Great customer service gets you customer loyalty. Customer service is one of the most crucial performance indicators for majority of businesses, and eCommerce is no exception. During the past couple of years of disruption, consumers are seen to stick to brands that meet their expectations regarding the service and support they provide.
 
In today’s customer-centric business landscape, customer service is your main marketing weapon that is linked directly to gaining loyalty and brand advocacy. Unlike some years back when customer service was not crucial for a brand offering good quality products, it has now become an opportunity to engage with your customers at every touchpoint; enhancing your relationship and earning loyalty.
 

 
Customer service goes beyond attending to customer complaints and providing order fulfillment updates. Research by Hubspot says 93% of customers are expected to make a repeat purchase from a brand that offers excellent customer service. After all, outstanding customer service helps you improve customer retention, thus reducing churn and increasing repeat business. Also, repeat customers are valued more by brands as these customers are typically noted to spend 67% more than new customers.
 
Moreover, along with improving your repeat business, great customer service also helps you acquire new customers and earn their loyalty. Research at various times has shown that there are 60 to 70% chances of selling to repeat customers while there is only a 5 to 20% of probability of selling to new customers.
 

Today, it is imperative for eCommerce brands to provide consumers with a wide range of communication channels to select from at their convenience. After all, consumers frequent multiple platforms and use more than one device to explore products. So, providing omnichannel customer service to beat the competition and stay ahead of market dynamics is no longer a letter of choice. Here are some of the most widely used channels of communication that online shoppers use:

• Live Chat. You must keep a live chat widget on your website or eCommerce store for consumers to get their preliminary queries answered immediately. Many live chat software today is quite sophisticated, which you can leverage to engage with shoppers and improve conversion rates.
• Social Media Messages. Integrating your online store or website with social media is a smart way to increase your number of followers and also provide consumers with a channel to connect with you easily.
• Online Forms. Today, it’s a given fact that you must have an online form for consumers to reach you,as they find it more reliable and straightforward. However, only adding the online form is not enough. You also must ensure that your consumers get a response to their message at the quickest timeline possible.
• Email. A survey by Hubspot says that 62% of online shoppers prefer to contact brands over email when they face customer service issues. So, placing simple customer support email ID on your online store page and offering quick, helpful, and timely responses can go a long way in building a loyal customer base.
• Online Resources. You can also create an online repository of resources, in the form of blogs and case studies that answers some customer queries about your products. Apart from that, keeping a FAQ page along with how-to guides helps customers understand your products and their benefits. 51% of customers prefer an online knowledge base for technical support, especially those who like to solve their problems independently.

 
When 42% of customers say they purchase more products from a brand after receiving excellent customer service, it speaks volumes about why you need to improve your customer service to make it your main differentiator. Here are some tips to help you improve your customer service:

• Straight forward Return Process. Providing a satisfactory return experience to your customers ensures that your customers are happy. After all, returning products is a regular event for an eCommerce brand. A hassle-free returns policy and efficient returns management go a long way in pursuing new customers to purchase again. Apart from that, it also helps you earn repeat customers and customer loyalty.
• Efficient Shipping. Sometimes, the shipping of products causes customer service issues if there’s a delay in order delivery. Just as delivering accurate orders on-time fetches your customers’ confidence to order again and again, in the same way, wrong order delivery is likely to land you with frustrated customers that impact your brand reputation.
• Train Your Employees. Ensure to empower your employees with the requisite knowledge and training they require to deliver stellar customer service. Give your customer service agents the liberty to make quick decisions in the customers’ interest. Train them beforehand with use cases to help them understand what adjustments they can make in which scenarios.
• Ensure Customers can Connect Easily. Make it easy for customers to get in touch with you by providing different options at a place they can locate without much searching. Also, an exhaustive FAQ section would help customers get the quickest answers to their queries.
• Improve Response Time. Providing customers with multiple communication channels is not enough. It is crucial to check your response time on those channels. Analyze your capabilities to decide how many channels you can support well and keep only those. After you offer a communication channel, ensure that customers get quick responses on those channels, as some issues could be crucial.
• Right Metrics for Measuring Customer Service. Customer service performance measurement becomes meaningful when you set the right metrics and Key Performance Indicators [KPI].
• Promote Your Great Customer Service. Customers always look for top-class customer service before they make a purchase decision. So, if you provide great customer service, make sure you “shout it out” on your online store. It will attract new customers and encourage your existing customers to stay loyal.

 
Providing top-class customer service requires well-planned, data-driven strategies that will help you free up time to focus on your business. That’s where XPDEL comes in with a complete gamut of supply chain management services that enable you to meet customer expectations and earn their loyalty.
 
We are not just a supply chain management company or a third-party logistics provider; rather, a growth enabler providing crucial support to eCommerce brands to grow and expand their business. Ensuring we deliver orders on-time every time, we ensure a great customer experience with the following:

• Pick and pack orders accurately
• Select the best shipping methods
• Keep customers informed
• Provide great customer service
• Enable easy returns if needed

We handle every aspect of order fulfillment, including stellar customer service to delight customers.
 

 
Ultimately, you must invest in your customer service to build and grow a thriving eCommerce business. After all, no business today can afford bad customer service, especially an eCommerce business where your only connection or relationship with your customer is through your communication channels at every touchpoint.
 
It starts with hiring the perfect strategic partner to support you while you focus on growing your business.
 

 
XPDEL is a leading hi-tech provider of fulfillment and logistics services on a mission to enable growth for eCommerce companies. We are futuristic in our vision and constantly work on creating technology that helps us meet customer expectations for today and tomorrow. Being closer to the end consumer, we deliver much faster than others.