service representatives either are reached using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) or users are prompted to type their phone number and request an immediate phone call. This enables marketers to service Web customers without forcing them to abandon their Web sessions. In addition, the technology allows marketers to monitor when users switch from Web sales channels to phone sales channels."

Earlier in the year, MarketingSherpa (registration required) wrote a case study on Jenny Craig's click to call deployment. 

By now, you may think you know eStara pretty well, but we’re always adding new products and features to make sure companies get the most out of their interactions with customers. Today, we’re happy to announce the launch of our new Web site where we will be offering customers and prospects new resources and information about eStara’s solutions, and how they help businesses connect with consumers.

As always, we hope to serve as a valuable partner to businesses in meeting their goals to increase sales conversions and improve customer satisfaction. Our new site aims to show how eStara Click to Call, Click to Chat and Call Tracking can help achieve those goals. We’ve also added new features and capabilities you may not yet recognize, such as:

• Save & Send
• Form to Phone
• Site Survey
• Audio Clips

So please stop by today, let us know what you think, and start the conversation with eStara.

This month's edition of the ATG Insight Online Newsletter features a new White Paper, co-authored by eStara, that looks at how companies can leverage proactive service -- via click to call and click to chat -- to increase average order sizes and create personalized cross-channel shopping experiences for consumers. 

Here's a summary, "While the Web has emerged as a primary research and purchasing channel for many shoppers, nearly 77 percent of consumers still shop across multiple channels. With competing offers just a click away from every e-seller's Web site, more than half of all consumers say a negative online experience leads to online and offline abandonment of the brand. Often, the issue that caused a high-value customer to abandon his or her transaction could have been resolved easily with just a little help from a live agent. See how ATG's e-commerce suite can easily incorporate a strategy for seamless live help without extensive changes to your front- or back-end systems."

Click here to download the new ATG/eStara White Paper "Using Proactive Service to Increase Conversions and Order Sizes."