How to Create a Killer eCommerce Customer Service Experience

In the digital world, great customer service means a lot more than just sending the right package to the right person at the right time. As an eCommerce business, you’re at somewhat of a disadvantage when your only storefront is a computer screen.

But just because your interactions with your customers are more nuanced than those of a brick-and-mortar business, it doesn’t mean that you can’t create a killer customer service experience for your customers. In fact, you can even turn some of those difficulties to an advantage.

In order to create this amazing customer service experience, you’re going to need a few tools and tricks to streamline your process and make your customer service team more accessible. Here are our top tips on how to do exactly that.

1. Invest in CRM Software

If you’ve built on Shopify, then you’re in luck. Shopify Flow (a new feature for the platform) provides merchants with a built-in CRM. Flow allows you to tag customers, create segments for marketing campaigns, and streamline customer service messaging. Agents can be instantly notified over Slack, email, or any other communication tool about customer alerts and messages.

Flow also prompts your customer service rep to follow up using the same communication channel the customer last used — email, social, Messenger, or phone — to ensure you’re communicating consistently and in the way your customer (apparently) prefers.

Of course, there are other dedicated CRM tools out there besides Shopify Flow. When you’re on the hunt, make sure to choose a CRM that automates and integrates your customer service processes, provides detailed analytics, and reduces gaps in communication.

2. Don’t Hide Your Contact Information

We’ve all been there at some point. All you want is to get in touch with a customer service rep. You click everywhere — but you can’t find any contact information for their customer support team.

No email address, no phone number, nada.

The message is loud and clear — “We don’t want to help you. So, don’t contact us.”

This kind of customer service (or lack thereof) seriously harms your brand image while making customers want to pull their hair out. Which is not great for customer retention.

So, make your contact information EASY to find for all your channels.

1. Display your contact info on your contact page and in your footer.
2. Make it easy to locate the Contact page on both desktop and mobile devices.
3. Put links to your customer support team in emails (as appropriate).
4. Install a customer service chat app on your social media accounts.

3. Offer Customer Service FAQs

Nobody wants to contact customer service if they don’t have to. This study from eConsultancy showed more than 50% of customers prefer to find solutions to problems on their own rather than contact a customer support team.

Compile a list of the FAQ’s your customer service team hears most often and answer them on an FAQ page. Place a link to this FAQ page on your Help Page, Contact Page, etc., or whatever other page makes sense for your business.

4. Offer MultiChannel Customer Service

The days of a single communication channel are long, long gone.

A study by Aberdeen Group found that companies with the strongest multichannel customer engagement strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers.

So, be present wherever your customers are.

Better yet, implement a customer service support tool, such as Zendesk. Their integration with Shopify allows merchants to embed Zendesk functionality — Help Center, Chat, or Tickets — directly into their stores, organizing both incoming and outgoing messages across any number of channels, all in one place.

5. Offer Live Chat

A study by Econsultancy, showed that live chat is how most consumers prefer to interact with a customers service team. It’s easy, quick, and allows them to multi-task while they wait for their turn in the Q.

Usually, Live Chat conversations are able to resolve customer issues within minutes. Also, if you’re running an eCommerce business, a pop-up chat box can be a great point of contact to offer information on product warranty, your return policy, and the payment process.

Live Chat features are easy to add to your site. For example, we like this LiveChat Tool for Shopify.

6. Proactive Customer Service

Be there before they need you.

One of the best ways to be proactive for your customer is to send a follow-up email after their purchase. Did they like it? Do they have any questions? If they have no complaints, they’ll be happy to know you’re there for them. If it turns out that they did run into an issue, you’ve made it easy for them to resolve it.

7. Ask for and Respond to Customer Feedback

Ask your customers how they feel about their experience with you. What did they like? Where can your business improve?

Here’s the catch — if you’re going to ask, you better be ready to respond. Set up an automated email response thanking happy customers for their reviews. For your unhappy shoppers, be prepared to fix their problems and make up for any mistakes on your part.

8. Personalize Whenever Possible

It’s a great feeling when someone remembers your name. This study shows that 94% of businesses agree that personalization is critical to their success — and yet, so many eCommerce brands still don’t have personalization software.

“Hello, valued customer…”

In eCommerce, you don’t have the benefit of speaking face-to-face with your customers, so you need to go the extra mile in other ways to create a meaningful interaction. Here are some ideas on how to personalize your consumer’s shopping experience:

• Use their names in email subject lines and/or greetings
• Send emails tailored to their browsing patterns or past purchases
• Ask for their names during a live chat — and use them
• Kick off a Facebook chat with a personalized greeting
• Have the same customer service rep stay in touch with the customer to resolve an issue

9. Offer 24-Hour Support

If you can swing 24-hour support, do it. There are several integrated customer service voice products that’ll help you take voicemails when you and your team are out of the office, but you could also use a 24-hour live answering service to allow your customers to communicate with a real person.

Nothing says, “We care,” like a business helping a customer resolve an urgent problem at 3 am.

10. Go The Extra Mile and Delight Them

How can your business go above and beyond to create a delightful experience for your customers? Customer delight goes a long way in creating long-lasting relationships. As in any relationship, it’s the ‘little things’ that can make all the difference.

Customer delight usually consists of gifts, rewards, extra communication or engagement with your team, but be creative and strategic. This is one of the best ways eCommerce brands can boost loyalty and drive more sales through referrals.

Creating tailored experiences for your customers is particularly powerful. Invite them to educational seminars, allow them to book a tour of your brick-and-mortar, offer training videos, whatever. This tool makes it incredibly easy and even allows you to brand the booking process.

Need More eCommerce Advice? We Can Help

At Mammoth Factory, we’re happy to share all of our cumulative years of experience in the ways eCommerce businesses can improve, scale, and increase ROI. We specialize in building on Shopify Plus — what we consider to be the best eCommerce platform currently available. If you’d like more insights from our team, subscribe to our channel. Or, if you want to read about Shopify’s favorite Customer Service Apps, click here.

Is Shopify Plus a good fit for your growing eCommerce biz? We can help you assess that. Just contact our team.

Love,

Mammoth Factory