The 24th of November 2017 was the biggest shopping day in Denmark. Danes spent around 2.1 billion kroner in just one day! Get ready forupcoming Black Friday and let your e-commerce take the most of it! The key to building good relationships with customers is thought through and relevant customer service, sounds so obvious but the question is: How do you make it happen? We have prepared 7 tips that will help you maximize your e-commerce customer service!
Tips for your e-commerce customer service:
- Offer omnichannel support
- Reduce response time
- Be available on live chat
- Offer 24h Support
- Prepare easy and clear self-service
- Keep everything in order – use customer service software
- Gather insights and improve
The origin of Black Friday is the USA, but its also very popular in Canada, Mexico, China, Brazil and Europe.Initially, it is just one day, the 24th of November. However, the shopping rush lasts until Christmas. Another shopping tradition from the USA is Cyber Monday (the 27th of November), mainly focused on e-commerce.For 64% of retailers, shoppers acquired during Black Friday and Cyber Monday have a lower lifetime value (LTV) than shoppers acquired at any other time of the year. The biggest challenge is to adjust to your customers, provide them with the best experience on all possible channels and encourage them to do further purchases. Understanding our tips will make it easier for your e-commerce to convert the Black Friday shopping rush into a success of your e-commerce. So do not miss out on this amazing chance!
Get to know the true value of your customer service with this whitepaper.
1. Offer omnichannel support
Customers behaviour is constantly changing and it is getting harder to provide them with one channel which can fulfil their needs. At the moment omnichannel customer service is not only a trend but a ‘must’. Omnichannel stands for a seamless experience where a customer can easily find a solution by using multiple channels that are integrated. Based on research companies providing a quality crosschannel customer service retain 89%of their customers comparing to only 33% if they do not. To keep it more simple – the better experience your customers get the better for your company’s revenue.
2. Reduce response time
The first and one of the most important step you should take in your business is to set up an autoresponder. So when you get a inquiry from a customer, they will immediately get a reply, telling them that you received their request and are looking into it. Based on a research made by Nielsen 33% of all customers expect a quick reply, even if it’s not complete. Many customers will create a new ticket if they are not answered quickly, which of course will result in bigger workload on your customer service. Another way to shorten the responsetime is to build a help center where both your customer service and your customers can find answers on frequently asked questions. This way agents can resolve simple issues just by referring to a specific page on the help center.
3. Be available on live chat
The power of this channel is undeniable, it makes it very easy to reach out to the company in a fast and efficient way. Based on an article by Acquire 79% of customers prefer live chat because of the short response time. Customers also appreciate the quality of the live chat, 29% claim that the information is better than if they emailed. The advantage is also flexibility, live chat does not keep a customer on hold as a phone call or email and gives a possibility to multi-task. To conclude, live chat makes it easy, fast and satisfying.
4. Offer 24h support (or hire a chatbot)
The best for your business is an optimized phone support which makes it possible for your customers to reach you 24h a day. The most recommended is to invest in a 24-hour live answering service which can be provided by call centers or trained crew. Some companies use customer service voice products that provide basic information (when the call center is open; what another way to reach or find the support), but the best for customers is to speak with a real person, a trained agent who will listen to them and solve the issue. However, we know it is hard for new businesses to invest in 24h live support. Therefore we recommend using chatbots, which can help with basic questions or at least send the customer in the right direction to get the right answer to the question. The big marketing bureau Novicell, also wrote a great article about the importance of your presence.
5. Prepare easy and clear self-service
Make it easy for your customers to help themselves, the best way is to create FAQ and help center. A database with common and already resolved issues that is available online. One of the most common ways of searching for the solution is Google. If you want your customers to be able to easily find your help center or FAQ, you should consider to make the help center SEO-optimized. The other important aspect is to make your help center responsive, so it’s optimized for desktop, tablet, and phone. A part of customer service is providing excellent customer experience by well designed UX and responsive solution. If your help center doesn’t let your customers easily access information on their smartphone, they might get a bad experience and share it with their friends!
6. Keep everything in order – use customer service software
The Upcoming Black Friday shopping rush will have a huge impact on the amount of customer service issues your e-commerce will have to deal with, get ready for it before its too late. By using a help desk ticketing system, you can transform each issue into a lead and future sale. Investing in CRM will automate and simplify many processes, gather valuable insights that will help to optimize customer service and help to increase the ROI of your company.
7. Gather insights and improve
Another relevant way of improving your current customer service is to gather and analyze data. Of course, there are many guides (like the one you are reading now) but do not forget each business is special on its own. Each customer service inquiry should be a valuable information, so do not forget to measure customer satisfaction by asking for feedback. Most help desks has already this feature included. First and foremost customers see that you remember them and care about their opinion. Secondly, you learn about your strengths and weaknesses, which you can use in order to improve your service.
Now your e-commerce customer service is ready to rock!
Each business has to find their own way to grow on the market, one thing is to put marketing efforts like paid promotions or campaigns, but another is to be smart and take the existing opportunities. One of the biggest chances for e-commerce businesses is Black Friday and Cyber Monday, people are getting crazy about shopping and are searching for the best offers! It’s Important to make a sale by offering a great discount, but the core idea is to keep the customers. One of the best ways to do so, as we mentioned in our tips, is a quality customer experience and seamless customer service.
Look at the calendar! It is still not too late to make adjustments in your strategy and implement relevant solutions. Reach out to our specialists to get professional help and not miss the upcoming opportunity!