How to Modernize E-Commerce Customer Service

One of the most important parts of your e-commerce business strategy should be customer service. Online customers are well aware of how much power and influence they have. Customer reviews can either keep your business ship afloat or quickly send it crashing into the endless ocean.

By taking the time to provide the best e-commerce customer service, the more positive of a reputation your brand will have. Keep reading to learn how you can modernize your business’ e-commerce customer service to ensure a positive customer experience for each of your clients.

Use Many Communication Strategies

Still stuck in the days of only offering email or phone-based customer service? If so, you’re way behind the times! In order to thrive in today’s e-commerce world, you need to develop a multichannel strategy that allows you to best connect with customers and optimize results.

As a rule of thumb, your business should use email, web, social, and mobile channels in order to communicate and market with customers. Top notch customer service starts by being available on multiple channels.

According to a study conducted by SDL, 90% of consumers expect customer experience to be consistent across channels and devices used to interact with brands. This means not only does your brand need to be available on multiple channels, but the experience also needs to be the same on each channel that’s used.

Get Personal!

Not only do customers expect consistent customer service, they also want personalized customer service. There’s nothing more frustrating than being given generic answers to a question about a product or service. As often as possible, be sure to have live customer service representatives available to answer customer questions.

To make customer service even more personal, use a conference call service, which enables customers to hear and see your customer service representative. This can be extremely beneficial in hands-on cases where an agent may need to troubleshoot or thoroughly explain an answer to a client.

You will also want to add personalization to your marketing campaigns. For example, when you email customers, always include their first name in the greeting. You want to avoid using generic terms like “valued customer.” Non-personalized emails not only make the recipient feel good, but they’re also more likely to be read.

Live Chat is a Must

Today’s customers are impatient. We expect quick answers to all of our questions. One of the best ways to answer questions as quickly as possible is to use live chat services. Live chat is often preferred by customers because:

• It’s quick and efficient
• It leaves them in control
• It doesn’t interrupt other activities

By offering a live chat service, you reduce the chance of losing a lead or a customer because they’re experiencing issues with your e-commerce site and don’t know where to get help. On your company’s website be sure to boldly advertise your live chat service. This way customers know exactly where to go to get their questions answered.

Offer Some Sort of 24 Hour Support

If your consumer base spans the globe, it’s crucial to offer 24-hour support. Most companies offer 24-hour phone support but you could also choose to offer 24-hour live chat or even email support. The idea here is that no matter the time or location, a customer can reach a live representative that can help them answer their question.

By offering 24-hour support, customers can have the peace of mind that your business is available around the clock. This is especially ideal for early bird and night owl shoppers who prefer to make their purchases during not-so-popular times.

Be Proactive

Having a help center or frequently asked questions (FAQs) list is a great way to offer proactive customer service. This enables your team to solve a customer issue before it becomes a serious problem.

By taking a proactive approach, you’re able to provide customers with the information they need before they need it! This approach is also beneficial for those customers who prefer to answer their own question.

By offering quick and informative customer support, you’re also able to minimize long phone, email, and live chat queues. A proactive approach also reduces the number of repetitive questions that your customer service reps receive.

Aside from a help center or FAQs page, you can also consider using a virtual assistant on your e-commerce site. Virtual assistants can answer easy customer questions such as how to place an order or how to check the status of an order.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, the best business strategy that your company will ever have is customer satisfaction. As customer experience takes the forefront of importance, it’s critical that your business uses modern and efficient ways to communicate and serve customers.