Customers are the key pillar of many successful online stores. The reason for this is simple: customer acquisition is a more expensive process than building loyalty, let alone customer attraction or conversion. Amazon is the world’s most customer-centric organisation and has had a strong focus on customer satisfaction from day one.
There are many activities involved in ecommerce customer service: solving issues with orders, assisting customers during the purchase process, dealing with returns, assessing points of friction or dissatisfaction, etc. Customer service is all actions that a brand offers its customers or potential customers to encourage a purchase, improve the purchasing experience and solve post-checkout problems.
Customer service in ecommerce is a fundamental pillar to attracting customers and retaining already existing buyers. Ecommerce is one of the most challenging sectors to operate in but one company which consistently delivers ecommerce customer service.
Create a customer-friendly website
In general, ecommerce customers are divided into two groups – people who already know what they are looking for and those who need some assistance.
The first group will surely appreciate a big, easy to find search button enhanced with an autocomplete feature powered by AI technology. This significantly improves the customer experience.
The second group should be able to easily find whatever they’re looking for. That’s why products must be organized by categories, just like a physical store is. Also, a variety of sorting options such as price, size or color will be helpful for them.
Improve product pages
The obvious truth is that the main goal of any e-commerce website is driving online sales. And a compelling product page makes all the difference between a sale and a quick bounce.
In this context, a product page should be an equivalent of interacting with a sales person in the physical store. It should let your customers visualize themselves using the product.
Write Clear, Descriptive and Compelling Product Copy
Compelling product pages are fundamental to the overall shopping experience. Every product page should contain important details about sizing, measurements, materials, weight, care instructions, estimated shipping times, and more.
It’s critical for information to be presented in a clear cut, concise manner with minimal distractions.
You’ll also want to include reviews and customer photos. Data shows that customers are 137% more likely to buy a product with customer photos, making them a key component of the overall eCommerce experience.
Free and Fast Shipping
The number one reason consumers abandon their shopping carts is due to pricey extra costs like shipping. Small online businesses need to step up if they’re going to compete with giant retailers like Amazon or Walmart.
This requires offering free shipping and cutting down on delivery times. It’s helpful to look for ways to cut shipping costs or incorporate part of the cost into the final product price.
Track Relevant Customer Satisfaction Service KPIs
If you want to improve something, you need to measure it.
Measuring customer satisfaction will help you see if the interaction with the customer was a successful one or not.
There are many different methods, each with pros and cons, but the most popular due to its simplicity is the Customer Satisfaction Score or CSAT for short.
Customer satisfaction surveys commonly use the CSAT to measure the consumers’ satisfaction with the product or service. They often include the question “How satisfied were you with your experience today?” and offer a scale of 1-10 or 1-5.
Getting customer feedback can give you invaluable insight into what is working or not.
Increase Social Media Engagement
Customer service through social media is growing in popularity. When customers can’t connect to you via phone or Live Chat, they will often turn to social media.
And you need to be responsive… 42% of people who get in touch with companies through social media expect a response within 60 minutes!
Social media can be a place for customers to vent their anger and have a moan. However, it can also be a positive medium where brand advocates can sing your praises when you do something well or go above and beyond.
Engaging with customers through social media allows you to communicate directly, build relationships and brand loyalty.
Create a clear return policy
One of the first actions a potential buyer makes before purchasing a product is checking the return policy of an online store. For this reason, it’s important to provide this information in a clear and concise manner and to make it visible and available to read as soon as possible.
Teach new skills to your employers
Support agents need to know how your products work, the strengths and weaknesses of them, most frequently asked questions, and basic information such as the most common reasons for returns.
In addition to this information, customer service employees need to develop certain technical skills such as a fast typing speed and basic (but essential) computer skills, if they don’t already have them.
We hope that this post has given you some ideas that you can implement in your business to improve your ecommerce customer service.