The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered the way people live their lives. Their shopping habits have also taken a turn for the better with the advent of online shopping. Since visiting stores and shopping malls aren’t the best practice today, online stores are proving to be a saviour for so many of them. These e-commerce marketplaces are convenient, versatile and cost-effective too. The e-commerce customer support is also incredible. That is why sources suggest that there has been a 40% e-commerce sales growth over the last year.
Today, nearly 26% of customers suggest that customer service is the most important reason for brand loyalty. That is why e-commerce brands are constantly feeling motivated to offer top-class customer solutions to their beloved clients. So, in this article, I will offer a step-by-step guide for e-commerce customer service to you. If you follow this guide, you are sure to enjoy the most profitable e-commerce business ever.
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What Is E-commerce Customer Service?
The service that a specific e-commerce brand delivers to its customers is known as customer service. Since the customer is King, it is integral for them to have a convenient experience when shopping at your store. For example– if I want to shop at your store, I want to make sure the customer service I receive is potential enough to help me have a good experience. That will be my motivating factor to return there and shop again for affordable items.
Many times, buyers also want to learn about the different features and benefits of your eCommerce products. As such, they must be able to have a flexible time via your top-class e-commerce customer support. For example- if I have any queries to resolve regarding purchasing a few items, I want the customer support team to respond to my query at the earliest. A day late for a response, and I wouldn’t want to trust them again. So, they must avail themselves to you at all times.
How To Kickstart Your E-commerce Customer Support Journey?
If you own an e-commerce brand, you have to draw sufficient attention to the customer support team of your firm. Sources suggest that nearly 84% of customers stated that customer service played an important factor in helping.
They decide whether to buy from that specific company. So, you can imagine why I am constantly stressing about it. Take a look at the steps to follow to kickstart your customer service journey right.
Step1- Understand Your Customers And Their Needs
How can you understand what to give your customers if you do not know what they want? Impossible, right? That is why your eCommerce customer support should be equipped enough to offer the right services as per the client’s demand. This needs you to conduct a thorough analysis of customer behaviour and shopping practices to understand their demand, likes and dislikes.
Apart from this, you must also understand what channels your customers use to access your eCommerce website. Whether they use phones or other electronic devices, they need to be analysed via statistical analysis. As soon as you have gathered sufficient data, optimise the channels accordingly for a seamless customer experience.
Step 2- Gather And Train A Top-class Customer Support Team
If you want your customer support team to be nothing but the best, you have got to train them to be nothing but the best. Your customers need thorough training and skills to provide exceptional customer service so that there is no room for complaints. It doesn’t matter how well your competitors may be performing; with an excellent e-commerce customer support team, you could outcast them in no time. That is why you must have a stringent recruitment policy.
Hire only those agents who have a friendly attitude, are smart learners, disciplined and creative. Once you hire them properly, train them further to provide flawless customer service. It is also a good practice to create a well-drafted job description to reach out to the agents more clearly. As such, they can prepare themselves accordingly to offer exactly what your brand demands.
Step 3- Ease Out The Process Of Delivering Quick Support
Your customer support team needs to have world-class speed. This will help them cater to each customer without making them wait for too long. For example, if I am to shop from an e-commerce store and I have demanded the customer team help me out with something, I want them to act upon it as quickly as possible. The more they delay, the less likely I am to shop again from your store.
Organise your team efficiently so that they can provide speedy solutions in need. Allow them to make the most of automated channels and advanced technology to reach out to the customers on time. Also, encourage the idea of simplifying collaborations within the team. Automated templates that can provide quicker responses also never fail to do the job as needed. So, you do not require to brainstorm twice before doing anything with your exceptional e-commerce customer support team.
Step 4- Proactive Support Is The Need Of The Hour
Helping your customers resolve their queries even before they reach out to your customer support channel for help is a good practice. This proactive support system creates a lasting impression among all customers and delights them to come back for more. It also helps decrease the incoming support ticket volume in need. Nudging customers to come back and purchase their products in the abandoned cart and providing early updates on sales are great ways to make this happen.
A good e-commerce customer support team also provides contextual guidance on their web pages and senses annoyance when customers are browsing their site.
Step 5- Provide Highly Customised And Contextual Interactions
Today, each customer’s demands are being fulfilled to such a deep extent that they are spoilt for choices. They want nothing but the best. Something that understands their needs on time, gives them exactly what they are looking for and never goes out of trend for them at the right prices always works. As such, if your e-commerce business is ready to offer highly customised and contextual interactions to them, your clients are yours to keep forever.
Nearly 77% of customers do not mind trading personal data for a quality shopping experience. That is why if your eCommerce customer support can offer whatever the client needs, you are all set to ace the competition. Addressing people with their correct names and other types of seamless integrations can easily make this happen.
Step 6- Offer Live Chat As An Important Communication Channel
Many times when customers want one-on-one communication, they prefer the live chat feature on e-commerce sites. That is why your customer support should be equipped enough to offer them this help whenever possible. This may also be a great advantage for the customer service team as it reduces their operational costs drastically.
Integrating Live chat systems lets the team deal with more customers simultaneously and provide well-drafted personal assistance without any malice. Naturally, customers prefer that more than other communication channels in case of any queries.
Step 7- Deflect Support Tickets With Tiring Self-service Choices
Nearly 39% of customers believe that they can solve their queries more quickly than other customer support channels. That is why allowing them to do this without any external help can save them tons of waiting time. One way to do this is by offering a top-class frequently asked questions section that provides the right remedies on time.
This way, even the e-commerce customer support team doesn’t have to work vigorously to solve their problems. Solution articles, refund and return policy details, and other information may help get to this crux without any issues. So, customers naturally prefer sites with this information more than the ones that do not include them.
Step 8- Work Upon Customer Feedback
Another very direct way of understanding what your customers want from you is to obtain customer feedback. So, if you want to make your eCommerce customer support experience even better, make your customers sign up for feedback after every purchase. A section where they can share suggestions for improvement can also work like magic for this purpose.
Step 9- Measure, Track And Tweak Your Customer Support Strategy
Creating a wonderful customer support team is not the endgame. You also have to make sure that your customer support strategy is maintained properly. Using tools to measure the success and tracking the strategy can be great practices for the same. Timely tweaking the customer support strategy to bring fresh-new ways to impress customers is also incredible. This helps measure the performance of your e-commerce customer support team and also improve their productivity levels on time.
The Bottom Line
Nearly 92% of customers state that they will stop purchasing from a specific site after 3 bad customer service interactions. That is why top-class e-commerce customer support can be all you need. If you found this guide helpful, make sure you abide by it in need. Also, like and comment on this blog to help it reach out to more potential brands who need improvement. Also, visit https://www.ecartize.com/ecommerce-store-development/ now.
Originally posted 2021-11-20 02:01:21.
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