eCommerce Tips

Mobile technology has been changing consumer expectations for both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retailers, making it more challenging to deliver satisfactory customer service.

The 2017 IBM Consumer Experience Index (CEI) Study says only 3.4 percent of brands are delivering leading-edge customer experience, while 33.5 percent are delivering average service and 39.6 percent are lagging or falling behind today’s customer service trends.

In an economy where customer experience is key to staying ahead of the competition, these numbers mean most companies need to improve their customer service to avoid losing sales to rivals. Here are three ways you can enhance your customer service to deliver a more satisfying e-commerce experience to your customers and outdistance your competition.

Engage Customers With More Personalized Service

To meet customer service expectations, IBM’s study recommends that companies should take more proactive steps to engage with customers. One way to do this is by delivering more personalized service. IBM’s research found that only 19 percent of brands deliver more than a basic level of personalized attention to customers. But 53 percent of customers say they want a totally personalized experience, which they feel is a fair exchange for the personal data they provide while shopping online, a Bazaarvoice survey found.

To deliver more personalized service, stay on top of current shopping trends by using analytics tools and services from providers such as NPD Group, which uses point-of-sale data from 300,000 stores to follow and predict consumer trends in 20 industries. Use customer relationship management software to apply analytics to your own customers and extend personalized offers based on their behavior. Use social media channels to keep in touch with your customers and stay engaged.

Deliver a Satisfying Omni-Channel Experience

Customers also crave a more satisfying omni-channel shopping experience, IBM’s study found. Customers evaluate your brand based on their experience across all channels, rather than segmenting their experience by channel. If they have a bad experience on one channel, it negatively impacts their perception of your entire brand. This makes it imperative to deliver a smooth, integrated experience across all your channels.

To achieve this, design your digital experience to appeal to customers from all channels, using technology such as responsive web design to make sure both mobile and desktop users enjoy a positive experience.

If you have a physical location, make sure that your customers’ mobile shopping experience integrates with their physical shopping experience, using tactics such as beacon marketing to deliver digital offers in-store.

Empower your customer service team to handle service tickets across all channels by adopting a virtual call center platform such as 8×8 Virtual Contact Center that is equipped to deliver a consistent omni-channel experience.

Add Value by Utilizing Technological Innovations

IBM’s findings also recommend making more use of technology to add value to customers’ interactions with your e-commerce business. For instance, customers increasingly prefer self-service options to other options such as using the phone or email to talk to agents, with web self-service use increasing from 67 percent of consumers in 2012 to 76 percent in 2014, according to Forrester. Adding self-service options such as an online knowledge database can boost your customers’ satisfaction with their online experience.

Live chat is another technology you can use to improve customer experience. Live chat delivers the highest satisfaction of any service channel, with 92 percent of customers reporting satisfaction after a live chat interaction, outperforming phone calls, web forms, email and social media, a Zendesk study found. Adding live chat can leave your customers more satisfied and keep your e-commerce business more profitable.

Ecommerce sites have taken retail online and with such its audience. Once representatives used to be able to physically approach customers to see if they need their assistance, now when visitors are on a website many companies are not aware of their existence unless the visitor makes contact.

Are companies just expected to sit back and wait to see if a purchase comes through?

Some less proactive businesses will do just that, however, they will not be the next eBay or Virgin!

Adrian Swinscoe, an UK customer experience consultant and advisor, wrote “A survey by inContact found that 87% of customers surveyed said they wanted to be contacted proactively by a company […] Also, nearly three quarters (73%) of those who had been contacted proactively and had a positive experience said that it led to a positive change in their perception of the business that contacted them.”

Those that want to take a more hands-on approach could implement Google Analytics to track visitors on the site and add contact forms to make the company accessible; however, there is one combined solution that would work better than multiple platforms.

Live Chat

Live chat is a one-to-one online communication channel. A Chat button is placed on your website and enables visitors to have their questions answered easily and quickly via text-based messages as they are instantly connected to a representative in real time. This still relies on the visitor to reach out and start a chat, so your representatives are waiting to react to enquiries.

So what else features in live chat software to make it a great solution for websites and increasing your sales?

Proactive Invitations

Proactive invitations present an image to the customer inviting them into chat, this can be set up to automatically display based on your company’s criteria, e.g. certain pages or after a period of time. By having these automatically sent out, more visitors can be approached and be made aware that the company is contactable and wants to help them in any way possible.

Inviting customers to chat on the checkout page can be extremely useful to tackling shopping cart abandonment. A store customer is unlikely to start queuing to pay for their items only to place the basket on the floor and walk out, so why make it so easy for an online visitor to do so?

By stepping in and asking if they need any assistance on the checkout page customers have time to reconsider abandoning, this can include if they are having issues with applying a discount code, or are not happy with delivery charges being added on or guest checkout not being available. By iniviting the visitor to chat, your representatives can help to resolve any issues or offer other solutions to help retain the customer in future for example, offering free delivery on their next purchase.

Promotions

A store will have posters in the shop window about special deals and offers presented throughout the shop.

Visitors to the site will not browse every page, and it is guaranteed that the majority of your online traffic will enter onto your homepage, space can be limited to grab the visitor’s attention, so only the biggest offers can be presented.

If the visitor continues their journey away from the homepage and there are other special deals they could be interested in, a “˜Promotion’ can be displayed. This image alerts the visitor to the information and when clicked can automatically direct them to the relevant page.

Promotions, proactive invitations and live chat work well both in B2C and B2B ecommerce environments, as they can be tailored to your organisation’s products.

Lead Generation

Businesses usually take their time making a decision to purchase, as for higher value products they may enquiry with multiple suppliers, so it is important that live chat can cater for visitors at any stage in their sales cycle.

Gathering lead details at every opportunity helps your business create a healthy sales pipeline; a live chat solution can simplify this process and make it easier for visitors to leave their contact details:

Pre-Chat Form

Gather visitor details before they enter a chat, your representatives can confirm these in chat rather than having to collect the details themselves, giving them more time to concentrate on the enquiry and delivering exceptional customer service.

Offline Forms

Here in the UK we have just had three bank holidays and have another just around the corner. If your organisation closes over bank holidays or doesn’t operate 24/7, there’s a chance for missed opportunities whilst your representatives are unavailable. An offline form can collect any visitors’ details and email them directly to you.

Engage with Customers Proactively

Forrester wrote: “Proactive engagements anticipate the what, when, where, and how for customers, and prioritize information and functionality to speed customer time-to-completion.”

Make it easy for your online visitors to come to your website and journey to their end goal. Simplify how they can contact your business by giving them the choice to chat or to fill in a form. Covering every communication channel helps to increase your sales and lead generation.

About the Author
Gemma Baker wonders: How is your business engaging with your website visitors? If you want to explore ways to improve this with live chat software, why not start a free no obligation trial with Click4Assistance.

While there are plenty of positives to owning an online store “” for example, less overhead and a more flexible schedule “” there can also be some challenges. In fact, it may be difficult right away to understand how your customers feel about their overall online shopping experience.

Whereas in a traditional storefront you can get a true sense of customer expectations through face-to-face interactions, in the online world you really only know your customers by their name, address and credit card number. Consider the following tips to provide a terrific online shopping experience.

Ensure Your Website is User-Friendly

First, take an honest look at your website to see if it’s visually appealing, easy to use and doesn’t require a ton of bouncing around to make a purchase. In fact, you might want to pretend to be a customer and place an online order. Is your website intuitive, free of pop up ads and have a quick loading speed.

As SuperSimpl notes, many shoppers will bail out of an online store if the website is slow or unresponsive. Customers also desire convenience, and since many use smartphones and tablets to shop, you’ll want to ensure your site is optimized for these handheld electronic devices. Even if you offer the best prices and a terrific selection, your website must be optimized for today’s shopper in mind.

Move Operations to the Cloud

As your online store grows and gets busier, you might consider using a cloud contact center to answer questions and help customers. Customers expect a modern, up-to-date experience when shopping online, and this includes having a mechanism to assist them 24/7.

As Aspect notes, a cloud-based interactive voice response app is a great solution, one that can be highly customized to your website and its products. IVR systems also help improve efficiency, reduce costs, and make for a more efficient and positive customer experience, which can lead to repeat purchases.

Make it Fun to Shop

As BevyUp notes, if you can provide your shoppers with a personal and positive experience, they’ll inevitably be inspired to return again and again. One way to do this is by offering a point/incentive program, based on any number of online purchases. Some other ideas include setting up an online forum, where customers can chat with other shoppers, as well as implementing a “wish list” feature that allows your shoppers to bookmark products they would like to purchase during future visits.

Provide Outstanding Customer Service

Brick-and-mortar stores often have friendly and chipper employees waiting to help you”” and online storefronts must find a way to replicate this experience. One way to achieve this is by offering an online chat feature that allows customers to raise questions or concerns. Through such a service, you’ll also want to thank customers and offer follow-up email surveys, which can earn them extra loyalty points.