Top 4 Practices to Deliver Top-notch eCommerce Customer Service

Once the customer places the order, a responsibility is added to the brand to take care of all the small and big things related to the customer and their order. Because a bad customer service experience might lead to customers not coming back. 

One such experience happened to me as well. I ordered 8 pieces of clothing from a brand that were supposed to be shipped in 3 days. However, even after two weeks, they were not shipped. And when I tried to contact customer care they did not provide any satisfactory response and when I asked for a refund, it took them 2 months to do that. Now, at least I am very much sure that I am not going to buy the products from them ever again. Such responses can turn customers away forever. No brands want these. Even with all the technology and customer support software, that brand took 2 months to resolve the issue. Then what is the point of having all these high-tech things when you do not know how to use them?

To save your company from such failures, companies can adopt certain practices that will help them deliver the best customer experience so that no customers of yours ever have to wait long for a response.

Offer Customers Channels of Their Choice

Convenience is the key and if you offer it right, you have already aced the customer service game. We are talking about offering customers multiple channels to contact your customer support. More (channels) the merrier. For instance, you can offer customer support via WhatsApp since people use it so frequently. The usage is so frequent and widespread that it has actually become a verb. People often say “WhatsApp me” instead of text me. Offering customer support via WhatsApp can be a game-changer for your business.

Companies are often afraid to be on platforms like Twitter because they feel that such platforms make controversies public. Everyone will be able to see the tweets about complaints out of which a few might get viral causing unnecessary negative publicity. But rather than being afraid of such things, companies must try thinking from the customer’s point of view. It is highly possible those furious tweets came out because they tried contacting customer support via other channels and their query was not heard or resolved.

This proves that offering support on more channels is just not enough, offering consistent support on all the channels is important. All the channels must be integrated well so the support team has a better view of the query in case the customer changes the channel. Thus, an omnichannel feature in the helpdesk must be used wisely. For that, you can train support teams to do smooth transitions of channels from their end as well.

Proactive Help for Better Engagement

Proactive help from a customer service point of view means that you offer services to the customers before they ask for them. There are various ways a company can proactively help the customers and in return receive sales growth and satisfied customers. For example, once the customer has purchased the product, send them the order details, shipment tracking link, and invoice in their emails. Thus, the customer would not have to come to you to ask for such details. Here are some more ways brands can engage with their customers:

• Helping Potential Customers:

We can use this approach to give that little extra push to make them buy your product or service. You can help them in decision-making or clear their doubts with a live chat. Also, a knowledge base is a good option where the customers can clear their doubts. You can also add informative content so that the visitors will gain more in-depth knowledge about the product or service that can convince them to purchase it.

• Notification:

Always notify the customers about any new product launch or update in the system. This makes them feel valued. To turn them into your loyal customers, keep sending them suggestions, relevant information, trends, discounts, or whatever that lures them to make an order. This way they would not forget your brand, and receiving helpful information will make them feel lean towards the brand.

• Upsell:

Once they have turned into your loyal customers, all you need to do is send them a notification about offers, discounts, coupons, etc. related to their previous search to convince them to buy more.

Feedbacks are the Best

Promotion of the brand via positive word of mouth has a greater impact than any other method of promotion. Because satisfied customers will share their genuine feedback with the people they know. So, to increase the number of satisfied customers, the brand needs to know how customers feel about the brand. The best way to know that is through feedback. The brand will be able to:

• Measure the level of customer satisfaction
• Improve the product and service based on the feedback
• Improve the customer experience
• Elevate customer retention rate

You can ask for feedback maybe after the conversation with the customer, during a product or service demo, or in between if it comes naturally.

To make the best use of this data of feedback, it is important to analyze it well. The simple way is to categorize all these tickets based on the after-sale services, customer service approach, delivery speed, etc.

The comments can be positive or negative and both can help organizations in a way. The positive comments are useful in building a strong brand image and loyal customers whereas the negative comments will enlighten the areas that need improvement. So use these comments wisely to take the next move toward customer satisfaction.

Faster Response

The most preferred channel for your vast brand depends on the age of the customers as well. Young generations prefer to go with social media apps to contact the customer service whereas people a little older than millennials prefer to phone, email, or in-store interactions (if applicable). 

But one thing that remains constant between all these channels is quick response time. None of the customers will like to wait for a reply. You can do small things like sending auto-generated messages saying “We have received your question, our executive will contact you asap.” It is better to leave such messages rather than your customers calling you again and again, and getting no reply from you. Also, you can train your support agents, and give them access to the knowledge base so that they can resolve the queries and respond faster.

Conclusion

Just having a customer service ticketing system would not solve all the issues. How you use it also matters a lot. Adopting the practices like giving a faster response, offering multiple channels, feedback from the customer, and proactive engagement with the customers will change the way the customer feels after contacting your customer care.