Customer support matters in every industry, but it is especially impactful in e-commerce. Companies that offer standout e-commerce customer service tend to get better reviews, curate more loyal customers, and grow faster.
Learn how your e-commerce business can turn customer support into a competitive strength. Find the top strategies, key performance indicators (KPIs), and more tips for improving your customer service.
Strategies for Enhancing E-Commerce Success
We listed 9 strategies to help you improve your e-commerce customer experience. This is part two out of three of our blog series focusing on e-commerce customer care. Let’s start!
1. Optimizing Customer Support Workflows
For greater efficiency, optimize your e-commerce support workflows. This can reduce the time it takes to respond to questions, minimize errors, and improve customer satisfaction. For example, you could:
- Automate repetitive tasks to free up staff for more strategic work
- Create a more standardized process to reduce errors
- Leverage new tools to improve internal communications
- Scale your e-commerce customer support with AI
2. Training Support Teams for Better Service
Your team will need the proper training to stand out in the e-commerce customer experience. You can create and execute training plans internally, but that can be a time-consuming process.
Another option is leveraging a third-party e-commerce support provider like Zahoree. We offer fully managed, AI-driven customer service solutions for e-commerce companies that blend hybrid and remote teams to help you scale faster. Plus, we supplement support with analytics and more.
3. Integrating Customer Support Into Social Media
Finally, consider offering customer service directly through your social media accounts. This is how many young consumers prefer to engage with brands today. You can provide live chat support on social media like Instagram or TikTok.
Adding AI in e-commerce care will make this easier, so you can respond to customer requests via chatbots or actual people. For instance, you could offer chat-based support at night but help from humans during standard business hours.
4. Mobile Optimization
The market for mobile e-commerce makes up 57% of all retail e-commerce sales worldwide. That means your customer support should also be optimized for customers on mobile devices. Key elements to focus on include:
- Choosing a mobile-responsive design
- Streamlining loading speeds for mobile devices
- Creating touch-friendly elements, like large buttons
- Optimizing product descriptions for mobile viewing
5. Seamless Checkout Process
Your e-commerce brand’s checkout process impacts the customer experience. Researchers say a long and complicated process is the reason for 18% of shopping cart abandonments.
To avoid this, design a simple checkout experience with minimal steps, diverse payment options, and transparent shipping methods. These aspects reduce purchase hesitation and increase your sales.
6. Flexible Shipping and Returns
Convenient shipping and returns can also drive customer loyalty and improved satisfaction. Easy-to-understand return policies give shoppers confidence in buying from your brand. This can also increase loyalty, especially if your return policy is meaningfully buyer-friendly.
Additionally, shipping can improve customer satisfaction, too. You can stand out with a free shipping policy or offer low-cost expedited shipping to give customers a reason to buy from your brand over a competitor.
7. Leveraging Customer Feedback
Another important factor in e-commerce support success is leveraging customer feedback. Taking action based on customer suggestions is a way to show you’re listening and care about the experience you deliver.
There are a variety of tools to help you do this. Popular options include Zendesk and SurveyMonkey. However you collect customer feedback, the key is analyzing the data to spot trends and taking corrective actions to protect your brand.
8. Advanced Approaches to E-commerce CX
It’s never too early to prepare for the next era of e-commerce customer service. Some companies are already integrating augmented reality (AR) into their strategies. This allows customers to try out products like clothes virtually, increasing conversions.
We’re also seeing the rise of voice-based search as more users look for products online via voice commands. Adding this support to your site can be a way to stand out and make shopping easier.
Consider outsourcing e-commerce support to access advanced solutions with less internal work. A reliable third-party provider can educate your company on best practices to help it thrive long-term.
9. Sustainability and Eco-Friendly Practices
It’s often worth integrating sustainability into your e-commerce customer experience. Surveys show that 78% of U.S. consumers believe sustainable lifestyles are important. You can make this large segment of customers feel better about purchasing your products with initiatives like:
- Eco-friendly packaging
- Carbon-neutral shipping
- Donations to environmental charities with a percentage of your profits
Now that you know what are the benefits of offering an exceptional customer service, and the strategies to help your e-commerce company. On part three of these blog series, you will learn how to measure and automate these strategies.
Zahoree’s Hybrid Outsourcing Solution: People + AI Customer Support
Here at Zahoree, we believe in the power of people teaming up with technology. We deliver great customer support on behalf of our customers, and also offer the technological solutions to help them effectively implement AI-powered CX tools. Set up a demo call today to learn more about how we can help improve your E-commerce customer service.
