Having a well designed responsive website for your ecommerce store isn’t enough. There are a number of instances when a website alone cannot help you succeed in your business.
You will need the help of an all round customer service department. However, most of these instances go under the radar, and your prospects will not check out. It is also a well established fact that ecommerce websites function better when there is customer service available 24/7.
We have listed 10 instances in which your ecommerce site needed customer service, but lost out on sales only because it was lacking partially or fully.
They looked for support, but Found None
Many web stores often assume that having toll-free number of local business number is enough to provide customer care. However, some customers may also want chat support. It is possible that prospects arrived on your website, and left it after realizing they aren’t getting chat support. It is important to provide multi-channel customer service. Consider offering telephonic, chat, email, and social media support, or hire the services of virtual receptionists.
They sent you a tweet, but you didn’t reply
A lot of times, ecommerce stores make the fatal mistake of thinking websites are enough to get products sold. While an ecommerce website is the point of contact for your customers, support on social media is very important. If you do not regularly use Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms to offer support, consider outsourcing it to an agency which can provide 24/7 support on social media. No one wants to tweet to an official account and be ignored. Sometimes, virtual receptionists can handle social media queries.
They came back to buy, but you don’t Know what they’ve Already purchased
It is very important to use a CRM and ERP to track what your customers are buying. Having an integrated communication history will help you know your customers preferences and previous purchases, both of which can be used to display products that might be of interest to that particular visitor. It is quite possible they visited your website, and when they did not see personalized product recommendations displayed, they simply left. Integrate CRM with customer care for a more inclusive purchase experience.
They are not able to help themselves on your website
Customer self service is a great concept that most ecommerce websites now offer. However, self service can fail a number of times because your website isn’t up to the mark, or the customer simply doesn’t know how to use self service options. In such a scenario, they simply would like to dial a number or seek chat support. Virtual receptionists will be of great help in these cases.
They don’t know what happened with their order
After checking out, many customers wonder if the payment went through successfully, if the package left the warehouse, and what the shipping status is. It is very important to automate this crucial information, so that payment success and shipping details are automatically communicated to the customer. An ERP helps you do this automatically, but if something goes wrong with it, customers will still need to call you up or write to you. So, if your ERP sent delayed messages to your customer, your customers would probably have liked to call you up. If there was nobody to answer the phone, they probably began to doubt your credibility.
Your FAQs didn’t answer their questions
Most ecommerce websites do have an FAQ, and even with the best of intentions, it is simply not possible to answer all possible questions on an FAQ page. It is highly possible that a large number of people open your FAQ page, and when they see their question isn’t listed, they tried to call you up. If you don’t have a multi-channel customer service, they probably left without checking out.
They couldn’t get to the product they wanted on your website
There are times when even the most elegant website has some serious flaws. If products aren’t categorized properly, or if newer products aren’t updated, your customers may have product related queries simply because they couldn’t find it on the website. There could have been a number of times when this happened, and you didn’t have a number to call. It always helps to have someone to answer the phone.
Your website failed To Open
There could have been a number of times when your website simply failed to open, and you didn’t even know. There could also have been errors on certain pages, and customers had queries. If you don’t have a dedicated customer service department, you probably lost those customers. In fact, website downtime has been listed as one of the reasons why customers don’t purchase.
Customer care was not available after business hours
Let us say you do have a customer care department. However, it is available only during business hours. You need to bear in mind that people shop whenever they choose to, and not always during business hours. If that were the case, they probably would have visited a brick and mortar store anyway. If you have an ecommerce website, it is very important to have a 24/7 customer care service too. Hiring an answering service is one of the easiest ways you can provide 24/7 customer service.
Your website did not clearly state policies
Have you written your return policies in an easy-to-understand way? Or have you filled with legalese and jargon that would tire people out? Have you listed all your terms and conditions in simple language? Many customers would like all these things available in fine print made available in easy-to-understand language. Sometimes, they would like to discuss these things with customer support for clarity. If you do not provide customer service, they probably didn’t bother to purchase your products, when they had doubts in their mind.
As you can see, offering customer service is very important for the success of an ecommerce store. Make sure that you offer text, email, telephone and social media support to your customers, along with getting a responsive ecommerce website designed. Speak to us today to learn how our virtual receptionist service can help you provide customer service at an affordable cost.
