Ecommerce has emerged as a growing market in the past few years. During all these years, people have adopted online shopping as a part of their lives. They have moved from the conventional ways of shopping to this mode because of the many benefits that come along with it. Now it has occupied a central position in its life, and it is great news for the e-commerce businesses. The responsibilities of these e-commerce businesses are also at an all-time high, and they need to work constantly to survive the cutthroat competition. Often, the question arises- how to improve customer service in e-commerce is asked by these businesses, and therefore we have attempted to answer this query in simple terms.
With the proliferation of technology across the globe, the number of customers of e-commerce is increasing day by day. It is the e-commerce customer service through which the e-commerce store extends their support to the users that enable them to shop on these platforms. It is often suggested to e-commerce businesses to provide a great deal of customer service consistently. It encompasses a seamless experience of shopping to the users and a seamless customer journey. Customer satisfaction is essential and plays a key role in the success of the brand. These days the business has to take care of large-scale activities ranging from answering regular customer queries to help and support.
Modern e-commerce customer services are far more complicated than conventional ones, thereby requiring a lot of effort in its operations. Nowadays, technology is also playing a vital role, and it has changed the face of this entire field. Here, we have prepared an entire guide to give you insight on stepping up your e-commerce service and ruling the market.
1. Must have a secure website
Are you wondering how to improve customer service in e-commerce? And looking for ways to seize the customer service all at once, this is your one-stop destination. A secure website serves as a backbone in this technological era. In this age of increasing cyber-attacks all over the globe, it is the need of the hour to fortify the website from any threat in the cyber world. Many companies, irrespective of their size, are now employing various measures to secure their websites. Therefore, one of the essential aspects of a successful e-commerce service department is to have a safe and sound website.
One of the most popular tools is to employ the SSL certificate. They encrypt the in-transit communication between the web server and client browser, thereby securing sensitive information such as credit, debit card credentials from the prying eyes of hackers and scammers. These are available in various types and can be selected according to budget and need. For e-commerce websites that envision expansion soon by adding more subdomains under one primary domain, we suggest going for a wildcard SSL certificate. This will save you the hassle of buying separate single-domain SSL certs for each subdomain that you add. A wildcard certificate singlehandedly secures the chosen main domain and multiple first-level subdomains beneath it. If budget is a concern, you can choose to buy and install premium yet cheap wildcard SSL certificates available with reliable SSL providers such as Comodo, RapidSSL, GeoTrust, Thawte, ClickSSL, etc.
2. Following the personalization approach
The e-commerce customer service includes offering the best advice as and when asked by the user. Not only this, sometimes they are looking for exclusive answers to their queries. There is an urgent need for personalization in addressing the queries as the customers demand in this field. It includes dealing with tracking the orders, working on refunds, and providing the right assistance to the user in making purchases from your platform. On the contrary, a lack of such personalized help results in losing even the most faithful business customers.
Suppose you are looking for ways to stand out in the market and survive the cutthroat competition. In that case, it is knowledgeable personalization and fixing the loopholes at a given point of time that will lift your current sales figures.
3. Providing the live chat service
There are situations where the user needs immediate assistance, and it is profitable for the business as well to provide the user with the same. This quick mode of communication helps to address the user queries immediately and is appreciated by them. It is seen that the platforms providing such services tend to do better in the long run in comparison to those with no such assistance. Furthermore, it is seen that the customers show strongly positive results in the form of purchase and prefer making re-purchases on such platforms. In the absence of this, cart abandonment can have some serious consequences that you may have to face.
One should not even give it another thought while adding this feature to their e-commerce platform. It is used by multi-million companies these days to win the trust of their customers. In this way, a live chat option must be incorporated to always provide full user support.
4. Creating a buzz through social media
The impact of social media is well known, and it will incline with time. You can utilize the same for your business and widen your reach. Using popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram is a strategy utilized by well-known companies to amplify their business. There should be an option for the users to share your content on such social media platforms to increase engagement. It is certainly a beneficial step for the business as it will take nothing, but the returns will certainly be massive.
Social media can be actively used to keep in touch with your permanent customers and make them aware of your new launches. It is a guaranteed strategy for promoting the products in a hassle-free manner. Even the statistics suggest great results and confirmed commendable sales using social media.
5. Speedy response for the win!
Most of the time, the user is looking for an immediate response to their queries and challenges. If this aspect is positive in a brand, that brand successfully leaves a positive imprint among the users. Let us accept that no user likes to be put on hold or told to wait while making a purchase and facing a doubt simultaneously. If so, the user abandons the product and opts for something quick compared to your brand with a slow response. The statistics suggest that longer waiting periods generally annoy the customer, and they decide not to purchase from your website, leaving a negative imprint.
On the other hand, a quick and precise response can bring positive results to the business. It is seen that your brand can establish a user-friendly image within the users, bringing you good results in the future. Such brands usually experience growth in less time as well.
6. Appreciative tone with the users
As it is seen that the brands pay complete attention to solving the queries and miss out on the tone of communication. Even the experts emphasize this particular step to bring out the best results for a brand. Besides the technical stuff, it is the attitude towards the user that they observe. They should feel welcomed on your e-commerce platform. Even in any trouble, your tone towards them can make them feel inclined towards your brand.
Please pay attention to the way of communication and the tone as it will have a deep impact on the next step of the user. Always thank and appreciate them for choosing you. Express your concern towards their queries or issues and be sensitive towards them. Such minute steps will bring positive results soon.
7. Minimum reliance on bots
Usually, the companies take help from the bots and automated tools to simplify their work. But the excessive help from them can further lead to deterioration of the brand image as it displays personal touch and attention towards the user. It is seen that the users wait for a long period and still fail to receive satisfactory results from the e-commerce businesses because of the bots and automated tools on the other side. It results in a reduction in customer engagement with time for that brand.
We cannot deny that the brands are overloaded with the work already and have too many aspects to pay attention to. But the customer is paramount for every business, and thus you cannot go wrong with this aspect of the e-commerce world. Therefore, it is important to have a system with less reliance on the bots, which usually have a fixed response in a particular situation and lack the human touch. This way, the possibilities of losing customers increase way too much, and negative publicity is also generated. Therefore, one should have a balanced system to deal with the same.
8. Engaging with the mobile users
Often, the companies overlook the mobile users on their platforms. These brands should not ignore this major chunk of the mobile users and their role in uplifting the brands in the e-commerce world. A regular engagement with the mobile users and planning activities keeping them in view is a really important step. The users mostly engage with the brand through their phones at first, and therefore they must experience a seamless flow along with great ease on your platform. As the mobile-savvy users are increasing, limited options for mobile users, less customer service to the mobile users, and few disabled features can ruin your entire game in no time. Because of this major chunk of these mobile users, the small to midsize companies pay attention to them.
9. Analysis of user satisfaction
Despite all the efforts, it is seen that the brands fail to deliver the desired results and face negative results in the end. Therefore, you must carefully decide in this field with every step directed in an aimed manner. It can give you a clear reflection of your efforts and make sure they are not going in vain. You can have a team of experts or do it yourself using the most basic method- the survey method. Some brands conduct regular surveys to get an idea of the user expectations and therefore plan accordingly in the future.
Certain software also helps you get a clear picture of the overall brand activities and the resultant impact on the user. Often, the recommendations that result from these ways can help the brands make otherwise impossible improvements. User satisfaction is the only priority of the businesses operating in the online mode and should be given utmost importance by all possible means. Thus, a regular survey followed by analysis is a must-do in this field.
CONCLUSION
For growing up as a company, the customer experience should be your topmost priority. It is a proven fact that you can achieve commendable results by improving e-commerce customer service. The fact behind the trend of online shopping is that it has allowed consumers to shop at any hour without any hassle, thus saving time that was not possible through conventional modes. Therefore, a brand can occupy central grounds based on e-commerce customer service. On the contrary, if you provide not-so-impressive customer service, it will harm the business in the long run. Therefore, it is desirable to overcome such shortcomings in due time to improve the overall results.
To have an impressive overall result, it is advisable to implement a careful blend of technology and efforts to achieve good results. It should be a part of the strategy to always improve and develop new strategies to climb up the stairs of success.