What Is E-commerce Customer Service? 5 Best Practices for 'Little' to Beat 'Enormous'

 Going toward e-commerce behemoths is no easy feat. However, customer service is one of the last strongholds where little absolutely crushes huge.  

 

Going toward behemoths like Amazon and Walmart can leave you feeling outclassed, outgunned, and out-funded. In any case, uplifting news. E-commerce customer service is one of the last strongholds on today offer where little absolutely crushes large. 

 


Competition is fierce in the e-commerce world. You needn't bother with me to tell you that. 

 

In the US, 10 companies presently control 60.3% of all online retail sales. Somewhere between half and 66% of item searches begin on Amazon. Furthermore, by 2021, completely 70.1% of all computerized shoppers are expected to join the Amazon Prime parade. 

 

With trillions in their stashes, the enormous names have conditioned customers to expect one-to two-day turnarounds, unlimited inventory, and absolute bottom prices. 

 

Yet, expectations are meant to be exceeded. Especially when it comes to e-commerce customer service. 

 

Are the behemoths really that great at catering to the customer? Do they provide personal help at scale? Are they improving in view of the customer? 

 

Basically: No. Truth be told, as indicated by the current year's American Customer Satisfaction Index, "There is no improvement in the online shopping experience compared to a year prior—and most aspects have gotten worse." 

 

Every major online retailer tracked year-over-year declined. Furthermore, take one guess which category positions second to last. Yep, "helpfulness of customer support."
 

 

helpfulness of customer support is the second-most noticeably awful customer experience among top internet retailers 

 

The fact of the matter is going toward the huge names as a "little" name can be a huge advantage. 

 

In this guide, we'll tell you the best way to creatively offload customer support requests, without offloading your customers or backing itself. You'll learn how to automate and integrate support utilizing your current resources. 

 

What's more, we'll show you how utilizing the right devices — combined with five best practices — can make your business more personal, not less. While as yet getting more done. 

 

What is e-commerce customer service? 

 

E-commerce customer service provides the framework for supporting shoppers by means of e-commerce stages and for the duration of their life cycles. Backing for online businesses should represent the unique challenges involved with serving advanced consumers: 


 

High volumes of service and backing requests 

 

Normal questions related to items, fulfillment, and returns 

 

Just as the need to screen multiple channels with quick response times 

 

In the midst of those concerns, customer experience reigns supreme. Your service team is tasked (quite literally) with being the voice of your image—the one human touchpoint in an otherwise exchange and advanced world. 

 

For early-stage companies, the fear of disjointed voices may not be as pressing. Likely because the people conversing with customers are the same people who started the business. What's more, that is the thing that customers love about independent ventures. 

 

Be that as it may, you will grow out of—or burnout from—the demanding position of customer support. 

 

Your image's central voice will dissipate away from the core stakeholders. What's more, this is where the huge e-commerce stores come up short. They accept this as an inevitability and spotlight on process rather than emotion. Because it's easier to scale. 

 

It's possible to do both. Moreover, it's necessary. 

 

5 e-commerce customer service best practices 

 

"Best practices" tend to veer into hypotheticals. Heaps of general advice that leaves you thinking, "Isn't this presence of mind?" 

 

Instead, we've paired it down to five tangible things to do, each including examples and next steps, so you'll know exactly how to move forward. 

 

1. Pick an inbox that integrates with your e-commerce stage 

 

Choose the best customer support software for your online store to create a strong establishment for customer service. Start by evaluating the device agents use the most: The inbox. 

 

A shared inbox permits your team to keep up with customer requests and stay organized. 

 

image of an e-commerce customer service example utilizing a shared inbox 

 

Start your free preliminary of Groove's shared inbox 

 

For e-commerce specifically, make sure your inbox offers integration with your store's foundation to streamline your work process. Following and collecting every one of the interactions a customer has with your image in one place will deliver dividends. 

 

image of an e-commerce integration inside a shared inbox 

 

Groove's Shopify integration provides a speedy view of relevant customer data 

 


An integration with your e-commerce stage permits support reps to see a complete customer breakdown: Recent purchases, previous visits or calls, connections to online media accounts, etc. 

 

Moreover, your software ought to permit you to respond inside the inbox, yet through whatever service channel your customer-initiated contact. Agents can respond quicker, and with more context, to every request. 

 

Other helpful help-desk features include: 

 

Personalized folders for agents or teams 

 

Need folders sorted by severity of the request 

 

Channel-based folders to separate accommodation sources 

 

Folders for starred conversations you need to focus on 

 

Time-based folders so nothing, and no one becomes lost despite any  effort to the contrary 

 

Even however I'm flaunting Groove in this article—which is understandable, right?— I don't need you to get some unacceptable impression. Normally, we think Groove is the best. 😉 

 

In any case, there's consistently a chance it will not be an ideal choice for your organization. 

 

For an instrument-by-apparatus correlation, check out A Better Lemonade Stand's 7 Customer Service Help Desks for Ecommerce Stores: How Do They Compare? 

 

2. Make self-service (knowledge base) your e-commerce frontline 

 

A knowledge base empowers prospective customers to make informed purchases by giving detailed answers to normal questions. After they make a purchase, self-service reduces support volume and increases customer fulfillment. 

 

Why? Because online shoppers like online shoppers genuinely need to help themselves… 

 

90% of shoppers like today online offers use self-service to discover answers 

 

Information from 80 Customer Service Statistics: 8 Lessons to Fuel Growth in 2019 and Beyond 

 

To do this, the initial step is ensuring you have a knowledge base. In the event that you don't, we set up a useful guide on the most proficient method to create one. Then, keep your help center well organized—with clear sections and instructional exercises—so customers can easily discover what they're searching for. 

 

image of an ecommerce customer service example utilizing a knowledge base 

 

Parabo Press uses Groove's knowledge base to answer normal questions—create your own resource with a free preliminary 

 

Building a strong knowledge base saves both your customers' and your customer service team's time. 

 

Make sure that all relevant data (faqs, deliveries, return strategy, etc.) is easy to discover through Google as well. Eliminate yet another step in giving answers to your customers' questions. 

 

image of an ecommerce customer service example utilizing a knowledge base and google search results 

 

When optimized correctly, Google search results show knowledge base articles for frequently asked e-commerce customer service questions 

 

3. Measure and optimize what matters through brilliant reporting 

 


From a business-wide perspective, there's plenty to measure in e-commerce. 

 

Truth be told, I've written extensively about both SaaS and e-commerce customer experience metrics: A guide that (frankly) nearly murdered me during the creation process! 

 

The uplifting news is—in the event that I can master e-commerce customer examination—anyone can. There you'll discover 10 metrics and step-by-step directions for each… 

 

Download the Customer Experience Analytics PDF 

 

The even better news here is we can reduce all that down to a small bunch of customer-related key-performance markers (KPIs) inside your helpdesk. 

 

For e-commerce, you'll need to follow metrics like customer happiness, complete conversations per day, and label bits of knowledge. 

 

image of an ecommerce customer service example utilizing a reporting dashboard 

 

Groove's Reporting dashboard optimized for e-commerce 

 

Expect to reduce all out conversations with a comprehensive knowledge base and website. See on the off chance that you can improve customer happiness by personalizing responses or reducing response time. What's more, encourage your team to tag trending subjects as they see them, so you can alter the item or create a new knowledge base article. 

 

Finally, combine and screen main concern metrics—like retention, repeat orders, and onsite reviews and rating—alongside your service-specific reporting. 

 

4. Automate everything you can, without losing the personal touch 

 

Mechanization is the secret sauce of good customer support. Done right, it permits your team to engage on a more personal level with more of your customers. 

 


How? Probably, you already automate a large group of exchange messages: Order affirmations, receipts, and transportation notices. 

 

What you probably won't be robotizing are generally the one-off or recurring conversations your customers send when they hit an obstacle. Normal, low-value assignments—like "Where's my order?" or "How would I return this?"— ought to likewise be automated so your help reps can zero in on more challenging cases. 

 

Yet, don't overlook the self-evident: Letting customers realize you got their request and that you're on it. During a recent investigation of ~1,000 little, medium, and large companies across the globe: 

 

62% didn't respond to customer service emails 

 

90% didn't acknowledge an email had been received 

 

97% didn't circle back to their customers are the principal email 

 

Source: SuperOffice Customer Service Benchmark Report 

 

The easiest method to keep away from those entanglements is to set-up a personalized auto-reply

 

awful example of ecommerce customer service 

 

Reads like one human conversing with another, while being honest that it's an "programmed reply"… 

 

genuine example of ecommerce customer service 

 

Groove's auto-replies permit you to automate repetitive errands 

 

You can even set up computerizations to target specific customers with specific needs. 

 

example of utilizing auto-replies for better ecommerce customer service 

 

Set up Rules in Groove to route, tag, or auto-respond to certain conversations 

 

From that auto-reply establishment, you ought to likewise leverage what we at Groove call canned replies. Saved templates for normal conversations you can add, edit, and send with only a couple clicks: 

 

Evaluate canned replies for yourself by pursuing a preliminary of Groove 

 

Keep these replies creative, insightful, and in your image's voice. Because it's automated doesn't mean it needs to seem like a robot. 

 

5. Meet your e-commerce customers on the channels they prefer 

 

The present customers have certain presumptions when it comes to correspondence. Online shoppers expect to be able to connect with their favorite brands over web-based media, email, real-time messaging, offline support channels, and phone calls. 

 


However, keeping up with a huge load of different channels can be a huge challenge and harmed your team's response time. 

 

Unless you realize how to connect everything through your helpdesk… 

 

For example, here's the manner by which we integrate Twitter inside the Groove inbox for our own customer service: 

 

Twitter mentions funnel through the Groove Inbox 

 

Rather than force an agent to stop what they're doing and check web-based media every day (or hour), funnel every one of your correspondences through the inbox with integrations. 

 

That same simple process likewise applies to Facebook: 

 

Facebook mentions funnel through the Groove Inbox 

 

With respect to live talk and phone support? Absolutely. Both of those sources ought to likewise be integrated into your centralized help desk software—alongside some other correspondence channels you realize your customers care about and use: 

 

correspondence channels: email, ticketing, phone, SMS, online media, live visit 

 

No missed messages. What's more, no wasted time moving between stages. 

 

When you proactively listen to your customers' conversations, whether they happen inside your own inbox or through offline channels, you can better serve their needs.

 

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