Customers are the lifeline of every Business. Therefore, it is vital that you provide not just high-quality products and services, but also excellent customer service and Support.
Paul Greenberg, the president of The 56 Group and the author of CRM at the Speed of Light, sums it up in a simple sentence, “If a customer likes you and continues to like you, they will do business with you. If they don’t, they won’t.”
It’s that simple. Additionally, the customer’s relationship with your business does not end with the purchase part. What happens after, as well as how you continue to communicate with them after the sales affect their chances for re-purchase and the number of new leads they can generate for you.
In the 2014 Parature State of Multichannel Customer Service Survey, researchers found that 65 percent of 1,000 consumers who participated in the study said they ended relationships with brands due to a single case of poor customer service.
So, how do you ensure that your company offers good support to customers, particularly in e-commerce support? Here are some tips to optimize your e-commerce customer support for the long haul.
1. Communicate Clearly by Setting Expectations
The thing is, when customers go to you for help, they expect to be contacted right away. As a human, you have to understand that it is not just a matter of high customer expectations or increased demands.
If they can fix the problem on their own in an instant, they wouldn’t bother going to you for help. These customers are already in a state of worry, considering how the problem could be affecting their lives.
When you deliver customer support, be clear about the timeline when you can get back to customers inquiries. Nothing is worse than being ignored. If it is already impossible from your end, don’t give the customers false expectations. It does not only affect your relationships with customers, it also affects your brand’s image.
2. Create a Robust FAQs Page
Some customers want to DIY instead since it lessens the chances of having to go through customer service. With so many bad customer service stories going around, many prefer this route.
On the business side, this helps companies lessen the workload, thus a win-win situation. So, provide your customers a robust FAQs page and make sure it meets their needs.
However, be careful not to go too technical or long-winded in the copy. Make sure the FAQs page is not just easy to find, but also easy to read and adds value to your customers and their overall website and customer experience.
3. Be Transparent
Regardless of size, target market, and industry, transparency is important in a business, especially in customer service. It evokes trust and fosters genuine relationships with customers.
In terms of customers support, transparency means not withholding relevant information. Always make it a point to display important information about the product and services where customers will most likely see it, especially when it comes to terms and conditions, deadlines, and return policies.
4. Invest in a Tracking System
This is particularly beneficial for businesses who ship orders directly to customers. Investing in an online tracking system enables your customers to track their own orders without having to call your hotline.
On your side, it will lessen the workload and prevents any bottleneck by handling the queries that can easily be solved through a simple tracking search on your own website.
5. Generate Auto-Responses
This is a common scenario in customer service. A customer makes an online query and then calls the hotline to check if the company has received the inquiry.
To prevent this from happening, you can generate auto-responses which can include the line that the company has received the inquiry, and a customer representative will get back to the customer in 24 or 48 hours.
For many people, this offers peace of mind and a particular timeline when to expect the call. On the business side, it prevents agents from getting redundant calls.
6. Maximize Email Answer Templates
For email inquiries, there is no shame in using answer templates. Not only will it save you time, but it also ensures that all the necessary information are included.
A perfect customer support response includes the following: introduction, detailed answer to the query, some screenshots, links to additional reading materials in the FAQs, and a closing remark.
If you do this from scratch, it can take a while. Meanwhile, if you’re doing it time after time, it seems counterproductive. So, maximize email answer templates to make the job easier.
7. Optimize Your Customer Support Today
With these tips, you can improve how you do e-commerce support. While every customer experience is unique, these tips can help ensure that you are doing the best practices. An efficient customer support will not only increase customer satisfaction rates, but it will also enable the business to focus on its primary goal—growth.