The internet age has brought with it the age of instant gratification. While this is fantastic if you’re a consumer (which we all are), it can bring challenges to businesses that haven’t been used to operating in the ecommerce world. With the advent of social media, live chat, email, and round-the-clock support agents, it’s never been easier for the customer to speak to who they’re buying from.
Ensure you’re multi-channel
If your users are primarily contacting you via email, it makes sense that you would have a robust and swift system for dealing with email queries. While you may not see customers contacting you in other ways as much, you should still make sure that you have a good multi-channel strategy. If you’re on social media, this is especially important. It doesn’t take long for a negative tweet to make a huge impact. While sourcing web design in Swansea, for example, ensure you build multi-channel compatibility into your brief.
Track customer journeys
From the moment they arrive on your website to the moment they become a customer, you should know what interactions your customers have had with your business. Understanding where there are gaps in communication is essential for improving your whole service experience.
You can also identify problem areas and streamline communications where necessary – confusing interactions isn’t the best way to ensure brand loyalty, so make sure it’s clear how people can reach you. https://www.accent-adc.co.uk/ is a good example of a clear contact point.
Join the live chat revolution
Don’t let live chat intimidate your business. It can actually be an incredibly powerful weapon to have in your arsenal. There’s no other tool in ecommerce customer service that underlines instant gratification more potently than live chat, and properly implemented, it will turbo-charge your customer service plan.
Some have even suggested AI chat is on the cards for ecommerce.
Keep an eye on the time
With all of these channels, there is, of course, the chance that customers could slip through the cracks if you haven’t ensured that responses are prompt and relevant. If you have business hours published anywhere online, you should make sure live chat agents are available during these hours. If you have an auto-responder email that lets customers know they will receive a response within 24 hours, aim to respond within 12.
