8 Ways to Optimize your eCommerce Customer Service
Expectations for customer service are changing and increasing just as rapidly as the ever-growing pace of eCommerce space. According to Microsoft’s 2016 State of Global Customer Service Report, 61% of customers now view customer service as a crucial factor in choosing a brand.
When it comes to streamlining a business, customer service may not be your priority to invest money on, but you can’t overlook it. If you can optimize your customer service, it can help more than you think. Find your ways to take your customer service to a new level in this following list.
Why is customer service important?
Customer service maybe not be the most critical aspect in your business, but it is a vital key to create an ideal customer experience. It is an opportunity to retain your customers, build trust, and engage with them more rather than just interactions in a buyer-seller relationship.
Customer service is often at the heart of a business that wants to provide an exceptional experience that leaves the customers feeling valued and respected.
When a company attaches special importance to consistently delivering the service that creates the perfect experience for customers, they can get significant benefits from it. They can increase customer loyalty, which makes them come back to your brand to purchase again. In other words, it encourages customers to spend more money on your products with satisfaction. Besides, it makes sure that customers who have a great experience in your customer service will deliver positive word-of-mouth about your business. It’s helpful for your marketing.
8 Best ways to optimize your eCommerce customer service
Develop a multi-channel strategy
Customers can now communicate and interact with brands via several channels due to the development of social media. After buying a product from you, a customer can review your products on any social platform that he or she uses. It can be a blog post, a Facebook status, or tweet, or even a Youtube video.
Deploying a multi-channel strategy means delivering your customer service across a variety of promotional and distribution channels. This enables you to reach, connect, and develop a close rapport with your customers.
It’s essential to identify which channels your customers usually use, which one they prefer communicating with you. Besides, it also depends on the specification of your products. Choose the right channels and let your customers know about the availability of channels you provide. Nevertheless, it’s critical to ensure the quality of customer service you deliver on all the channels.
Provide a 24/7 live chat
Offering live chat service is an ideal way to communicate with customers quickly and conveniently. The statistic shows that live chat occupies the highest level of customer satisfaction with 73% compared to other channels such as email and phone.
A “How can we help you” message from a live chat can refrain a customer from leaving your site when they find something challenging when browsing your website. You can help customers solve their problems promptly. Let them know you are always available.
Personalize each customer’s experience
Personalization is more and more powerful when it comes to customer experience; customer service is not an exception. Customers are increasingly expecting a personalized shopping experience in an online store. It is beneficial not only for customers themselves but also for you to have an excellent rapport with your customers.
There are many ways to personalize the shopping experience for your customers. For example, you can allow each customer to create an account that can help them track their purchase details, check out quickly, or even get the membership’s benefits if available. A phone call to verify the information after ordering is a good idea as well.
Show billing history
Customers choose you, not your competitors, because they trust you more. So transparency is one of the essential factors that you need to make clear to your customers.
When customers purchase from your store, they want to know every information related to their purchase to make sure their choices are right. So it’s your responsibility to provide them the right to access relevant information about their account, order status, purchase history, or billing history. Let them know about every transaction and inquiry they have made.
Use customer service software
It’s a terrible experience if your customers have to go through all your channels to spread their inquiries because they haven’t got the desired responses. This situation is somehow not in your control. That’s why you need help from customer service software, which can accelerate the process more efficiently.
Using ticketing - one of the most popular parts of every CRM (customer relationship management) software - is the right choice. CRM software streamlines your process to retain a good relationship with customers, help you to interact and connect with customers consistently.
Offer 24 hours phone support
Many customers prefer talking to a real person to get better and more personalized support. So if you can provide them a 24 live hour answering service, it helps customers stay connected with you and get assistance whenever they need it.
Besides, you can engage with customers in a way that makes them essential to your brand. If you have enough capabilities to develop 24 hours phone support, you need to ensure that regardless of any timezone, when customers call you for help, receive and return their calls to tell them what they are demanding.
Formulate a coherent return policy
The return policy is also an aspect that customers use it to compare you with your competitors. Before placing an order, customers are more likely to wonder whether they can return a product if they don’t like it. Hence, the easy-to-understand return policy will make your customers feel more secure about their purchase, and they will trust your brand more. Keep your customers well-informed about your terms and policies of after-sales service, especially return policy.
Measure and analyze customer satisfaction
If you have made your efforts to improve your customer service, to get the best result, it’s crucial to measure and analyze customer satisfaction - one of the most critical factors determining whether your customer service improvement successes.
If you wonder how customers feel when experiencing your service, why don’t you ask them? Customers’ feedback, both positive or negative, is all valuable. You can send them a survey and get the answers to what you are questioning about the result of everything you have done to enhance your customer service.
Conclusion
Customer service plays a vital role in differentiating your business from others. To grow your business in a highly competitive eCommerce space, you need to invest more in creating the experience that is about your customers. Aside from some ideas mentioned in this article, a professional and well-trained team of customer representatives is imperative to make the customer service experience is enjoyable for your customers.
Author & Bio:
Jade Nguyen is a content creator at Avada Commerce, a book lover, and a hodophile. She loves to learn skills and practical knowledge to excel at marketing, especially content marketing.