E-commerce customer support is one of the core aspects that business owners must prioritize. The end goal of an e-commerce business is simple: to sell products to customers. Everyone knows that the lifetime value of a returning customer is a hundred times a lot more than just one sale. Your customers deserve to be heard, appreciated and prioritized. If your customers are happy, they are more likely to continue buying from you and share their experiences with your brand.
Customer support is about establishing trust that improves the shopping experience of your customers. Unlike buying in a brick-and-mortar store, online shoppers do not have access to full information from the product, refund policies, shipping, to the payment processes available to them. They will want to know more about the products and other things that you offer. Building a loyal customer base is not a simple task. Customers want to know that you’ve got their back with each and every purchase and that you will be there to provide further assistance if and when they need it.
Nowadays, it’s so easy to shift from one e-commerce platform to another. There are a lot of factors in customer support that establish trust such as consistency on brand tone and voice, a fast turnaround time, multi-platform coverage, personalization, and a lot more. These factors enable your customers to engage with your brand on a deeper level and develop a loyalty towards your e-commerce platform.
Additionally, with incredible customer support, you can transform first-time customers into valuable returning shoppers. More sales come in when you surprise and delight your customers and give them the attention and support that they deserve.
Key Factors In Providing Exceptional E-Commerce Customer Support
Understand your data
Identify where you customers are, their intent, buying behavior, purchasing habits, basket sizes, and motivations. Your customer data is highly valuable and will dictate your every move to keep them engaged and subscribed with your platform. In addition, it allows you to provide a great experience to your customers when your support team directly engages with them. When you consider the similarities and differences from your customer data profiles, you will be able to identify and understand what your customers expect, what their experiences are, and how they want to be treated.
Through analyzing content peaks and historical interactions, you can improve customer support efficiency. Having a reliable customer support team will make your e-commerce business stand out above other platforms.
Be where your customers are
Identify the platforms where your customers are interacting with your brand to get support. One factor contributing to customer churn is slow and inefficient customer service. If you are not in the platforms where your customers are, it is highly likely that they will shift to another platform that can provide answers to their questions.
There are several channels that your customer may reach you. It can be through your website, through phone calls, live chat support, emails, social media, mobile messaging apps, and many others. Instant support and suggestions given to your customers through these channels allow you to be omnipresent.
Don’t rely on a single mode of communication. If you offer multiple points of contact, it will be a lot easier for your customers to contact you. When first-time customers reach out to your brand through any of these channels, they’re buying intent is much higher and they are ready to make the purchase anytime as soon as their inquiry is answered. Fast response times allow a prospective customer to get a clear picture of what they are buying, therefore, helps you increase your conversion rate.
Empower your customer support team
Being a customer support agent can be tough but rewarding. It is important to listen to your customer support team’s needs and challenges. As e-commerce business owners, you have to prepare and motivate your team to deliver an exceptional experience to your customers. Your agents are the face and voice of your brand. They are a vital part in building real relationships with your customers. Through direct interactions with your customers, they can get valuable information that will help you develop and strengthen your sales and marketing strategies.
Build a scalable customer support team
An e-commerce business must always be prepared to scale especially during content peaks and high-traffic events such as the biggest online shopping events of the year and global marketing campaigns.
In the event that your in-house support team suffers from the pressure of managing overflowing support tickets, failing marketplace SLAs and piling customer requests coming from different platforms, it is time to outsource. As your e-commerce platform grows, it will become impossible to single-handedly deliver remarkable customer experience for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Outsourcing customer support is your key to long-term success in the e-commerce industry. It is important that your customer support team is instantly scalable, especially during seasonal peaks. If you are not prepared for this volume, you can overwhelm your support team, decrease your customer satisfaction overnight, and tarnish your hard-earned reputation.
Customer support takes a great deal of time, and can make for plenty of sleepless nights filled with worry or interruptions trying to please a customer. When it is outsourced, you can finally focus on the core competencies of your business. When you outsource customer service instead of hiring this to be done in-house, you save time and money on recruitment, training, office space, equipment, as well as operational costs. Instead of being responsible for all of this expense and training time, you avoid the hassles by hiring an expert and knowledgeable outsourced team.
Choosing the right outsourcing partner that can help you understand your customer support data and can seamlessly integrate with your in-house support team will allow you to scale your customer support efforts effectively, avoid suspension from marketplaces and fulfill the on-demand support that your customers need with ease.
Being available 24/7, 365 days a year assures your customers that they will get the support they need on every platform when they need it.
A great customer experience is the key to e-commerce success
When you provide an unforgettable experience and make the buying process easy for your customer, they will spread the word and let others know. Great experiences are amplified when people see you treat customers well and that there is a loyal community rallying for your brand.
When you nurture your customers from the beginning, you transform them into life-long customers that will advocate for your brand. Each individual customer has a network of family, friends, and followers with whom they will share their experience.
Don’t lose your customers through mistakes that could easily be solved with the right help. When you understand the potential that great customer support brings for the future of your company, you will be successful in scaling your e-commerce business.
