Customer service is the essential lever for managing your e-commerce. It is this service that will allow you to engage your community and create a link between them and your company. Your customer service must be qualitative and must transmit the values of your company. To do this, you need to be multipurpose and flexible to your customers.
What do we mean by customer service?
The purpose of e-commerce customer service is to provide information to customers in case they have a problem or not with the product or service purchased. In other words, it refers to the online assistance you can provide to your customers. The aim is to satisfy your customer as much as possible so that they can find answers to their questions and feel led through their shopping experience on your site.
Consider that your customer service can have an impact on:
- Your customers’ experience.
- Your brand image.
- The customer relationship that will be impacted if the information provided is not complete.
What is good customer service?
A good customer service is one that responds to the customer’s request without the customer having to search for the information. First of all, you will have to organise your teams in order to best meet your customers’ expectations. To do this, you will have to agree on several points:
- Dedicate a specialised team to manage customer service.
- Collect information and feedback: this will enable you to anticipate future requests and redesign your site according to the opinions and comments collected.
- Equip your teams with the right digital tools to handle customer service (whether by email or telephone).
Have a global vision by favouring multi-channel!
In order to stand out from the e-commerce giants, it will be important for you to be flexible in the way you provide information to your customers. To do this, you must offer your customers several communication methods: both by e-mail and by telephone.
Specify on your website that you can be reached both by telephone and by email so that your customers have a choice. Put yourself in your customers’ place, some will prefer to contact you directly by phone and others by email.
Tools you can use for emails:
- Gmail
- Zendesk
- Help Scout
- xSellco
- Gorgias
Tools you can use for contact via phone:
- Aircall
- YouMail
- Google Voice
The most traditional way: the contact form. The customer indicates his request by filling in his contact details and his message, which is then forwarded to the customer service department. Be careful to process the request quickly and not to forget your customer!
In addition, remember to clearly indicate how to contact you, as customers do not have time to spend looking for information. They want customer service that is easy to access and simple to use.
You can also offer social networking solutions such as private groups on Facebook for example. Be aware that users spend a lot of time on social networks, they will be attentive to the fact that you can answer their questions via this communication channel.
Tools you can use for social networking:
- Buffer Reply
- Hootsuite
- Facebook Messenger
- Sprout Social
Live chats are also an indispensable tool for successful customer service. They allow you to have an instant discussion with your leads. They will help you to answer customer questions but also to highlight promotions or special offers. The prospect can then contact a manager directly without having to go through emails, the telephone or the contact form.
Tools you can use for live chats:
- Re:Amaze
- Chatra
- Olark
- Tidio
Customers are often attracted to the “FAQ” pages. These are intended to track down all the questions that come up frequently. The customer can sometimes find the solution to his problem without having to contact the company.
Another essential point that many companies neglect is to be responsive and deal with the customer’s request quickly. You should indicate on your website the approximate response times in your customer service. This way, the customer will be informed of the waiting time and will be able to take it easy!
Knowing the customer to customise the exchange
In order to approach your customer in the best possible way and to ensure that they are quickly satisfied with your services, you need to personalise your message. To do this, you can use retargeting, registration forms or even past customer services that will allow you to better orient your customer. Personalisation will save you time and make your customer service more efficient. Think of customer service as a reflection of your business. If you neglect it, your customers will keep a bad image of your brand and will not come back to you for future purchases.
The 3 key points of good customer service!
In order for your customer service to be successful, it is important to follow these 3 basic rules. Of course they are only a small part of good customer relationship management but start by taking them into account and you will see that they will only be beneficial for your e-commerce:
Be responsive
As a customer, he or she wants to receive information quickly. You must therefore be careful not to forget them and to respond quickly to their requests. Inform your customers about the response time and emphasise the fact that you can be reached at any time of the day and every day of the week.
Save your customers from looking for information
Remember that the purpose of your e-commerce is to sell. Before going to customer service, you should provide detailed information to your customers. If the customer does not contact your customer service, so much the better! This means that they don’t need it and that your site meets the expectations of your customers and that the information provided is well constructed and adapted.
Pay attention to your FAQs
As you already know, customers value your FAQ page. The more interesting the content and the more frequently asked questions, the more your customers will not have to call on your customer service and the more autonomous they will be on your site.
How to maximise your customer relations?
Now that you have the basics of customer service, you can go even further in customer relations. Indeed, adapt yourself to your audience. Of course, if you are a French site, you will have many French customers, but it can happen that some of them do not speak French. So, adapt yourself! Offer an English customer service for an international audience.
To conclude…
Keep in mind that the objectives of a customer service are :
- Speed
- Efficiency
- Multi-channel
- Courtesy
- Professionalism
- Turning an uncertain customer into a satisfied one
- Adaptation
Remember to spend time managing your customer service before offering it to your customers. Be understanding and open and you will see your satisfaction and conversion rate increase!
Photo credit : Ayushi Aswal