Did
you know that 89%
of consumers have stopped shopping at an online store because they
received poor customer service? That's a big loss to your store
over something that could be so easily avoided...
We
believe that great customer service should be at the forefront of
everything you do, so you can start to build long lasting
relationships with your customers. And since it's beneficial
to your bottom line
that you focus your efforts on retaining customers, it might be time
to check out your current process.
Check
out these 8 tips on how you can deliver exceptional customer service
to help grow your online store...
1. Be
quick to respond
An
incredible 83% of online shoppers need support when purchasing an
item. This means that the bigger your store gets, the more inquiries
you'll receive. It's important to make sure that you don't lose a
customer to a competitor because you forgot to reply to their email,
or you didn't have time to deal with their problem...
Put
in place a procedure that ensures you and your team will respond to
any inquiry
within 24 hours. If you have a big team then assign different
inquiries
to different people in order to perform a quicker turnaround. As we
mentioned in our blog
last week,
there are plenty of help desk tools that can help you automate the
process, if a customer has a FAQ that can be dealt with right
away.
Check
out tools such as HelpScout,
Zendesk
and HappyFox
for a smoother communication process.
2. Offer
a good returns and exchange policy
Building
buyer trust is a hard thing to do, so you need to make sure you do
everything you can to reassure customers, and one way to do that is
by providing a clear returns and exchange policy. Not only should
your policy be clearly in view whenever a customer is making a
purchase, but it needs to be good enough for your customers to know
that you will do everything you can to ensure they are happy with
your product.
The
duration that stores will offer a refund or exchange does differ, but
it tends to be around 28 days – giving the customer enough time to
decide whether they are happy with your product. If a customer does
want a refund then make every effort to find out why they are
returning the product, so that you can offer an alternative or
improve your process in the
future.
It
will also benefit your store if you provide free returns,
as postage fees can be off-putting for customers to even buy from you
in the first place. By offering free returns you are providing
customers with a 'nothing to lose' option, and building up trust in
the process.
3. Have
excellent product knowledge
It's
hardly surprising that people would rather buy from somebody who
knows what they are talking about, than a novice. Again it's all
about building up trust, so you need to ensure that you and your team
have an excellent grasp of every single product that you sell. If you
use a drop
shipper and
you don't actually stock inventory in your business then this may be
harder to do, but not impossible.
Make
sure you are constantly researching the products you sell, and over
time collect the most common questions that your customers ask, so
you can provide helpful answers within each product description. A
great idea is to feature product reviews on your blog so that you can
provide your customers with useful information.
Not
only will this help market your online store, but it will set your
brand apart as an industry leader rather than a follower.
4. Install
live chat software
As
you've probably seen from our website, we'd really recommend
implementing a 'live chat' tool to your online store. With 31% of
customers expecting immediate help if they ask you for support, live
chat is the perfect solution to enable you to do just that. It can
really help cut down on the amount of calls or emails you will
receive too, as you can have a dedicated customer support team on
hand to answer customer inquiries
via chat.
The
great thing about a tool like this is that it's instant, so not only
are you being responsive, but your customer can get the answer they
need with
lightning speed and be pushed towards a purchase. Live chat is not
just about your customers coming to you either. You can set the tool
up so that it automatically sends the customer a message to see if
they need help, therefore you are targeting the traffic on your site
by approaching them first.
If
you are looking for a great tool that will seamlessly integrate with
your online store then we would really recommend LiveChat
as it provides real-time website monitoring, support tools and can
help you improve your bottom line.
5. Provide
phone support
Let's
face it, some customers are old school and they would really prefer
to speak to you over the phone than via email. By offering telephone
support in addition to email and live chat, you are covering all
bases and proving once again that you can be trusted. If you can,
feature a free phone number so that you are not making it difficult
for the customer to contact you. Or, give them an option to leave
their telephone number so that you can call them back.
Once
a customer does call, make sure you or your customer service team are
fully trained to deal with their enquiries appropriately. They may be
looking for that expert product knowledge as mentioned above, so it's
important to ensure that you have this readily available. And if it's
out-of-office hours which can happen, make sure the customer can
leave a message and give them other options which may help them.
6. Let
customers track their orders
Giving
customers the ability to track their orders can really help improve
the customer experience. Most shipping companies will now offer this
as standard, so the customer can log in using a unique tracking
number and find out where their parcel is. With the right ecommerce shipping features, you could manage this for your customers and email or text
updates with the time and date of their delivery.
If
you are using a drop shipper then make sure that communication is
streamlined between you and the shipper so that you can keep your
customer informed as to when they can receive the delivery.
7.
Manage your leads effectively
Although
it's important to provide exceptional service to your current
customers, you also need to ensure that your service is just as good
for potential customers too. The good news is that there are
platforms available that can help you manage leads so that it
automates responses and helps customers when you are too busy to do
so. Take a look at Speak2Leads
for a handy web-based lead response management app that will respond,
follow-up
and handle sales overflow.
Another
good tool for this is called WuFu.
It's a really easy to use drag and drop form builder that enables
customers to submit request forms to you, so you can deal with their
enquiry quickly and efficiently.
8. Provide
after sales support
Once
the purchase has been made the work is not over! Your next step is to
provide exceptional service after the sale, so they will come back
for more. CRM platforms can help with this as you can integrate them
with your database and track the history of each customer, so you can
provide a personalized experience.
A
CRM platform is the perfect tool to use after the sale as you'll be
able to find out which products each customer likes, and you can then
target them with the appropriate promotions and offers, in order to
encourage further sales. It will also help if they ever call you, as
you will have everything you need to know right at your fingertips.
Takeaway
The
truth is, providing great customer service doesn't cost a lot, and it
can really help set you apart as an industry leader. With 55% of
consumers stating that they would pay more for a better customer
experience, it would be foolish not to make this an integral part of
your value proposition.
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