Perfect Customer Service Consists Of These Seven Steps.
Did you know that customer service starts before the purchase and ends after it? Any interaction with your potential or current customer creates their “customer experience.”
If you want to have satisfied buyers, you should have elaborate customer service. Therefore, we will go through all its steps and how to create customer happiness with them. Finally, we have a few extra tips for your customer support.
Why are we even bothering with this? Because customer service is the way, your e-shop can be incredibly different from the competition and win fans for life. At the same time, nothing will attract new customers like real positive recommendations. After all, people’s satisfaction is the most effective advertisement.
Table of Contents
Be available through multiple channels.
In the beginning, the visitor to your e-shop is curious. You are viewing products. He reads the information. He has questions to which he has not found an answer. What now? Does he see your contact, or can he reach it with a maximum of one click? If not, you may have already lost it.
But some have more patience and will look for your… contact form? That is the most impersonal form of contact with the company. No phone number, email or live chat? Not even a Facebook page? The customer lost his temper and went to the competition instead.
Make a great first and second impression.
If you want to use all possible communication channels, make sure you can handle them. What doesn’t make a good impression? Live chat is constantly offline. A Facebook message or email that you don’t respond to within a day. Not to mention the unavailable phone.
That’s the time it takes to process a relevant written response. If your customers prefer telephone contact, provide adequate customer support.
In large companies, it sometimes happens that a person is thrown around on the telephone line like a hot potato. How does he feel about it? Unwanted, frustrated, and tired. In the end, he regrets calling at all.
Make it easy for him to get a relevant answer, whether it’s about order status, invoice adjustment, or product questions. You will need a comprehensive system so your employee can access all information about a specific customer.
And if your support people can’t keep up, invest in more people. Today, speed is a huge competitive advantage.
Process your order as quickly as possible
Fast order processing is one of the biggest competitive advantages. Just imagine that as a customer, you would have to wait for a package for a week or even two (even without the e-shop notifying you about it). Unimaginable. Speed is of the essence.
During the processing of the order, inform the customer about important changes in its status – receipt, processing, dispatch, or arrival at the delivery point.
The basic information processing the order will be delayed is not enough. Also, write to him the reasons why he is late. People are much more understanding then.
In addition, there are times when the delay is not your fault. Several external companies influence customer experience.
Find reliable partners
From the e-shop system to the payment gateway to the courier company. It is clear to you that your co-workers are also part of your customer service.
Therefore, you must have, e.g., stable hosting without outages, an e-shop system without technical slips, a continuously available payment gateway, and a courier company that will not spoil the impression of your e-shop when delivering the order. You must extinguish every problem.
Pay attention to details.
Do you address the customer by name in emails or on the phone? Do you send a thank you card for a purchase or a free sample of your products in packages?
Even such details can surprise and delight. They don’t cost much money or effort. But they have enormous power to win a loyal customer.
Make returns easier
The service does not end with the receipt of the goods. Well, in some cases. Thanks to European legislation, the buyer can return the goods within 14 days without giving a reason. This period is used for producing and “exchanging” goods (e.g., for a different size).
Some sellers are trying to prevent this with tooth and nail. They do not have a collection point, so the customer has to pay extra money if they want to exchange or return the goods. But this is not the best strategy. Why?
You will increase your dissatisfaction if the customer is unsatisfied with the product. And you have to pay him back—some products you have to hold or try to make a final decision.
Ask for feedback, and don’t forget to say thank you
You need to know whether your customer had a negative or positive experience. Bad experiences move you. You learn and improve your services thanks to them. You also repair the damage.
On the other hand, good experiences motivate you. At the same time, they make up a large part of your marketing. Therefore, you should be grateful for both.
EXTRA tips for customer support
Do you want to make a positive impression on your phone?
Smile (unless you have a frustrated customer on the line who needs a more serious approach). The smile can be heard on the phone. It leaves people feeling good, and that’s the goal of your customer support.
Want to calm down an angry customer?
Begin empathetically: “I understand that this situation made you angry.” Always apologize sincerely, even if it’s not your fault. Then offer him a solution or an idea for fixing the situation. Finally, ask him not to resent you and to try the purchase again in the future.
Can’t answer the question?
Inform the customer that although you do not know, you would be happy to find out and contact them immediately.
Do your customers keep asking you the same questions?
Create an FAQ section on your website to collect frequently asked questions. It will also help you reply to emails and messages faster. This will save you a lot of time and provide relevant information. At the same time, this part of the website can benefit your SEO (search engine optimization).
Do you use company emails?
Are they generic, like info@vaseshop.com, or do they bear your name? Personal communication is more valuable than receiving an email from a generic address. In addition, such lessons are better rated, so there is less chance they will end up in SPAM.
How to translate all this into practice
Conduct communication training in your company. Customer service workers need ground rules they can stick to. However, they also need the freedom to be motivated to stay at work and to develop their creativity and communication skills. At the same time, they will be able to deal with demanding and unexpected problems.
Also Read : How To Come Up With a Company Name That People Will Remember