Customers nowadays expect to be able to communicate how they want, when they want with e-commerce businesses. We explain how you can supercharge customer communication for e-commerce businesses.
You understand the need, and may have already started using things like webchat or social media, but each tool is scattered from one platform to another. There simply isn’t any time or the personnel to monitor everything, meaning you might limit your interaction with customers.
So maybe you decide to keep things simple and just use one line of communication, like a traditional phone system or e-mail. In no time at all, you discover this tactic doesn’t make for an excellent customer service strategy.
For one, webchat is a highly preferred method of communication for most online shoppers, and about 67% of consumers engage a brand’s social media for customer service needs.
You’ve hit a stumbling block. You need all these channels of communication open, but with all of these platforms islands unto themselves, managing them all will be hit and miss. Your customer service line might deliver great rapport with your customers, but your webchat, often unmanned, normally sends out auto-generated replies, “We will contact you shortly.”
Maybe there is also miscommunication in your call centre about who answers those requests and in what order, and soon the shortly becomes never.
The same thing can happen to social media interfaces. If a customer sends you a message on Facebook, your service department may have no idea they’ve just placed a huge order, or they called to complain about the exact same issue they experienced last month. Not good.
It happens to even the largest of companies. Amazon, for instance, got some media attention in 2018 for charging a customer $7,455 on shipping costs for a few packages of toilet paper. The customer complained to Amazon six times, and then received a form letter explaining she couldn’t have a refund because the delivery was made on time.
The angry customer took her story to the local news. Two and a half months later, she was at last reimbursed. It’s easy to imagine she won’t be shopping on Amazon any time soon if she can help it.
What is at stake for your business?
A company needs visibility. There must be immediacy. You have to know when a customer’s order is late and proactively contact them with a status update, along with a healthy dose of reassurance the order will arrive. If they are dissatisfied, they need to have their needs addressed and met with speed and care. The entire customer journey needs to be out in front, in one easy to use interface, which will dramatically speed up response times and first call resolution.
In today’s highly competitive market, by the time the customer has to reach out and complain you’ve probably already lost them as a customer. In fact, Vonage states, as of 2019, “companies are now losing $62 billion a year because of poor customer service.”
Leading CRM provider Hubspot, describes vital best practices for customer service:
- Increasing Response Time
- Using Social Media
- Providing Proactive Customer Support
- Including Self-Service Options
- Offering a Phone Support Line
- Leveraging Customer Service Tools
So how does a company accomplish this in one broad stroke?
The single answer is QContact. We bring all your calls, texts, emails, web chats and social interactions into one place together with a deep two-way integration with your CRM, billing and shopping cart software. QContact can provide a single view of the customer and all of his or her interactions in one place. Now you’ve gone from a substandard customer experience to a powerhouse of efficiency and speed that will be appreciated by your existing customers and no doubt be shared with other potential customers.
We offer omni-channel Inbound and Outbound interaction handling and skill-based routing solution. All of this with full integration to existing CRMs and web architecture. Imagine, your phone, email, text, webchat and social media all in ONE unified interface with a complete timeline of every touchpoint your customer has made with your business across all platforms and communication methods. Effective Customer Communication for E-Commerce Businesses
What will the results be for my business?
You are going to increase sales, period. It is no secret that research has revealed customer service as the #1 factor impacting vendor trust. It is also well known that more customers, whether B2B or B2C, purchased more after a positive service experience. Furthermore, it isn’t that shocking that according to Zendesk 88% of customers were influenced by an online customer service review.
What was the number one thing these customers say made the service great?
The problem was resolved quickly.
A speedy resolution was the key, but another high priority for customers was that a problem was resolved in one interaction. Nobody likes to be passed around to multiple people, or form fills, for that matter. Effective Customer Communication for E-Commerce Businesses
Solutions for Call Centres
Qcontact provides a complete package for in-house and outsourced call centres that will greatly improve performance and reduce downtime. You can use your own carrier or use our Tier-1 telecom relationships. It’s easy to manage, fully supported and our expert team can help migrate your data without any hassle or complications.
Solutions for E-Retailers
Reduce those abandoned shopping carts and improve your customer satisfaction with our built-in live chat and web monitoring tools. You can re-engage customers with our outbound functionality, all of which are GDPR compliant.
Qcontact handles hundreds of thousands of interactions between our customers and their clients.
In both Europe and North America, we power communication between businesses and customers. Whether you are moving from a legacy on-premise solution, an existing cloud-based solution, or even starting a brand new company, you can rest assured you’re in safe hands.
So take your business to the level it deserves. The importance of all channels of customer service has never been clearer. Allowing any type of inefficiency is an extremely risky gamble in today’s marketplace. Don’t let that common problem that plagues so many companies be your problem. Keep your happy customers and make new ones with Qcontact. Effective Customer Communication for E-Commerce Businesses
