What is cobrowse? How is it different from screen share?

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Glance Networks’ simple, reliable visual engagement platform – with integrated cobrowse, screen share, one-way agent video – seamlessly blends with existing voice and chat functionality. The solutions leverages intelligence from your CRM so agents can easily provide guidance for improved customer satisfaction, loyalty, revenue growth, and savings.

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According to a recent Forrester Research paper, “Companies increasingly leverage visual engagement – video, cobrowsing, screen sharing, and annotations – to cut through the customer conversation clutter, to be better understood, and to connect emotionally.”

Visual engagement refers to the practice of using technology to make customers feel as though there were a person in the room with them, guiding them through online processes. Agents can instantly see customers’ screens and take customers through complex transactions, processes, forms, demos, and more using such technologies as cobrowsing software, screen share, and one-way agent video.

Chat and phone support can be good starting places for providing a humanized customer experience. But with chat or phone alone, agents are still stuck asking questions such as, “Are you on the website?” and “What do you see?”

Visual engagement takes the situation to the next level, bringing true efficiency and effectiveness of customer interactions. You can skip right over the first several minutes of questions and dive directly into helping and guiding customers wherever they are.

Cobrowsing software and screen sharing are the two key technologies that are used to enable organizations to achieve this goal. But what exactly is a cobrowse solution? And how is it different from screen sharing?

Cobrowse

Cobrowsing solutions enable agents and customers to be on the same page – literally. With the click of a button, agents can instantly view and interact with customers’ web browsers. Thus, they can provide live, personalized guidance through complex processes. Note that agents can only see the pages that have been enabled with cobrowse, and not any other open browser tabs or open applications on a customer’s computer.

When would you want to use a cobrowse solution? Cobrowsing is great for improving customer experience in both sales and customer service situations.

Read: Supercharge Customer Experience With Cobrowse

Let’s say, for example, a customer wants to purchase or alter his healthcare plan. However, that same customer might be lost in the various options offered and unsure about where to find the information he needs. He might even call into the company to get guidance from a representative. But the agent who picks up doesn’t necessarily understand where the customer is on the site or what the customer is clicking.

Moreover, the agent has to ask a range of questions, such as, “Do you see the red button on the web page?” And the answer to that might be a resounding, “No!” This results in frustration on both the agent and the customer sides, exacerbating an already sensitive conversation.

A cobrowse solution, on the other hand, allows the agent to move around within the browser, highlighting relevant information and guiding customers through tricky processes. With no download necessary, they’re instantly ready to share. Poof – frustration has disappeared, the situation can be quickly resolved, and the agent has trimmed several minutes of unnecessary questions off of the call.

Read: How Intuit Made Outstanding Customer Experience More Visible

Concerned about cobrowse privacy and security? Be sure you invest in a solution that is highly secure and reliable. You should also be able to mask (hide) specific sensitive fields to protect customer privacy. The solution gets bonus points if sessions are encrypted, agents have role-based permissions, and you can incorporate SAML/SSO integrations. Finally, if you are an organization that is required to follow certain guidelines and regulations (like HIPAA or PCI), make sure the solution you choose is appropriately certified as well.

Screen Share

When agents are interested in showing customers something that is outside the browser, a screen share solution is the answer. Screen sharing allows agents to show their screen or view and control the customer’s screen.

For instance, with screen share technology, sales people can present, demo, or share information that is on their screens. With the click of a button, prospects can instantly see what is on the agent’s screen and the demo is off and running. Alternatively, you can use reverse screen share in a customer support situation to fix any problems a customer might be experiencing.

Read: Mind-blowing ROI Statistics to Make Your Business Case for Cobrowsing, Screen Sharing, and Agent Video

In a customer service situation, agents can, for example, take a customer through a complex billing situation, even if the bill is on a PDF on the customer’s desktop. Agents can guide customers through the process as though they were in the room together, alleviating stress and quickly clarifying even complex situations. Even better, agents can empower customers by teaching them to handle such complex process themselves. Teaching customers to handle processes on their own is a boon to both the customers and the business!

At times, agents may need to toggle between “show” and “view” mode. Luckily, that is entirely doable with today’s top solutions and only takes a click to achieve.

The Ideal Solution

Be sure when you are researching solutions that you invest in a solution that will enable you to expand it as your business needs grow. Look for a solution that is able to support a true enterprise implementation.

Read: Three Things You Must Do To Get Video Calls Right

Moreover, be sure that you understand the customers’ path as your agents interact with them over time. You may want a solution that allows you to proactively discover when your highest value customers are on your site. Or you may want to start with only cobrowse or screen share capabilities. That said, more often than not, it is to your advantage to have both.

When you’re ready, you might even decide to add one-way agent video, enabling customers to see the representative in order to build trust, rapport, and credibility.

Ready to bring integrated cobrowse, screen share, and agent video to your company? Check out the free eBook: Do I need visual engagement software? Want a more personalized look at visual engagement? Contact Glance for a personalized demo.

Are you ready to discover how Glance visual engagement solutions can improve customer engagement and increase sales for your business?

Sign up for your personalized Glance demo today!

About Glance Networks

Glance helps enterprise organizations create the ultimate customer experience with smart, omni-channel visual engagement solutions based around integrated cobrowse, screen share, and one-way agent video. We are one of the world’s simplest, most reliable and secure platforms that enable companies to see, show and share anything online, creating a frictionless path to great experiences in sales, support and customer service. The result is improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, increased revenue growth and operational savings. From financial services and healthcare to retail and travel and leisure, even the most advanced technology and SaaS organizations – we transform the customer experience for today’s business. Learn More »

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