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Guest Post: 9 Best Tips for Maximizing Your E-Commerce Customer Service

This week we feature an article by Jake Rheude, Director of Marketing at Red Stag Fulfillment. He writes about how to best perform e-commerce customer service. Impeccable customer service helps you hit the hearts of your followers. After all, any good brand out there does not just only have customers. They also have followers and […]

This week we feature an article by Jake Rheude, Director of Marketing at Red Stag Fulfillment. He writes about how to best perform e-commerce customer service.

Impeccable customer service helps you hit the hearts of your followers. After all, any good brand out there does not just only have customers. They also have followers and brand advocates. You can achieve that by providing the best customer service possible. Great customer service has the power to leverage your e-commerce brand in ways that you could not imagine. In this post, we will walk you over the nine best tips on how to maximize your e-commerce customer service.

Offer 24-Hour Phone Support

So, when was the last time that you left a voicemail in an e-commerce store? If you are not quite sure, then you are not alone. However, times are changing. Several integrated customer service solutions are now offering voice products that will take in voice mails if the brand could not be online. On that note, you can utilize a 24-hour answering service so that your prospects are always communicating with a live person.

Use Live Chat

Live chat apps on websites provide customers a quick way of getting in touch with customer representatives to easily resolve their issues. There are several ways you can benefit from offering a live chat feature on your website. In fact, according to data by Econsultancy, it is one of the most preferred methods of customer service. Customers can easily decide to leave your site if they meet issues in purchasing along the way. But having a live chat in place, they can easily get in touch with you to resolve them. It also serves an excellent point of contact for queries that are related to returns, product warranty, and payment process.

Create a Multi-channel Strategy

Over the last couple of years, businesses used a single phone line. While this is still perfectly acceptable today, this alone will no longer be enough. Customers these days expect that they could get in touch with you in the best way that works for them. Gone are the days where the only way is to have one communication channel to reach you. So, if you want to provide them with world-class customer support, you need to consider implementing a multi-channel strategy. You cannot limit your customers to one channel. A multi-channel strategy incorporates various promotional and distribution channels so that you can better reach, connect, and create a better rapport with your customers. The end goal of an effective multichannel strategy is optimized for results, as well as deliver high-quality customer service across all social media channels you are in.

Set Up a Knowledge Base

In a nutshell, a knowledge base is an area in your site that is dedicated to customer service. It is filled with tutorials and answers that you can send to your customers should problems and questions come up.

It helps you save time, as you already have pre-created answers. For example, a FAQ page is considered as a knowledge base. A FAQ page can:

  • Decrease purchasing anxieties that your product page copy does not directly address.
  • Remove the burden on customer support by directly answering publicly common questions.
  • Boost your SEO efforts and site navigation.
  • Earn the trust of users by demonstrating your expertise on the product and explaining your business model.
  • Please customers by answering their questions creatively.

Automate Online Order Fulfillment

It is high time to move from a manual, automated system to an automated one.

Manual order fulfillment systems are slow, prone to human error, and extremely inefficient. Using an automated e-commerce order fulfillment will help you handle the entire process from beginning to end, helping you save time, improve productivity, and boost customer satisfaction.

Show the Billing History

Your customers will be happier if you make it easy for them to find things online. They expect that they could be able to access their account, view various payment methods and details, billing history, and order status.

Moreover, all the inquiries related to invoices and shipping status will cause a bottleneck in your processes over time.

Measure Customer Satisfaction

The best way to enhance your customer service and marketing strategy is to measure the rate of your customer satisfaction.

The best way to accomplish this is to ask your customers to complete a survey as to how they evaluate your company’s customer service. You can also send in a follow-up email asking them for a product review or about their experience.

Provide Personalized Support

Every customer in your store is unique, and you should treat them differently.

E-commerce has gained a significant advantage over physical stores because it delivers customers a very specific experience.

Personalization is usually made up of landing pages that are customized, emails containing special offers, targeted advertisements, and so much more. Moreover, since the majority of these activities happen online, you can track and analyze your customers’ shopping behaviors.

Meaning, once a customer contacts you for support, you already have data about that particular customer, including the purchase history. This allows you to provide them with a more personalized customer experience.

Use Customer Service Software

When a customer query gets passed on to multiple customer representatives, it sometimes can be frustrating. There is also a high risk that you will not be able to answer your customers’ questions properly. Not to mention that it is not fair for the customer to explain his issues over and over again.

Utilizing a customer relationship management (CRM) software will help you streamline the entire process. The most post popular way of handling these problems is through ticketing, which is part of the CRM software.

Wrap Up

Customer service is a crucial part of your e-commerce business. While some points we have mentioned in this article are simple enough, others take more time and do take a lot of effort to successfully implement.

But at the end of the day, it all goes back to how much effort you are putting in.

When your organization invests in excellent customer service, you can improve the long-term loyalty and lifetime value of your prospects. With the right strategy, planning, and implementing the ideas that we have discussed in this post, you can set your e-commerce business for success.

Jake Rheude is the Director of Marketing at Red Stag Fulfillment, an e-commerce order fulfillment service provider. He has years of experience in e-commerce and business development. In his free time, Jake enjoys reading about business and sharing his own experience with others.

 

 


FShep Hyken Guest Blog Postor more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

Read Shep’s latest Forbes article: Three Ways To Prepare For The Post-Pandemic Customer Experience

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