Increasingly, consumers are turning to online shopping as a means to purchase products and services, which has made ecommerce customer service a focal point for those in business.
Online customers have easy access to a myriad of social media platforms through which they can share their experiences with a business. Thousands of people can be immediately reached by tweeting, updating their status, or setting up blog posts in seconds.
You are at risk of destroying your brand image in one short negative review from a dissatisfied customer. In this respect, it is crucial that you provide the best customer service possible to your customers.
In order to ensure that your ecommerce business strategy is successful, customer service should be at the center of it because when you provide excellent service, you expand your customer base.
The following is a list of 13 best practices for your business that can help improve ecommerce customer service.
- Create an omnichannel marketing strategy
With an omnichannel strategy, you manage to reach, interact with, and build a relationship with your customers in a single place by blending and connecting different marketing and distribution channels. In order to implement a successful omnichannel strategy for retail, the end goal is often optimization for results – that’s the thing we’re after.
In terms of retail strategy, omnichannel retailing has become the norm
It seems that one of the greatest ways to improve ecommerce customer service is by switching to an omnichannel approach of retailing.
In the world of e-commerce, there is fierce competition throughout the world today, so when brands fail to determine what is the best channel to use in their customer service, they suffer.
Nonetheless, in order to achieve top-notch customer service, it is not enough to rely on just one channel. Customers are no longer limited to a few channels.
Can you find your customers on Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp? Is it a matter of preferring to be contacted by email or phone? You’re more than welcome. Please be sure to do so. When you create a multi-channel strategy, you make it possible to reach out to your customers wherever and whenever they need you.
According to a study conducted by Aberdeen Group, companies with the most effective multichannel customer engagement strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers.
Taking care of your customers is important, and you should not have to ask them for it – you should take care of it directly. Make their lives a lot easier by relieving them of the pain of waiting for a response for days on end.
As you set up these channels for customer service with your ecommerce business, make sure you let your customers know that they have options that they can choose from. And the most important thing to remember is to ensure that you are providing quality customer service across all your channels as well.
- Provide live chat services
The live chat application on a website is a fast way for customers to talk to customer service representatives as well as a convenient method of resolving problems quickly.
A live chat service can be beneficial to your ecommerce website for many reasons. Let me give you a few examples. First of all, customers love having live chat available. Econsultancy reports that live chats are amongst the most popular ways to assist customers.
The benefits of live chat solutions
With live chat in place, customers can quickly contact you to resolve any issues they encounter when they cannot complete a purchase on your website. If your customer faces challenges during this process, they may decide to leave your website. In addition to this, it acts as a perfect contact point for queries regarding the warranty, return policy, and the payment process for the product.
Obtain a live chat service
Having live chat as part of your customer service strategy is a no-brainer.
Check your ecommerce site’s history periodically if you already use live chat to interact with your customers. You will notice if your chats are proving to be effective or not.
In this article we will explore some other strategies that can be used to improve ecommerce customer service.
- A proactive approach to customer service
The way in which customer relations are handled creates a positive impression on the customer. The best way to provide exceptional customer service is to approach customer service with a proactive approach, so that potential issues can be dealt with before they arise. This means that ecommerce firms operate in a way that their partners are not seen as abstract organizations, but as real-life partners.
An article states that 50% of customers consider it important to be able to resolve product or service issues on their own, and that 70% are expecting a company’s website to provide them with a self-service option.
It provides customers with instant access to instant solutions if they are looking for answers to all the frequently asked questions without having to contact the customer support. The contact information on your website still needs to be clearly visible, however, so that customers can easily contact you if they cannot handle the issue themselves.
- Personalize your email campaigns
According to a study, 94% of business owners believe that personalization is the key to their success. Despite this, many ecommerce websites still send this type of email:
It is very easy for people to ignore emails that do not contain any personalization. In some cases, they do not directly address the customer – perhaps they even think it’s an error, or simply that it has nothing to do with them. A personalized message that mentions your customer’s name on the other hand, makes them feel appreciated, leading to a higher email open rate.
Here’s a more technical way to improve ecommerce customer service.
- Predicting the amount of inventory that will be needed
You can fulfill customer demands on time if you forecast your inventory requirements in advance.
Calculate your reordering point – how much to order and at what time.
As a result of ordering excess quantities, we are obligated to carry the costs of inventory, whereas ordering less will encourage us to replenish our inventory more often.
- Automate and optimize the fulfillment of online orders
You should consider moving away from the manual order fulfillment system that you have been using to an automated order fulfillment system as soon as possible. Order fulfillment systems that are manually handled are prone to human error, slow, and inefficient. The use of an automated system that handles the entire process from the beginning to the end will pay off in the long run as it will improve productivity and customer satisfaction as well as save you time.
A perfect example of this is Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) – If you are using Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) for stocking and shipping, the service simplifies things by fulfilling orders on your behalf.
When using Amazon FBA, you can calculate the shipping costs from a variety of sources in real-time and choose the most cost-effective option that suits your needs.
The list of things we can do to improve e-commerce customer service is about half-done, so let’s move on to the next item.
- Identify gaps in your order management process
The ecommerce industry faces this problem often. As soon as parts of the order management process system aren’t stitched together properly, then issues can occur and there can be all kinds of errors.
An order fulfillment process that is transparent is the most important element of improving the success of an order fulfillment model. In the case of businesses that don’t streamline their fulfillment processes, they can end up sending the wrong orders, or even miss out on deliveries entirely.
This issue can be avoided by automating the process as it eliminates the error caused by human error so often the cause of this kind of miscommunication.
- Tell a story to sell your brand
I am done with the sales emails, blog posts, and other marketing content you have been sending me. Make sure that you tell your brand’s story in a manner that resonates with your customers so that they will want to buy from you.
It is not common for customers to be sold to, but engaging them with information that is relevant to them, while being consistent with your brand, will keep your brand fresh in their mind, turning them into advocates for your brand.
Instead of pushing your product or service on your customers, a content marketing campaign instead allows you to create value for them and encourage them to buy.
A great example of a company that tells a story is Dannijo, a jewelry brand started by sisters Danielle and Jodie Snyder in 2008. Danielle and Jodie Snyder are firm believers that the key to building successful brands is telling authentic stories. Using Instagram, the sisters display photographs of their own lives, as well as lifestyle shots of their products and photos of celebrities or models wearing their products.
- Engage your mobile customers and stay connected to them
You need to make sure that you are as mobile-savvy as your customers are. To ensure that you accept payments on mobile devices, make sure your payment processor supports it. In fact, there are a number of ecommerce sites that don’t offer mobile payment options, but it’s a sure-fire way to lose out on sales. There is nothing more annoying than selecting what you wish to purchase, only to discover that you cannot checkout.
Providing your customers with a secure mobile payment system makes sense for your business. If you do not provide them with this service, you are doing your business a disservice.
- Provide a 24-hour phone support service
Customers prefer to talk to customer service representatives over the phone in some situations, especially when it comes to complaints. Develop a 24-hour phone support capability if possible to meet these needs and make sure customers remain engaged.
A number of products are available to take voicemails when you are not connected to the internet. By offering a live answering service that is available 24/7, however, you are enabling your customers to speak to a real person when they want.
An important aspect of the human experience is the human touch. Take the time to invest in this level of support, and you will see your ecommerce customer support inspire customers and drive more sales.
- Take advantage of e-commerce customer service software
Having a question from a customer spread across multiple representatives can be very frustrating. There is a real danger of customers not getting their questions answered properly if this is the case. In my opinion, it is not fair to force your customer to explain their issue over and over again.
Conversational customer experience software simplifies the process of resolving problems – the most common tool for handling problems is the use of tickets.
According to SalesForce, “CRMs are software programs that are used to manage all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and prospects. It enables you to stay connected to them, streamline processes, and maximize your profitability.”
The best ecommerce customer service software will ease your life through automation and help you make informed decisions that will increase your return on investment as well.
- Assess the level of customer satisfaction
You should pay special attention to measuring your customer satisfaction since this is the most relevant metric for improving your overall customer service and marketing strategies.
As long as your company is using CRM software, after each customer support session you can ask customers to fill out a survey, indicating how happy they are with the service they received. You may even want to send a follow-up email asking for the client’s experience or to write a brief review that you can place on your website or social media.
There is nothing complicated about it, but this type of feedback is extremely effective, as it provides insights into what you’re doing well, and what you can do better in the future.
- Display billing history
Invoices, purchase histories, transactions, and inquiries are all items that customers expect to have access to. Their dashboards should show them all. Provide easy access to everything.
It’s important to let them know why they can’t access this data at some point so that they don’t get unduly concerned.
A final word on ecommerce customer service
Your ecommerce business will grow if you provide an unrivaled experience for your customers. By using the ideas in this post, you can make your ecommerce business a success with proper planning, strategy, and implementation.
Have you improved ecommerce customer service through your online store? Which of these suggestions worked for you or did we miss something? Leave a comment!