Customer service is critical regardless of the platform on which you conduct your eCommerce business. Prioritizing clients through 24/7 customer service can significantly increase your sales. It can also generate a loyal customer base and great reviews for your company.
If you do not value your clients through customer service, they will go to your competition. There are currently thousands of possibilities available on the web for customer product purchases.
In order to satisfy their clients, eCommerce enterprises must remodel their customer service alternatives. Otherwise, there will be gaps between service and customer expectations, which will cost you money in the long term. This post will walk you through some practical customer service best practices.
What is eCommerce Customer Service?
eCommerce customer service provides the structure for assisting customers through e-commerce platforms and throughout their life cycles. Support for online enterprises must take into account the particular problems of supplying digital consumers:
- Large numbers of service and support requests
- Frequent inquiries about items, fulfillment, and returns
- In addition, monitor many channels with rapid reaction times
Among these issues, the customer experience takes precedence. Your service team is tasked (quite literally) with becoming the voice of your brand—the one human touchpoint in an otherwise transactional and digital world.
The issue of disconnected voices may not be as pressing for early-stage enterprises. Very likely because the folks speaking with consumers are the same people who founded the company. And that is what customers adore about small enterprises.
The essential voice of your brand will disperse away from the core stakeholders. And this is where the major e-commerce sites fall short. They accept it as an inevitability and concentrate on the procedure rather than the emotion. Because it is simpler to scale.
Why is eCommerce Customer Service Important?
Consumers now differentiate brands depending on their experience with customer service. As a result, providing an outstanding customer experience is critical if you want your consumers to return.
To improve your e-commerce sales, however, you must deliver the service in accordance with the standard. Otherwise, you risk losing not only sales but also your reputation and brand image. Let’s look at some statistics on customer service to see why it’s important.
Oberlo claims:
- Customer service assisted 84% of customers in making a purchase.
- Customer service is a major factor in brand loyalty, according to 95% of respondents.
- 68% of customers are willing to acquire items and services from organizations that provide exceptional customer service.
With all of these statistics in mind, customer service in eCommerce is important.
eCommerce Customer Service Best Practices
So, what constitutes an effective strategy to commerce customer service? A good plan will comprise the following six major components:
#1. Well-defined communication channels
You can give customer service through a multitude of communication channels. But you must choose those channels wisely—after all, you can’t be everywhere at once.
Choose support channels that are appropriate for your online store’s strategy and scope. Smaller firms, for example, may solely provide email assistance, whereas larger businesses may additionally give support through social platforms.
#2. A straightforward, user-friendly interface
Consumers may easily locate what they’re looking for thanks to a clear, user-friendly design. Fundamentally, you want to make it simple to contact your customer service personnel. This entails creating user-friendly navigation and an on-page user experience on your website.
#3. A self-service alternative
The most successful e-commerce businesses allow online shoppers to solve their own problems before contacting a customer service representative. You may quickly limit the quantity of support questions by creating a resource—a Frequently Asked Questions page or a Help Center—that covers both the fundamentals and the most frequently asked questions.
#4. Adding a personal touch
Personalization is typically appreciated by internet customers. According to a PwC survey on customer experience, 71% of Americans prefer to contact a live customer service professional rather than a chatbot.
Every e-commerce company can handle the concept of personalization differently. When things go wrong or online buyers have issues, it can entail giving an email or phone help from a real person (not a bot!) It can also include particular customer service language and post-purchase follow-ups, such as modest gestures like placing stickers or notes in your packing or sending personalized emails.
#5. Having clear expectations—and being able to meet them
Internet buyers want brands to meet or exceed their expectations. So much so that, according to Microsoft’s 2020 State of Global Customer Service study, 58% of customers are willing to end their engagement with a brand if it falls short. This could include being difficult to reach when a customer has a query or taking too long to process a return.
The solution is straightforward: Establish clear expectations for your response times. Then, live up to or above their expectations. If your phone support is limited to a set time window, be clear about it. Therefore, if response times are lengthier on weekends, be clear about it—or, better yet, make an exception to satisfy a customer’s demands on occasion.
#6. Participation in customer reviews
Customer reviews are a terrific tool to sort through customer feedback. And, by engaging and responding to them, you have a deeper understanding of what your customers want from your e-commerce business—because you are providing proactive customer service.
Proactive customer service is meeting a customer’s needs before they contact you or your customer service team, and it’s an excellent method to instill trust in your e-commerce business and maintain loyal customers. By acknowledging reviews, both positive and negative, you give your online customers the impression that they are both heard and appreciated.
Read Also: E-Commerce Personalization: Examples, Trends & Software Solutions
The Benefits of Effective eCommerce Customer Service
Excellent e-commerce customer service is beneficial not only to online shoppers but also to e-commerce businesses. Here’s how it works:
#1. Customer Retention
When online shoppers feel appreciated, their feeling of customer loyalty grows. According to PwC’s analysis of customer experience, firms that provide excellent customer service attract clients who are more inclined to subscribe to newsletters, sign up for promotions, and make repeat purchases. It has a measurable financial impact that can help your bottom line.
#2. Increasing customer numbers.
Good news travels quickly. The more frequently your consumers have a pleasant experience, the more probable it is that they will spread the word about it and send new clients to your online business, producing more value for you along the way.
#3. Increasing conversion rates.
The E-commerce conversion rate is a crucial indicator that might be challenging to increase. Excellent customer service can assist potential buyers to get over the hump and move the most crucial conversion metric you have: sales.
Selecting the Best Channels for Customer Service
Brands must therefore maintain a presence across all channels. Furthermore, they must employ each in distinct and acceptable ways.
#1. Social media.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade, you’re aware that social media is now everywhere. It’s no longer a place for amusing videos and witty remarks. Customers expect brands to frequent this area.
You must maintain and monitor accounts on the networks most popular with your target demographic. This might include old favorites like Facebook or a more current video platform. Engaging clients through methods they prefer demonstrates concern and, as a result, creates confidence.
#2. Email.
It’s easy to believe that social media and instant messaging have supplanted email. In truth, it’s still a very popular method of customer communication for internet shops. Nonetheless, they frequently demand responses in the same time frame as on other, more instantaneous platforms.
You must then maintain strict control over your inboxes. But don’t sacrifice personalization for quickness. Consumers do not want their requests or inquiries to be replied to with a blatant prefabricated message.
#3. Interactive conversation.
Live chat is becoming an increasingly significant support channel for internet companies. Real-time support is highly valued by customers. Being able to provide it can assist you to retain potential clients who would otherwise leave your site.
It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a live chat option on your website. Live chat is available when customer service personnel are available. Customers can also ‘leave a message,’ which will be returned when an agent is available.
#4. Telephone assistance.
Many consumers still prefer to get answers to their questions by phone.
Make sure your website has a phone number. You might also look into CTI software to further integrate phone assistance. This can let you add phone calls and the information they convey to your CRM and other systems.
#5. Blog posts.
You could believe that an e-commerce blog is all about customer acquisition. Of course, you may utilize it as a medium to help with content and video promotion. But, it is also a helpful tool for self-service customer assistance.
You should maintain your blog updated with helpful stuff for current and potential customers. Concentrate on frequent inquiries concerning your items. And the problems they can alleviate for your target audience. You can also utilize knowledge bases to exchange comparable stuff.
The Best E-commerce Customer Service Tools
Hopefully, you now understand the significance of e-commerce customer service. You should also have plenty of ideas about where you can improve. This could be accomplished by enhancing your omnichannel strategy. It could imply using live chat to improve response times. Regardless of your path, the following resources may be useful.
#1. RingCentral
RingCentral provides a unified communications platform. It’s a terrific option for brands trying to improve their omnichannel support. The firm’s solution combines multiple channels. They include the phone, the finest video conferencing for small businesses, instant messaging, and more. All through a single interface.
Furthermore, the company’s apps and tools have numerous third-party integrations. As a result, they can coexist with other solutions. Among these are numerous order management and CRM systems.
All of your customer data and insights are thus easily available throughout your organization.
#2. Tidio.
Tidio provides live chat solutions. The company’s live chat options are simple to implement into an e-commerce website. Furthermore, chatbot technology supports and augments them.
That is, a Tidio live chat solution can assist you in improving response times. When you have customer service personnel online, they can connect with visitors immediately. At other times, the AI-powered bot can respond to typical questions. Or it can direct them to your knowledge base.
#3. LiveChat.
LiveChat provides specialized online customer service software. As a result, it can assist you in reaching new heights of e-commerce customer service.
Hundreds of different apps can be linked to the online chat solution. These include the IM channels used by your customers as well as the CRM or order management software you utilize. Hence, LiveChat may supplement your omnichannel customer service approach.
In e-commerce, how is customer service provided?
Internet firms must support clients in order to make better online purchasing selections and fix problems as promptly as possible. You can accomplish this by instructing your customer service representatives to provide assistance through channels that your clients prefer.
How Can I Improve Online E-commerce Customer Service?
You can improve your e-commerce customer service by using the following strategies:
- Provide proactive customer service.
- On your online store, enable a live chat window.
- Make a knowledge base available to customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Automate your customer service processes.
What is Multi-channel Ecommerce Customer Service?
Multi-channel e-commerce customer service entails providing clients with a variety of communication methods (email, phone, live chat, social media, etc.). The goal is to deliver a uniform and seamless customer experience regardless of the channel they use.
Conclusion
Good customer service is the growth engine for e-commerce firms.
Unquestionably, excellent customer service provides a competitive advantage. It is one of the few current and future e-commerce trends that will remain regardless of how congested the market becomes. Everyone recognizes this, but few understand how to put it into practice successfully.
Start with the necessary tools to lay a solid foundation. Create systems that will allow your support team to scale their resources.
The most significant of these resources is your brand’s distinct voice and ability to establish personal connections.
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