Microsite-based engagement is becoming increasingly relevant as organisations strive to attract and retain customers for sustainable business growth. With the widespread availability of affordable internet and cost-effective smartphones, service delivery companies must connect with their customers through non-voice platforms to enhance convenience and overall experience. Many organisations have turned to mobile apps to facilitate this.
Mobile apps are highly effective in industries where service usage is frequent. Such as food delivery, ride-hailing, or carpooling. Here, customers willingly download and regularly use these apps, keeping them installed on their devices.
App Retention for Low Usage Service
However, the picture changes when the service in question is used infrequently. Take vehicle insurance, for instance. While nearly everyone purchases insurance, actual claims are rare. In response to digital trends, insurance companies have invested heavily in developing mobile apps, yet many of these struggle to achieve meaningful download numbers or sustained usage over time.
Apart from downloads, retention of an App on the smartphone is also critical. Around 57% of the users uninstall an App within the first month of the download, and by the end of 3 months, 71% of the users are gone. (Source)
Another study pegs the App uninstall rate at 68% (Source). Of the total downloaded Apps, 25% are used only once. Around 40% of App uninstalls happen due to low App usage. (Source)
What is a Microsite
Therefore, for low usage service operations, Microsites can become a more effective and viable tool for customer engagement. It can give our customers a rich user experience while eliminating the need to install an App.
Microsites are small web applications that cater to specific aspects of the service delivery process and are targeted at a specific group of users. Microsites connect with the main application (for example, CRM) for real-time data exchange, and the look and feel can be optimised to work nicely on handheld devices.
Using these Microsites, we can collect information from the customers and share regular updates with them.
Things to Consider While Designing a Microsite
While designing a Microsite, we should keep the following points in mind;
- Since the customer is accessing the Microsite by clicking on an unknown link, the landing page should have good branding of the company to give them confidence about it being a genuine link.
- As the Microsite connects to our main applications in real-time, we should take care of all security aspects and implement a proper authentication protocol to prevent possible unauthorised access. As a safety precaution, the Microsite link should expire after some time to ensure restricted access.
- We must keep the workflow crisp and limit it to 3-4 pages. We should also keep in mind that at times the customer might be using a slow data connection.
- We should provide backlinks to the main website to benefit from clicks and thus enrich the SEO rankings of the main website.
Once the Microsite is ready, we can share it with the customers in the form of a personalised short URL in a message (Text, WhatsApp, Email, etc.). Agents can send the message manually, or we can use IVR to automate it.
When the customer clicks the link, the Microsite opens in the device’s browser, allowing the customer to engage in a self-help mode. As the look and feel of the Microsite is similar to a Mobile App, it gives a similar user experience to the customers.
Advantages of Microsites Over Voice Interactions
In comparison to a completely voice-based process, the use of Microsites may accrue many advantages.
- Customers’ eligibility can be verified online
- Fewer data entry errors as the customers are typing instead of speaking
- Data format and correctness can be verified while the customer is typing
- Process adherence is taken care of by the application
- As the data entered is mostly accurate, it could be pushed directly to the CRM
These benefits would reduce the workload of the agents, and they can focus on the softer aspects of customer handling and the actual service delivery process. An effective deployment would also get significant improvement in the process efficiency and thus reduce workforce requirements.
Possible Deployment Challenges
Some challenges that we might face while using Microsites:
Low Click Percentage
Not all customers may feel confident in clicking a link in a message. We can mitigate this by sending some branded multimedia content with the link. We can achieve this by using WhatsApp or Email channels.
Hoax Requests
A few customers may create dummy requests to test the response. Initially, we can validate the request before starting the service. We may discontinue this practice later based on the customer response.
Delayed Customer Response
Once we share the link, the customers may choose to act as per their convenience. This may result in pendency in the operations area. The Microsite link, therefore, must become invalid after some time, and pending tickets should be disposed of accordingly.
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