Increase Smartphone Engagement with TouchGuides

Allison Howen
by Allison Howen 08 Jan, 2015

As mobile traffic continues to increase, brands need to find better way to engage their customers on the small screen.

This is where TouchCommerce's TouchGuides solution comes into play. The TouchGuides solution, which is available for desktops and mobile devices, aims to help customers move through websites via self-service. The solution offers automated guides that help customers resolve repetitive issues without straining a brand's customer service resources. Plus, the mobile version of TouchGuides has been designed and tested to offer an intuitive user experience specifically intended for the mobile environment.

Total Gym Fitness is an example of an early adopter that has seen positive results with the implementation of mobile TouchGuides. The fitness company noticed that there were opportunities to better engage smartphone visitors by optimizing usability and recognizing the different nuances in smartphone user behavior versus desktop and tablet.

"As we continue to see traffic shift to smartphones, our engagement strategies must follow the consumer and what consumers perceive as their desired shopping process," said Bernard Louvat, president and CEO of TouchCommerce. "TouchCommerce is continually developing and testing new solutions in collaboration with brands like Total Gym Fitness to identify shopper preferences and incorporate the latest ecommerce best practices in today's omni-channel environment."

After implementation, Total Gym Fitness saw significant increases in mobile engagement by adding mobile guides as an option for smartphone users. According to the company's data, live chat is responsible for more than 70 percent of orders that TouchCommerce secures for Total Gym through its online engagement program. That said, a recent A/B test on Total Gym's site reveals that visitors coming from smartphones were five times more likely to engage with an automated mobile guide than click to chat for assistance in the early stage navigation of the site. This data shows that shoppers have a different browsing mentality when visiting a retail website on their smartphones compared to desktops and tablets.

"For us, mobile guides have been very effective in boosting interactions with our smartphone visitors who may not have engaged with us through other online engagement channels," said Joe Crowley, vice president of marketing at Total Gym Fitness, LLC. "In our partnership with TouchCommerce, we are always assessing new strategies and optimizations to take our customer engagement program to the next level. It's always exciting to see when a new approach resonates and yields results."