Customer service has always been a key aspect of any business, but it’s particularly important to note how it applies to eCommerce businesses. If done right, you can encourage your customers to return for a second experience and purchase multiple times from your online store, maximizing your customer lifetime value. Good customer service boosts brand values and becomes an extension of the marketing arm to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately, your bottom line. A good customer experience can improve your brand’s public reputation and is an important part of creating brand advocates.
Successful brands do customer service well! Read this 5-minute blog and get four proven ways to help improve your customer service today.
Before we get started, it goes without saying that it’s important to establish clear goals and objectives for the customer service team. This will help ensure that everyone is on the same page with regards to what is expected of them. Secondly, brands should train employees on the brand’s values and how to deliver excellent customer service. This will help employees feel confident in their ability to provide great service and represent the brand in a positive light.
Measure the relevant metrics
Metrics are quantitative data that measure certain aspects of a business. In particular, metrics allow you to look into different factors of your customer service from an objective perspective.
Here are some examples of metrics associated with customer service:
- Net promoter score (NPS)helps understand the power of referrals or the likelihood of a customer recommending your business to others; it’s not only an indicator of customer satisfaction but also business growth. The question to ask is ‘how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?’ You may allocate the responses into three groups: 0-6 will be the detractors, 7-8 are the passives and 9-10 are your promoters. Then, calculate the following equation: NPS = % of promoters – % of detractors. A higher score means they’re more likely to promote the brand and vice versa. Calculations involve subtracting the percentage of detractors or customers who’ve criticized your business from those who promoted it organically. Apple is a benchmark at 75.
- Review Rate is the number of customers who leave positive reviews divided by the number of people who purchase from your store. Great customer reviews play an important part in influencing people to make a buying decision when they visit your store greatly improving your store conversion rate.
- Returning Customer Rate (RCR) is an important metric as it’s well known that retaining a customer is less expensive than acquiring a new one. By maximizing this customer service KPI, you can reduce costs, or assign them to other channels that will grow your business.It is calculated by dividing the number of repeat customers by the total number of customers. A high rating implies your customers are loyal, trust your brand and like your product, assuming you’ve got a logical second and third product to offer.
If you wish to improve your eCommerce business’ customer service, keep track and measure these metrics. It’d allow you to determine whether you’re truly improving your customer service and delivering on the brand promise.
Brand Touchpoints – Set up different ways to connect with your business
One of the best ways to show the quality of your customer service is to respond quickly to customer queries and make it easy for customers to contact you. The worst customer experience is being told to wait for a response or engaging with Live Chat widgets only to find there’s long delays where they need to chase you to find the answers. Consider offering additional services, such as personalized product recommendations or one-on-one consultations with a product expert, to enhance the customer experience. There is increasing awareness about personal data and identity and customers have to be able to choose the communication channel that they feel most comfortable using. Automation should not be underrated when it comes to customer service, FAQs can be handled accounting for a large percentage of enquiries on the fly, totally satisfying and moving customers down the funnel to purchase. Providing various options to communicate is vital:
- Video chat
- Live chat
- Messenger Apps
- Social media
- Text messaging
- Mobile or Phone
- Voice activated service
- FAQs
Listen and act on feedback
Often the gold lies in the customer feedback. The feedback typically has to do with your customers’ experiences. When a customer takes time to share their experience, it’s important to action and improve where applicable. Not only will you be solving the potential issue, but you’re also showing your customers that you’re a brand that listens to the customers.
Include self-service customer care in your store
The idea of self-service is often well-regarded by customers. It’s convenient and eliminates any difficulty of contacting customer support. According to Zendesk, 69% of consumers first try to resolve their issue independently, but less than one-third of companies offer self-service options. You can integrate a few elements that promote self-service if you wish to enjoy its benefits without the downsides. These elements may include:
- FAQs: Customers often ask similar questions about a brand. With a page dedicated to answering these questions, customers don’t have to ask and wait for customer support.
- Chat Automation: These are automations built to hold a conversation and engage with customers instantly with the advantage of being available 24×7. You can integrate this self-service element by simply enabling it when no agent is available if you do have live human support at times.
- Knowledge base: A knowledge base is a section of your store dedicated to providing valuable information about your company and its products and services. It’s different from an FAQs page that only answers common questions. A knowledge base may contain answers to deeper questions, such as what your products are made of.
The FAQs page helps by getting visitors to know the company, while chatbots answer their more specific questions. Lastly, the knowledge base is where those that are truly interested in buying your products and services go. With these three elements set up, you can, in theory, serve customers with little to no effort.
Wrapping up
“68% of consumers say they are willing to pay more for products and services from a brand known to offer good customer service experiences.” – Hubspot
Customer service might only be one aspect of a business, but it has more impact on a business than you may think. It can greatly influence a brand’s ability to grow revenue and earn a good reputation while impacting employee and customer retention. That’s why successful companies spare no effort to improve this aspect of their business. It might be difficult, but it’s undoubtedly well worth the effort, so be sure your brand is doing what it can to reduce friction. To get the most out of your time with us today, write down 1 key item you’ll implement today and tag us with your takeout on social. Thanks for stopping by Beyond Points.
References:
- “8 Ecommerce Metrics to Measure Customer Experience”, Source: https://www.revechat.com/blog/ecommerce-metrics-measure-customer-experience/
- “What Is Omnichannel Customer Service? Definition, Importance & Strategy”, Source: https://www.zendesk.com/blog/omnichannel-really-means
- “The Importance Of Self-service For Greater Customer Satisfaction”, Source: https://enghouseinteractive.com/the-importance-of-self-service-for-greater-customer-satisfaction/
