Tag Archive: customer service

Easy Ideas for Customer Retention

August 16, 2017  Published by

Whatever product or service your company offers, keeping customers engaged and coming back to your site is critical for ecommerce success. Customers remain loyal to brands that treat them well, but even more so to companies that implement memorable tactics to keep them happy. Below are some easy ideas that can go a long way toward leaving a good impression on your customers.     Educate You don’t need to be pushing a sale every time you communicate with your customers. Sharing content related to your products or industry can provide your customers with helpful information for purchasing decisions. By establishing…... View Article

Communicating your Shipping & Returns Policies

May 24, 2017  Published by

There are LOTS of moving parts under the hood of a well-oiled ecommerce operation. Try as you might, unpredictable situations are bound to occur. To help customers with common questions, have your shipping and returns policies outlined on your website. In most cases, an FAQ-style page allows you to clearly state your policies in a format that customers will understand.     When developing this content, your customer service staff should be able to provide frequently asked questions that are specific to your business. At minimum, you’ll want to address the following general areas: Shipment lead time Most online customers assume…... View Article

Advantages of Customer Contact Centers

May 10, 2017  Published by

As the ecommerce industry continues to evolve, so too do approaches to customer service. For example, self-service support – where customers use FAQs, user forums, site content, or other means to solve a problem or answer a question without the assistance of customer service staff – is more popular than ever. While this approach to customer service certainly has benefits, it may be detrimental to make self-service content the sole focus of your customer service efforts. Self-service content works best when it’s supported by a customer contact center. The two work together – call centers provide personalized service and fill…... View Article

Assessing your Ecommerce Customer Service

January 25, 2017  Published by

Returning customers provide the best ROI for ecommerce companies. While there are lots of things you can do to retain customers, it’s important to remember the primary factor that influences whether a customer will continue to order from you: do you provide a good customer experience? To answer this question and make any necessary improvements, you have multiple options for assessing customer experience.    One excellent method is to become your own customer. Contact your company for help with placing an order. Buy something from yourself and evaluate your checkout process. After the order arrives, call customer service to troubleshoot some…... View Article

Best Practices for a more Efficient Customer Service Department

December 14, 2016  Published by

From fostering repeat business to managing your brand’s reputation, your ecommerce company’s approach to customer service is critical for lasting success. But before you can help your customers, you need to be able to help yourself – and unfortunately, many customer service departments struggle with underlying talent management issues that impact performance.    As representatives of your company, customer service agents can be a defining factor in the customer experience your business is known for. While innate people-skills are a valuable trait for agents, it’s useless to customers if the agent has not been thoroughly trained. Don’t exclusively focus on training…... View Article

The Potential for Artificial Intelligence in Ecommerce

November 30, 2016  Published by

Artificial intelligence is becoming more ubiquitous in our everyday lives. Even ecommerce giant, Amazon.com, is paving the way for advancement with Echo – its smart-speaker running Alexa personal assistant software. But, while Echo and Alexa are consumer products, the technology behind them could soon become a mainstream component in ecommerce business strategies. The aforementioned Amazon products use advanced speech recognition technology to perform tasks – like searching for information or re-ordering specific products from Amazon. The algorithms that help Alexa understand people can be used to improve efficiencies in many sectors of ecommerce. Speech recognition technology can be used in…... View Article

What to Look for in a Call Center Partnership

November 9, 2016  Published by

Because of its role in helping and retaining customers, your call center is a critical part of the overall customer experience you provide. If you opt to outsource your call center management, you need to consider how well a company can represent your brand, in addition to their capabilities and cost – just as you would do when choosing a 3PL provider.    The first thing you should do while vetting potential call center providers is to review their performance metrics. For example, the call center services provided through Fulfillment Works boast: average hold times well below one minute average abandon…... View Article

How to Enhance the Customer Experience

September 21, 2016  Published by

Ecommerce businesses have access to a humongous audience. But getting a hold of the attention and trust of customers (and keeping it) in an industry packed with competitors is nothing short of challenging. That’s why focusing on the customer experience your company offers is critical for standing out from competitors and retaining customers. Below are some tips for enhancing the foundations of your customer experience efforts.     Start with staffing As representatives of your company, customer service staff can be a defining factor in the customer experience your business is known for. Give your current staff the authority and flexibility…... View Article

Incentive Ideas for Increasing Sales

August 17, 2016  Published by

Ecommerce companies already use a lot of resources to get users talking about their products and interacting with their website. But sometimes, the best way to influence user behavior is to sweeten the deal. Use these ideas to recruit your customers into helping increase your sales and brand awareness.      Refer-a-friend Referrals can be a great way to generate new business. Of course, if you incentivize your referral program, more people are likely to participate – and at higher volumes. “Follow Us” Rewards A simple way to boost your word-of-mouth marketing is to offer social media-exclusive incentives. Provide a…... View Article

The Bedrock Principles of Customer Service Philosophy

July 27, 2016  Published by

Ecommerce has been the source of so many shakeups in the retail industry, and customer service is a great example. Years ago, concepts like educating customers about your brand and products and guiding their purchase process without real-time interaction was hard to imagine. Now, there are many online tools and solutions to facilitate ecommerce customer service… but these don’t make those services “better” necessarily. Rather, your company’s vision of customer service and accessibility are critical for lasting success. [more] These core principles should be a part of any ecommerce company’s big picture approach to customer service: Attitude Even though customers…... View Article