Here’s why customer support for ecommerce is more important than ever

Your shopping habits have surely seen a drastic change. Due to COVID-19, shopping at retail stores became somewhat of a risk. And that gave the e-commerce boom more impetus to grow. Meaning that proactive customer support for e-commerce is needed now more than ever before.

“E-Commerce and online retailers’ supply chains, order management, and fulfillment systems are all being tested by the triple-digit order and revenue growth going on today. And best of all, more energy and intensity is being put into improving customer experiences online.”

– An excerpt from How COVID-19 Is Transforming E-Commerce, Forbes.

Lockdown orders may be lifted. But in the meantime, there are millions of customers who are creating and reinforcing new online shopping habits. From grocery, daily essentials to apparel and entertainment – business has had to go digital for the purposes of making sales to help out customers. Users are more motivated than ever to stick to the confines of their homes to stay safe. In turn, creating ideal market conditions for e-commerce players to step up their customer engagement game.

Stepping Up Your Customer Service Game

A lot may have changed in the last 6 months. From buying habits to the kind of products that sold out before the pandemic hit. But what hasn’t changed is that leading brands continue to differentiate themselves from their competition on the basis of experiences they deliver to their customers.

The experience delivered to the customers will differentiate leading companies from their competitors. These experiences can include front-office experiences enabled by marketing, sales, and customer support, also back-office domains like production and supply chain. Out of these, customer support plays an important role in the operation of a successful business.

Outstanding customer support for e-commerce will boost the loyal customer base of a brand. On the flip side, a single bad customer service experience will lead to customer dissatisfaction and leads to the loss of loyal customers. According to a study conducted by Forbes, almost 75% of customers leave a brand if they are not satisfied with the level of customer service. This shows how powerful proper customer service leads to successful customer engagement with a company.

Ensuring Better CX With Empathetic Customer Support

Great customer experience will result in loyal customers and it encourages them to stick with the same brand in the future. It will act as a key brand differentiator in this highly competitive market. Literally speaking, a customer support agent becomes the voice of an e-commerce brand, as they are the ones who deal with the customers directly. While taking feedback, a business should not just rely on collecting the good reviews from the customers and thanking them for the same but also should count on all the bad reviews customers shared. Attracting new customers is important for business growth but keeping their loyalty and satisfaction intact is even more important to run the business successfully in the long term.

Now more than ever, customers need all the information and guidance they can get to ensure the best for their loved ones. They look for a resource that offers support in a time like this. A brand’s social identity comes forward during the time of need. To make customer support more effective, training agents and equipping them with the right tools to deliver that information is key. McKinsey Research shows that 64% of customers choose to buy from socially responsible brands. The way businesses decide to step up to help the community at this time may leave a larger impact on the memories of users.

The most popular and effective customer support channels are live voice calls, IVR’s, live chat, email support, support through social media, etc. An e-commerce company should adopt a blend of these channels and each channel should be integrated among themselves. Hence an omnichannel-based customer support strategy is the best path to carry out customer service for e-commerce, to be able to meet customers where they are.

Adopt Agile Customer Support Strategies

Customer Support is all about the understanding of customers’ pain and solving the issue on an immediate basis. This can be done when the service provider thinks and believes a customer’s problem as his own. No matter what form the customer support is provided, it should be quick enough to solve the issue in no time, to make the customer feel valued.

In addition to enabling your customer support teams to work-from-home, empowering call center agents with the right kind of tools is necessary. With reports of panicked customers taking out their anxieties over customer service agents, providing for the right tools is only sane.

Your customer service teams may be managed remotely. But are they trained for regular changes in company policies and customer demands? Quality assurance and tools to minimize agent errors are some efforts to reduce friction for customers and improve CX. All these efforts only help agents provide the right information when customers need it the most.

Even in a time like this, your brand can create outstanding customer and employee experiences by being there relentlessly. Adopt agile CX and customer support strategies. Scale support initiatives and deliver personalized customer experiences that resonate in the minds of your target audience, long after the storm passes.