4 Strategies for Improving Your E-Commerce Customer Service

The standards for E-Commerce customer service have been raised, how can you improve your E-Commerce experience to meet and exceed customer expectations?

ecommerce customer service

Great service is essential for a competing business, but for online sellers, competition is getting tougher. Internet retailers gained 3.8 points on the American Customer Satisfaction Index last year, indicating more companies are successfully implementing effective E-Commerce customer service strategies. Amazon is setting the standard with policies such as one-click ordering, same-day delivery and no-hassle returns. This raises customer service expectations of online shoppers, raising the bar for everyone else to perform better.

Here are four ways you can optimize your online customers’ e-commerce experience to make sure you stay ahead of your competition.

Offer Multi-Channel Service

In the first quarter of 2016, mobile devices accounted for 45.1 percent of all web-shopping traffic, surpassing PCs at 45 percent, according to Demandware data. By the end of this year, mobile devices will account for 60 percent of e-shopping. Many of these shoppers interact with companies across multiple devices. For instance, a customer might make a purchase via their smartphone but then contact customer service on their computer.

To deliver a smooth user experience to customers across all devices, the best practice is to use a virtual call center that lets customer service agents field live chat, phone and email conversations all from one application. This enables agents to maintain continuity as customers shift from one channel to another or one agent to another.

Streamline Tickets With Self-Service Options

Customer satisfaction is inversely related to how long customers have to wait for service. For instance, a Velaro survey found that 30.2 percent of customers are only willing to wait 1 to 5 minutes on hold before hanging up, while 27.6 percent are only willing to wait 1 minute, and 32.3 percent aren’t willing to wait on hold at all.

One strategy you can use to reduce customer wait time is offering online self-service options. You can handle a large percentage of frequently asked questions by including a search bar on your website along with a knowledge database with answers to FAQs. This reduces the workload on your service team, while boosting the satisfaction experienced by your customers. Sixty-seven percent of customers prefer self-service to speaking to a representative, according to Zendesk research.

Speed Up Service With Automation

Another way you can shorten customer wait times is by deploying automation. For instance, one customer service tool that has been growing in popularity is chatbots. Chatbots use artificial intelligence to automatically handle customer live chat conversations. By greeting the customer with an automated script and requesting initial information, the chatbot can evaluate whether the customer’s inquiry can be answered by directing them to your FAQ section or another part of their site. If the chatbot determines the customer needs live assistance, it can route their inquiry to the right department. By automatically handling routine parts of live chat tickets, chatbots free up your human agents to have more time to assist customers who need live help.

Another automation tool you can use to speed up phone service is interactive voice response (IVR) software. IVR technology can answer calls with automated greetings and then take input from callers via voice or keypad in order to determine where to route their call. Routine inquiries such as requests for account information can be handled by automated responses, while inquiries requiring a live person can be routed to the right department automatically.

Deliver Personalized Service

[bctt tweet=”56% of customers are more likely to buy from an online retailer that recognizes them by name.” username=”Pixel_Pro”]

Personalized service increases your appeal to online customers. Fifty-six percent of customers are more likely to buy from an online retailer that recognizes them by name, an Accenture survey found. Sixty-five percent are more likely to purchase from a retailer who knows their purchase history and 58 percent are more likely to buy from one who makes recommendations based on past purchases.

Using recommendation engine software to offer recommendations based on past purchases or other personal data is one way to implement personalized service. Another strategy is making offers based on user behavior, such as offering loyalty rewards. A third personalization strategy is making geotargeted offers to customers based on location.