It's simple: Customer-centric businesses win. They win over businesses who don't focus on their customers and they win even when the economy isn't great. Here are best practices e-commerce stores should follow for great customer service.
Part of your customer service strategy will be self-service - meaning customers can easily find the answer to their question without reaching out to you. Having FAQ's on your website and your social media are key; this will help to answer the most common questions that customers have like these:
-How can I place an order?
-Can I track my order?
-How do I return or exchange an item?
-What are the payment options?
-What is the store's return policy?
-How do I use a coupon code?
-What are the shipping rates?
-How long will it take for my order to arrive?
-What is the store's phone number?
As the number of inquiries grow, you'll see patterns in repetitive questions and you can add to your FAQ database.
As an e-commerce owner, it's going to be impossible for you to support all your inquiries as you grow. Chatdesk can provide on-demand Experts to respond to customer inquiries starting at $99/month.
"The Chatdesk team is an absolute dream to work with! They were quick to learn our processes and protocols and made an impact with our support tickets on day one. Chatdesk is a lifeline for high volume times like holidays and sale periods. Highly recommend!" - Corey Brown, Customer Experience Manager at Zitsticka
The best way to ensure great customer service is to train your representatives. Teach them how to be friendly and helpful, and how to deal with difficult customers. Make sure they understand your company’s policies and procedures, and how to use your customer service ticketing system.
When a customer contacts you, always record the conversation. The record will be handy in case there are any disputes. It will also help you stay close to the customer.
Returns and refunds is a common reason your customers will reach out to you so make sure your policy is easy to understand and easy to follow. This will help ensure customers are happy with their purchase and are more likely to return in the future. Here's an example of a clear returns policy:
"If you are not satisfied with your purchase, we will gladly accept your return of unworn, unwashed, or defective merchandise within 30 days of the original purchase date. Merchandise must be accompanied by the original receipt and be in the original packaging. We will not accept returns of items that have been worn, washed, or altered in any way."
Here's another good example:
"We offer a free return shipping label to our customers in the United States. You can print the return shipping label from our website and attach it to the return package. Please note that we are not responsible for lost or stolen packages, so we recommend using a shipping service that provides tracking and insurance."
You'll need a way to quantitatively measure how your customer service is performing. You can do that by measuring your CSAT score or a Voice of the Customer (VoC) analysis. The VoC analysis will measure how much negative, positive, and neutral customer sentiment your brand is receiving. You can instantly get a free Voice of the Customer analysis here.
Having that Standard Response Guide will help, but the other thing you need to create for your team are templates. We created 24 free templates for responding to customers to help you with this. It also helps when you have a proper team to support you.
Omnichannel support is the norm these days - especially on social media, live chat, and email. Make it easy for customers to find your contact information and interact with you.
We mentioned earlier having self-service options for customers like FAQ's on your website, but you'll always have a subset of people who wants to talk to a real person. And a chatbot won't cut it. To maximize personalized responses,
Make sure that there is always someone available to take customer service inquiries. This can be done through having a call center that is open around the clock, or by ensuring that there is always someone on duty to respond to emails or social media messages. Chatdesk can help with after business hours support or weekend support too. You can download our 5-star app from the Shopify app store. We have a 2-week free trial, no credit card required to sign up.
At Chatdesk, we've helped brands address millions of customers' inquiries and you'd be surprised how many are related to a poor website experience. Customers should be able to find the information they need and purchase the products they want with ease. Go through the experience yourself, and go all the way to checkout. It's often almost at the end of checkout that presents big issues for customers.
When interacting with customers, be positive and upbeat. This will make them feel more positive about their experience and likely to return in the future.
If something is not right, be honest with the customer. Don't try to cover it up or make excuses. Apologize and work to fix the issue as quickly as possible.
