Competition is growing in all areas of eСommerce.
As a result, it is becoming more and more challenging to promote sites and products.
So try to focus on customer service improvement. High-quality support can help your business stand out from the crowd.
We have analyzed the best practices and different tools to do just that and want to share real tips on building effective customer service with you.
Why do you need effective eCommerce customer service?
Customer service is one of the main factors in the success of any eCommerce business.
According to an American Express and Ebquity study, many customers are willing to pay more to receive a higher level of service!
This is because many users in the age of digitalization have inflated expectations.
We are used to making purchases in a few clicks and spending very little time on them.
We expect help when it comes to choosing the right product at the right price.
That's why the eCommerce business is increasingly focused on customer service.
This includes various solutions, tools, and services for faster and easier decision-making.
eCommerce customer service depends on many factors:
- User-friendly interface and menu structure at the eCommerce website;
- Availability of round-the-clock customer service;
- A large selection of products or services;
- A detailed description;
- Interesting content on the pages of the site;
- Loyalty programs and all kinds of promotions or discounts on products;
- Personalization and automated lead processing;
- Convenient purchase menu
Every eCommerce business should strive to make the process of product selection and purchase quick, easy, and convenient.
Trust us, it won't take much time.
Your site's navigation should be straightforward and intuitive for your customers.
And if necessary, the user should be able to turn for help from managers and receive personalized advice.
7 best practices to build your eCommerce customer service
We've outlined the best practices for building a quality customer experience in the eCommerce business.
This will help you build a better customer experience, regardless of your website type or target audience.
Advise customers in live chat
Enable your customers to be able to communicate with your business's customer service team.
Online chats are the best tool for advising and helping customers choose products or services.
Almost 80% of companies say that live chat has increased sales for their business.
There are many advanced widgets you can use on your eCommerce business website.
Make sure shoppers can get help with live chat in a language they are comfortable with.
If your business is open 24/7, then you should be ready to advise customers around the clock.
This can greatly increase loyalty among your target audience.
You can use a live chat with a feedback feature.
This way even if your customer service team is offline, users can leave a request to get a consultation later.
Leverage social media and messengers for omnichannel support
Every online business needs to be multichannel.
Your users will have different preferences regarding communication channels.
If possible, you should try to meet the needs of all your customers.
One way you can do that is by providing your shoppers with the ability to follow business news or get customer support through different messengers.
For example, your brand should have active profiles on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other social services.
Don't limit yourself to just one network, otherwise, it can diminish the loyalty of some customers.
After all, not everyone will be able to follow updates and keep in touch with your business only through a single channel.
Moreover, it’s easy to use a social media marketplace to boost your presence.
Remember that the social media market is very active, so you must have a variety of platforms for your customers to choose from.
Use the best SMM (social media marketing) techniques to communicate with users on different platforms.
These include regular social media postings, the introduction of loyalty programs, and product updates through various channels.
This will increase your brand loyalty several times over.
Implement self-service solutions
Customers should not be dependent on the work schedule of any eCommerce business employees or other factors.
Self-service is a priority for companies of all kinds.
You can integrate various tools and widgets for self-purchase, payment, and order tracking 24/7 into your site's operation.
Entrepreneurs often make the mistake of not allowing users to make immediate purchases on the site.
This leads to a loss of customers.
Instead, ensure your customers can buy any item on your website in a few clicks without sacrificing online safety.
Additionally, keep all the data up-to-date such as prices, features, and other information about products or services.
Offer fast and personalized customer service
Your job is to provide fast and personalized service.
Make sure that your shoppers can get a quick response to their requests.
You don't have to hire a large support team to do this!
There are many tools, such as an AI chatbot or a feature-rich CRM, that you can use.
This will allow you to process customer requests quickly and effectively.
In addition, take care to include personalization on your site.
You can do this by leveraging the data you have about your customers such as name, user history, demographics, purchasing habits, and whatnot.
The goal here is to offer a unique customer experience crafted carefully for a specific user.
Feel free to send clients personalized messages, reward them for loyalty, and occasionally make special offers via messenger or email.
They will definitely appreciate that!
To collect users’ information, you can enable them to create personal accounts on your site where they will share some contact details, their product preferences, and so on.
Learn customer behavior
Most SEO and marketing professional services allow you to study user behavior on a site.
In particular, Google Ads and other search engine tools have such functionality.
For example, you can track how much time users spend on certain pages.
You can also analyze the depth of crawl and percentage of bounce from studying the content on certain pages.
These metrics will help you spot content that is uninteresting and uninformative so that you can replace it in order to increase the engagement of your target audience.
- Determine which pages have the highest bounce rate and lowest depth of view.
- It may be due to poor structure, generic text(s), or an unattractive sales pitch
- Make changes and track the dynamics
- This way, you can improve your website performance.
In addition, track customers' progress on their way to making a purchase.
Oftentimes, users abandon a transaction when the product is already in the shopping cart.
- This happens because of:
- an inconvenient payment system,
- inaccurate prices,
- payment gateway errors,
- etc.
This information will help find the vulnerability and fix the errors.
Apply proper automation
According to Statista, 12% of Americans say they get frustrated with customer service when it’s slow.
What can help is automation.
So, skip manual order processing tools and try to have each order processed automatically without a call or other confirmation from the user.
There are many tools for this!
For example:
- You can use a feature-rich CRM system with automatic purchase processing, systematization, and notification of the order formation department
- You can integrate alerts from live chats or emails into the CRM system if some customers buy something from you through these communication channels
Work on customer retention
A satisfied client is more likely to come back and recommend your business to their friends!
Which is easy to understand.
People will always go back to familiar solutions/products, rather than spending time searching for new ones.
This leads to customer loyalty, which is a significant competitive advantage.
For example, an Apple user is unlikely to consider buying a Samsung smartphone with identical functionality, even if the price is much lower.
There are several ways to retain customers in eCommerce:
- Offer multiple payment options with the ability to pay by credit
- Optimize your site for all types of devices
- Run seasonal promotions
- Maintain social networks and stay in touch with users, etc.
According to statistics, 69% of US consumers say customer service is very important when it comes to their loyalty to a brand.
So increasing customer loyalty is very important for retention.
This is a key factor that you should stick to.
Conclusion
The quality of your customer service significantly impacts the success of your eСommerce business.
So, it's crucial to have a strategy to ensure customers have a positive buying experience with your brand.
Try to implement some or, better, all of the practices listed above, and it won't be long until you see the positive results come in.
