Introducing the Assisted Service Module (ASM)

The customer support team has two tools at their disposal to assist customers:

• The Assisted Service Module (ASM) is an overlay on the site’s front end that allows an agent to provide real-time customer sales and service support by navigating the same storefront as the customer with which they are interacting.
• The Customer Support Cockpit is a Backoffice perspective that provides customer administration tools not available in ASM.

Using the Assisted Service Module, customer support agents can do the following:

• Locate an existing customer on the site (or create an account for them if they don’t yet have one) and assume that customer’s identity for the duration of the support call.
• Act on the customer’s behalf, using whatever features the customer is having trouble with to achieve the support call’s desired outcome, be it complete a purchase, perform a return, update the customer’s profile, and so on.

Using the Backoffice Customer Support Cockpit, customer support agents can do the following:

• Create, manage, and close customer support tickets
• Approve customer product reviews
• Approve or reject orders flagged as potential fraud

In this course, we will focus on the Assisted Service Module (ASM).

In the short term, the ASM serves to increase customer satisfaction.

Assisting a customer by co-browsing during their purchase journey reduces the likelihood the cart will be abandoned, and helps build trust, which in turn can translate in future sales.

When a customer calls for assistance, the Customer Support Agent will usually want to log into the ASM. They can do that directly from the Customer Support Cockpit, or they can access the ASM directly by adding a parameter to the website URL:

?asm=true

For example, to use the ASM on the Apparel storefront, the CS Agent would use the following URL:

https://YOURWEBSTORE/apparel-uk-spa/en/GBP?asm=true

Access to the ASM is granted to members of specific user groups:

• Customer Support Agents have permission to access the My Account area on behalf of a selected customer.
• Customer Support Managers have that same access, but may also finalize and place the actual order.

Using the ASM, the customer service agent can do the following:

• Locate an existing customer on the site
• Create a new customer
• Locate a customer’s cart
• Assume the role of the calling customer to complete an order on the customer’s behalf, update their profile, write a review, open a support ticket, and so on
• Cancel or return either part or all of a customer’s order
• Apply special coupons to the current order that remain valid only during the support call
• Access the calling customer’s order history
• Access a 360° View of the calling customer, showing their customer profile and preferences, user activity, shopping history, and so on.

The Assisted Service Module (ASM) UI appears as a header above the customer-facing website. As shown in the following figure, it initially displays a login form to allow the customer service agent to present their credentials.

When the agent has logged in, they can search for a customer by name or select the Customers button to select pick-up-in-store customers or recent customer sessions.

When a customer is selected, the ASM logs them in, and the agent is informed that customer emulation has started, and that their actions will affect the customer’s account until the session is ended using the End Session button.