Quality customer service for an e-commerce business is crucial. Customers often don’t want to deal with companies if their support team treats them poorly. When you run an online business, your customers dictate your success. Competition can be brutal, and putting forth your best efforts can determine whether your company grows or fails. A common e-commerce mistake online sellers make is focusing solely on creating and designing an attractive and engaging website. Forgetting about the importance of customer service can ruin an e-commerce business’s reputation and future.
Below we’ve listed five support team e-commerce mistakes to avoid.
Failing to Train Support Staff
Live chat agents or support staff are people who communicate directly with customers of an online business. Whether your product is top of the line or your services are affordable doesn’t matter. Your effort to develop your brand will likely be wasted if your support team isn’t knowledgeable.
E-commerce business owners often ask new customer service employees to review company policies and manuals. Instead of providing the proper training, support staff must depend on the materials they’ve been given.
You can avoid this e-commerce mistake by arranging training for each person you hire. Provide all the information they need to know about the standards you uphold and procedures for communicating with customers. You should also answer questions they have about their job duties.
Training shouldn’t end after the initial session. The market constantly changes. You should keep your staff up to date on recent developments and the latest news in your industry. They must know about these changes to inform customers correctly.
Your support team should also be confident. If they know the business inside and out, they can provide a personalized experience while talking to the customers.
Taking a Long Time to Respond to Customers
Typically, customers ask questions they want answers to immediately. They don’t have time to wait for customer service to get back to them. Whether they submit a question online, through a live chat, or over the phone, they expect the person they’re communicating with to provide a timely response.
Instruct your support staff on the appropriate amount of time to answer a customer. You might want agents to pick up the phone after one or two rings or respond to online queries within the same day of receiving them.
Whatever your preferences, advise your customer service team so they know the requirements of their jobs.
Arguing with the Customers
The goal of any business is to keep customers happy. You don’t want them to spend money on a competitor’s product or service.
Your support staff should never argue with your customers. Whether they know a customer is wrong or disagree with a complaint, your employees must refrain from escalating an already tense situation.
Advise your team on the proper protocol for handling customer issues, such as:
- Delayed shipments
- Wrong product size
- Incorrect quantity
- Damaged product
Your team should know how to resolve customers’ complaints and prevent them from taking their business elsewhere.
Forgetting About Social Media
A social media presence is valuable when running an e-commerce business. However, creating social media accounts but rarely or never checking them can harm your business. Many people use a company’s social media platforms to ask questions.
Your employees should regularly address complaints or feedback on the company’s social media. They can follow the same standards as communicating over the phone, email, or live chat. Since social media can reach a larger audience than traditional marketing methods, ignoring public comments or using harsh language can deter potential customers.
Making Promises You Don’t Keep
Some e-commerce businesses overpromise but underdeliver. You can’t control the weather, traffic, and other unforeseen circumstances. That means your customer service team should never make promises they might not be able to keep.
Breaking promises can damage the relationship you build and cost you a valuable customer. Your staff should pay attention to operations and inform your customers of problems. Getting ahead of potential issues by notifying customers of out-of-stock products, delivery delays, and other obstacles establishes trust and lets customers know they can count on you.
Contact Peak Outsourcing Today
At Peak Outsourcing, we understand how an ineffective support team can damage a business. You should consider outsourcing your customer service needs to a professional company like ours.
Our team offers cost-effective support solutions for e-commerce businesses. Your customers will receive responses to their queries, open and honest communication, and resolutions to their problems. We aim to keep them happy so you can focus on day-to-day operations.
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