Cobrowsing
What is cobrowsing, how does it work, and why do you want the option for your contact center?
“If you just click the signup now button and follow the on-screen instructions.” “Where’s that? I can’t see a signup button.” Sound familiar? It might to your contact center agents. It’s not always easy to guide someone through even relatively simple online processes by phone or via live chat messages. That’s where cobrowsing comes in as a potentially vital tool on your agents’ toolbelt.
By adding a visual and interactive element to a support call, cobrowsing makes it much easier to guide customers to their desired outcomes. This leads to greater customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. It truly is a win-win. So, let’s take a look at just what cobrowsing is, how it works with RingCX, and the benefits it could bring to your contact center.
What is cobrowsing?
Let’s start with the cobrowsing meaning. Cobrowsing is short for collaborative browsing and is the name of the technology that allows contact center agents to access a customer’s browser and navigate it in real time.
With joint navigation of a web page, agents can interact and collaborate online with customers, guiding them through processes and explaining how to complete the actions they need to. This makes it much easier and faster for businesses to provide customer support or sales assistance, which helps boost customer engagement.
What’s the difference between cobrowsing and screen sharing?
You may think that cobrowsing sounds a lot like screen sharing, and you’re not wrong, they are similar. Both are visual engagement tools, but there are some key differences:
Cobrowsing
- No software download is required. By just clicking a button, contact center agents can instantly connect to the client’s browser—after asking permission first.
- Agents can only see the active browser tab of the client.
- Agents can perform actions on the client’s browser (scroll, highlight, write text) to provide visual guidance or do things on behalf of the client.
- Agents can’t see the client’s confidential data because of data masking.
Screen sharing
- Typically, both parties must install an application first before they can start sharing screens.
- Agents can see either the client’s full desktop or application window. (It depends on what the client chooses to share.)
- Agents can’t perform actions on the client’s screen. They can only provide verbal instructions while on a video call.
- Agents can see everything displayed on the screen, so clients must be extra careful not to show their private information.
As you can see, collaborative browsing is a faster, more convenient, and secure way to engage with customers, particularly those having trouble navigation or using your company website.
Note: Many businesses use screen sharing for other purposes. It’s a useful feature of modern video calling applications. It’s best for online meetings, webinars, and other activities that involve presenting to a big group of remote participants.
How do you use cobrowse in practice?
So, that’s what cobrowsing is and how it differs from screen sharing, but what do contact centers use it for in practice? Collaborative browsing can be used by both customer service and sales representatives to create better customer experiences.
In general, organizations use the feature to help their clients with online processes, including:
- Navigating from one page to another
- Filling out complex forms
- Completing payments and other transactions
- Finding reference materials
- Changing account settings
- Choosing the right product among available offerings
To better illustrate, here are some specific business activities where you can apply collaborative browsing:
Technical support
Since cobrowsing allows agents to get an accurate visual representation of the client's experience, they can guide the customer and help them figure out how to resolve or troubleshoot problems. If the client is not tech-savvy, the tech support agent can perform actions on their behalf.
Upselling & cross-selling
If the company website is designed to sell products or services, sales agents can use cobrowsing to lead a potential buyer to a particular item that perfectly fits what they’re looking for. They can even display marketing materials like brochures that contain relevant information about different products. This is to further help the prospect make a purchase decision and improve conversions.
Customer onboarding
Customer support teams can make the onboarding process of online software solutions smoother and faster with the help of a cobrowsing solution. They can guide customers through different stages, from understanding product demos to completing account setup and taking first steps towards customization and implementation.
Online application & form completion
In many cases, people don’t quite know what to enter into a particular field when they fill out a complex form. By activating a cobrowsing feature, the agent can see the form while the client is filling it out. So, if the client skips a required field, the agent can highlight that area to remind them of it and give instructions on what kind of answer is needed. This way, clients can fill out the form completely and submit it successfully.
Since cobrowsing allows agents to get an accurate visual representation of the client's experience, they can guide the customer and help them figure out how to resolve or troubleshoot problems. If the client is not tech-savvy, the tech support agent can perform actions on their behalf.
Cobrowsing software benefits: Why your contact center may need it
Cobrowsing technology enables contact center agents to connect with a customer's browser or app remotely. With this functionality, they can help anyone who's experiencing issues on a particular web page.
During a cobrowsing session, they can see exactly what a website visitor is looking at. They can also perform certain actions like scrolling the page, moving the cursor, or highlighting areas to guide the visitor.
The best part is they can take over and do things on behalf of the visitor. Of course, agent control has limitations in place—so there’s no need to worry about not having the final say on how the interaction will conclude. For example, they're not allowed to click buttons such as "Submit" or "Buy now." The visitor is always the one that must take the final step of the transaction.
In a nutshell, customers keep full control of their browser during the procedure. Meanwhile, contact center agents get partial permissions to aid customers in achieving their purpose or goal. This makes cobrowsing the perfect solution for businesses dedicated to improving customer experience on their web platform. Breaking it down, cobrowsing can help you:
- Reduce customer effort: Instead of those awkward calls where agents try to talk a customer through online processes, they can simply show them what to do. This makes it simpler and quicker for the customer to achieve what they’re looking for.
- Improve customer satisfaction: By reducing customer effort, you’ll boost customer satisfaction. Not only have you solved the customers problem quickly, but simply by having cobrowsing available, you’ve shown them that you care about your customers.
- Boost customer loyalty: More satisfied customers are typically more loyal customers. When was the last time you walked away from a brand you associated with great customer experience?
- Increase online conversions: Cobrowsing isn’t just useful for customer support, it can help your sales, too. For instance, a cobrowsing session can help agents better demonstrate the capabilities of online software for upselling and cross-selling purposes.
- Reduce average handle time: Not only is it often easier and more satisfying for customers to resolve issues with cobrowsing, it can be much faster, too. A quick collaborative demo often takes much less time than confusing back-and-forth over the phone or by live chat.
- Exceed customer expectations: When a customer reaches out, they may not know that cobrowsing is an option. Presenting them with the innovative solution to their issues, therefore, will exceed their expectations. Doing that is a great way to keep them happy and—if you’re lucky—get them singing your praises to others.
How to cobrowse with RingCX
With the RingCX omnichannel contact center solution, instead of letting online users navigate a page by themselves and leave if they can't find what they're looking for, your agents can start a cobrowse session to interact with them. By doing so, they can provide assistance in real time, resolve issues, and increase customer satisfaction.
The cobrowsing feature is available for Engage Chat and Engage Messaging channels in either Live Chat or Web modes. If your agent wants to start a cobrowsing session, they just follow these simple steps:
- Use the left navigation bar to navigate to Routing mode.
- Select the relevant messaging thread—the one with the customer in question—and open it in the middle panel.
- Explain the cobrowsing feature to the customer and ask their permission to start a collaborative browsing session.
- Once they grant their permission, select the Cobrowsing screen icon at the bottom of the screen, below the message field.
- The customer’s screen will then appear in the right pane, while the message thread remains on the left-hand side.
After a cobrowsing session is established, your agent can use either the Take control or Highlight tools to help the customer:
- Take control: The agent takes control of the customer’s screen by selecting the Take control icon at the the top-right of the interface. They can then do things like move the customer’s cursor, click links, fill in forms, and more.
- Highlight: The Highlight wand icon is also in the upper right corner. By selecting this, agents can select and highlight key areas of the customer’s screen. It’s a little less invasive option to point the customer in the right direction without taking full control.
Either the agent or the customer can end a cobrowsing session at any time. All that’s needed is to click the X icon at the top right.
The best cobrowsing solutions: What to look for
If you want to use cobrowse in customer service or sales in your contact center, you’ve got a fair bit of choice. There’s a wide range of cobrowsing software in the market. Identifying the right software for your contact center, though, can be tricky.
To help you find one that will work for you, here are some top features of cobrowse solutions that you should look out for:
- WebRTC-based: It’s crucial that your chosen cobrowse software is built with this technology because it enables real-time communication on mobile applications as well as browsers. This means there will be no downloads, installations, or plugins required for you and your clients.
- Data masking: This security feature hides sensitive information of customers from an agent’s view. This means that confidential data like social security numbers, credit card numbers, and passwords will be kept private.
- Session controls and restrictions: Customers must have full control over the cobrowsing session. Agents are only allowed to see and control what the customer wants them to access.
- Cobrowse code: This feature allows the agents and customers to start a cobrowsing session during a phone conversation.
- Mobile SDK: This feature lets agents provide support to your mobile app users, so they won’t have to switch to a mobile browser.
- Annotation tools: These cobrowsing software features enable agents to write text, highlight parts, and draw around the page to get the website visitor’s attention. They’re useful for giving visual instructions and clarifying complex transactions.
- Dual/named cursors: These help identify which actions belong to the agent or the website visitor. They eliminate confusion and make it easier for the customer to follow along.
- Omnichannel capability: Connect and cobrowse with your customers on their preferred channel: live chat, video chat, or phone call.
- Integrations: Integrate cobrowsing technology with your existing customer relationship management system and other third-party platforms.
Is cobrowsing safe?
Ensuring customer privacy is how businesses build stronger customer relationships. So it’s vital that you have a visual engagement platform that won’t put your customers at risk.
As long as you choose the right software provider, cobrowsing is safe to use because it has security measures and policies in place. In fact, banks and other financial institutions have been using it to give their clients a better digital banking experience.
Here are a few different ways to tell if a cobrowse solution is designed with top security in mind:
- During the session, the agent is only allowed to see the specific browser tab on which the client is asking for assistance. They can’t see other tabs or the entire customer desktop, so your client won’t have to worry about showing overly personal or unrelated details.
- Equipped with data masking, the client’s sensitive information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, and login credentials are hidden from the agent’s view.
- Agent controls are limited. For example, they can’t click the submit button, so they won’t be able to complete transactions or purchase products.
- Your clients don’t need to download or install any software, so they won’t have to worry about the risk of computer viruses.
Pro-tip: To ensure secure cobrowsing, partner with a service provider that’s verified by trusted institutions and that complies with all major data and security regulations. RingCentral, for example, is certified secure by AICPA, HIPAA, Hitrust, and McAfee.
Cobrowsing via RingCX: Another way for agents to provide better customer experience
The cobrowsing feature of RingCX is an extra tool in your agents’ toolbelts to ensure they can provide the best possible customer experience every time. Available for the Engage Chat and Engage Messaging channels, it lets agents add an extra visual and interactive element to live chat interactions. It’s perfect for when they need to demonstrate how to complete a process on a company website or online portal.
It’s just one part of the overall comprehensive RingCX feature set, too. By investing in RingCX for your contact center you get every channel and functionality you need to deliver top-class digital customer service and phone support, as well as sales and other outbound activities.
Get cobrowsing and a whole lot more with RingCX
Learn more about cobrowsing and the other features of RingCX today