How to Provide Exceptional Ecommerce Customer Service

Customer service is a tough nut to crack.  

With customer service, you can’t afford to slip up and you’ve got to constantly be on your toes.

Why do I say so?

Studies show that people remember negative events more than positive ones…

And running in the same vein, people are more likely to share about their bad customer service interactions, as opposed to good ones.

Impress someone with your customer service and they might think, “oh, that’s nice!”, before continuing with their day.

Disappoint someone with your customer service, though, and you’ll never hear the end of it.

They’ll tell their friends and family, write negative Yelp reviews, and tag you in angsty Facebook posts.

Here’s what this means:

The true cost of upsetting your customer doesn’t just equate to the revenue which you’ve lost from this one transaction…

It also includes their entire Customer Lifetime Value (because you’ve now lost your opportunity to convert them into a loyal customer)...

As well as the impact that this customer has on his/her social network (86% of people who have read negative reviews say that these reviews impact their buying decision).

If you’re thinking, psh, people might be put off from a negative customer service experience, but they’ll move on and return to my store eventually, that’s where you’re wrong.

According to data, many shoppers actively avoid a store for more than 2 years after a single bad customer service experience.

The numbers vary from group to group, but if we’re looking specifically at those in high-income households, 79% of these people will avoid a store for more than two years after a bad experience.

At this point, it should be fairly obvious:

Having a proper customer service strategy in place is crucial, and you can’t afford to screw up where your customer service is concerned. Not even once!

So read on to learn more about what kind of customer service you should be providing for your eCommerce site, and how to go about doing so.

Let’s get started!

What is customer service?

In a nutshell, customer service refers to the assistance that you’re providing to your potential and existing customers.

Customer service is important in just about every industry there is, but it’s exceptionally important in eCommerce.

Statistics show that 83% of consumers require some sort of customer support while shopping online.

Here’s the scary part:

71% of shoppers who are trying to access help online expect assistance within five minutes.

If they don’t get help within those five minutes, a whopping 48% of these shoppers will abandon their cart, and exit your eCommerce store.

If there’s one key takeaway you have here, let this be it:

People are really impatient.

This is corroborated by this next statistic, which says that the most important factor contributing to a great online customer experience is having a problem resolved quickly.

(Shoppers also say they want to deal with a friendly customer service rep, but ranked this to be significantly less important than having their problems resolved quickly. Keep that in mind!)

Now that you know more about what customer service entails, and what your shoppers expect out of you when it comes to customer service, you’re on the right track.

Next up, I’ll introduce you to some of the best tools which you can use to provide customer support on your eCommerce store.  

Best Tools for Providing Customer Support for your Ecommerce Site

Not all customer service tools are made equal. In this section, I’ll cover the various tools that you can use with your eCommerce store, and highlight things to keep in mind with each tool.

Email and ticketing system

This is a no-brainer; email is an easy way to communicate with your customers and address any issues that they may be facing.

The thing with emails, though, is that you have to respond quickly.

To give you a rough benchmark, here are the average email reply times of some of the biggest internet retailers in the US.

Obviously it’d be great if you can reply all email enquiries within an hour, but if this just isn’t manageable for you, don’t break your back doing it.

As long as you reply within 24 hours or so, you won’t be ruffling any feathers.

If, for some reason, you’re only able to commit to replying within two to three working days (which really shouldn’t be the case!), manage your customers’ expectations by stating this clearly on your website.

Next, let’s talk about the quality of your email responses.

Surveys show that a majority of consumers are dissatisfied with the quality of the email responses that they get from small and medium businesses.

Some pet peeves of shoppers include:

Firstly, getting a “copy and paste” response which doesn’t actually address their question.

Secondly, getting a response from a do-not-reply email.

Thirdly, getting a response which is more focused on upselling, as opposed to solving the customer’s problem.

Here’s a great rule of thumb to use when addressing these pet peeves:

Pretend you are the customer, and imagine how you’d feel if an online retailer (let’s say, Amazon) sent you this reply.

Would you like it if you were seeking assistance, and Amazon’s customer service rep reached out using a do-not-reply email?

You’d have to go back to their website, trawl through their Support section, and look for another email or phone number where you can contact them to ask your follow up questions. Kinda sucks, right?

So don’t do it to your customers!

Alright, now that we’ve covered the don’ts of customer service through email, let’s talk about some of the dos…

#1: Using the appropriate tone

There’s one question about customer service that I get, over and over again, and it’s:

What kind of tone should I use when emailing my customers?

I’m going to be annoying here and say that it depends.

Hear me out:

When communicating via email, you don’t get to rely on facial expressions and vocal cues.

What this means is that you need to pay particular attention to your customer’s written tone, in order to avoid any misunderstandings or conflict.

So read each email carefully to pick up on your customer’s mood, and tailor your own tone accordingly.

When your customer is frustrated and unhappy, make sure your reply is empathetic, apologetic and reassuring.

If your customer says:

You should say:

On the flip side, when your customer is happy and excited, mirror your customer’s tone, and reflect that same energy back to them.

If your customer says:

You should say:

Now that you’re a pro at identifying the appropriate tone to use in your emails, the next step is to…

#2: Measure & track email service levels

You’re probably already doing this informally, but for best results, use an email ticketing system that will allow you to measure your email service levels more rigorously.

One great tool is Zendesk, which allows you to track, prioritize, and solve customer support tickets.

How does Zendesk work?

Every time your customer sends an email to you, it’ll be forwarded to Zendesk’s dashboard, where you can:

• Draft and send replies
• Tag priority levels to individual support tickets
• Identify customers’ Satisfaction Prediction Scores
• Rope in team members to read and make private comments on tickets

And more.

With Zendesk’s analytics and reporting features, you’ll be able to keep an eye on key metrics such as:

• Average response time
• Average time taken before a ticket is closed
• Percentage of customers who are satisfied with the support provided

Which will provide you with all the insights you need to fine-tune your email customer service.

Pro tip: If you're managing multiple eCommerce accounts (on eBay, Amazon or both), you can easily integrate all of the customer support using a tool such as ChannelReply. Basically, it consolidates all of your eBay and Amazon messages into Zendesk so you or your support agents can reply customers in one place. This will save you time and energy from having to manage multiple login accounts and logging into multiple websites.

#3: Use autoresponders for customer service emails

You probably already trigger automated purchase confirmation emails whenever your customers order something on your store. (Please tell me you do).

On top of that, you should also be implementing autoresponders for any customer service related emails.

Here’s what the best customer service autoresponders do:

Firstly, they acknowledge that the request was received. (Duh.)

Secondly, they let customers know how soon they can expect a reply. (If you don’t know how long you’ll have to wait for, your wait time stretches out into what seems like an eternity.)

Thirdly, they point customers to a channel where they can get more immediate support, if necessary.

Last but not least, they link customers up to FAQs or other documentation so that they can self-troubleshoot.

Bearing this in mind, here’s what your customer service autoresponder might sound like:

Great - you now know all there is to know about customer service emails. Let’s dive into the next customer service tool - live chat!

Live chat support

Live chat, when executed properly, is a great way to provide customer service.

But more often than not, the way businesses handle their live chat support leaves a lot to be desired.

Here’s what I mean:

75% of customers find that it takes too long to reach a live agent, and end up even more frustrated than they started out.

Loss aversion is real, guys.

You can’t just display a “live chat” option, only to have your customers be sorely disappointed when they click on it and see that it’s not available after all.

But that’s not the worse case scenario.

There’s also those live chats which give your customers the false illusion that they’ll be connected within 5 minutes...

...when they’re still staring at the same screen in vain, 10 or 15 minutes later.

With live chat, it’s easy to overpromise, and underdeliver.

But you know what that leads to (nasty reviews online!), so make sure you steer clear from this pitfall.

How do you nail your live chat support, and delight your customers instead of pissing them off even more? Here are a few tips:

#1: Be clear about when your live chat is available

Unless you’re planning to man your chat 24/7, be sure to communicate your operational hours to your consumers.

In addition to this, for all visitors who access your live chat function whilst it’s not available, make it clear that you’re offline!

#2: Make sure you have enough staff to man your chat

If you’re a small eCommerce store which doesn’t get too much enquiries on a day to day basis, you’ll probably be able to get away with having two people man your chat.

These don’t have to be dedicated live chat agents - they can be operational staff who split their time between packing parcels, processing refunds, and answering customer enquiries, but you’ll need two people sharing the workload, at the very least.

Here’s why:  

If you only have one person who answers all live chat queries, and he/she pops out for their lunch break (or calls in sick), you’ll be in a bit of a pickle, and your customers won’t be happy.

Pro Tip: If you don’t enough internal resources to man your live chat, you can always outsource this to freelancers on Upwork.

#3: Collect information using pre-chat surveys

Why are pre-chat surveys important?

If you’re speaking to an existing customer, pre-chat surveys can help you obtain the information you need to pull up your customer’s account on your back-end system.

(An alternative to this would be to manually ask for your customer’s information once the chat is connected, but obviously this wastes more of everyone’s time).

But what if you’re speaking to a new customer, and you don’t need to refer to any account data?

You can still use pre-chat surveys to identify what type of question your customer has, and funnel him/her to the right department.

#4: Use canned messages

Canned messages are your friend, because they save you tons of time and effort.

Don’t abuse these messages, though. I previously talked about how customers hate it when customer service reps provide copy and paste replies which don’t answer their questions, so be sure to only use these when they’re relevant.

To err on the side of caution, follow up with “does that make sense?” or “does that answer your question?” after you’ve provided a canned response.

#5: Use a live chat software that enables file sharing

A picture paints a thousand words, and it’s much easier to share instructions when you can upload screenshots (as opposed to having to describe them via text).

Zendesk is one such software that enables both customers and customer service reps to share files.

On the rep’s side, all you need to do is to click the clipboard icon in the chat panel. It’s that easy!

#6: Train chat agents on handling tough questions

Unlike email, live chat puts you on the spot.

Once customers are connected to agents, they expect agents to reply more or less instantaneously, and that can put a lot of pressure on your agents.

To make sure that your live chat agents don’t choke under pressure (and blab out a reply or solution which may be incorrect), let them know that it’s okay to step away and seek out additional information before getting back to the customer.

At the same time, make sure your live chat agents know how to communicate this to the customer (a simple “Let me check - please stay connected and I’ll get back to you in a few minutes” will suffice).

#7: Close with a positive interaction

Once you’ve solved your customer’s problem, be sure to request for a positive interaction before you end the chat.

You could…

Ask your customer to Like you on your social media channels.

Ask your customer to leave you a good review on Facebook.

Or ask your customer to rate how well the chat went (hopefully your overall numbers will be impressive - you can then display this on your website to build trust and increase the legitimacy of your brand!)

Okay, we’re done with live chat.

Moving on to the last customer support tool we’ll be talking about today… phone support!

Phone support and toll-free numbers

For many eCommerce stores, deciding on whether you should provide phone support is a tough call.

On one hand, staffing a phone is one of the most direct and efficient ways of providing support.

On the other hand, phone support is one of the most expensive support methods out there (according to statistics, call center support costs $6 to $12 per call on average, whilst a Web self-service interaction costs less than 10 cents on average).

To help you decide on whether you should offer phone support for your eCommerce store, consider these factors:

#1: Is it a feasible option?

We previously talked about how you risk making customers even more irate, if you overpromise but under deliver with live chat.

The same rule applies for phone support.

If you offer phone support, your customers will be expecting to speak to a real live person (who has the knowledge and power to solve their problems) within a few minutes or so.

If you can’t afford to adequately staff your phone support team, resulting in long waiting times for your customer, you can bet that your customer won’t be happy.

Again, customer service is not something you just give a shot, with a “we’ll see how it goes” mentality.

If you mess up, it’ll come back to haunt you via negative reviews and complaints on social media.

So if you can’t commit to staffing a phone support system, then don’t!

#2: Are your support issues typically time-sensitive?

Let’s assume that you do have the resources and budget to maintain phone support.

The next factor to consider is whether your support issues are time-sensitive. (For most eCommerce store owners, the answer to this will be no!)

Here’s an example:

If you’re running a car towing service, or you’re a locksmith, it naturally follows that most of your enquiries will be time-sensitive.

You’ll need to send help to your stranded customers ASAP - and for that reason, having a direct phone support line is important.

For most eCommerce store owners, on the other hand, support issues aren’t really a matter of life and death.

But hold on - that’s not the end of the story.

You’ll also need to consider your target demographic, and whether offering phone support makes sense for them.

#3: Who are your customers?

It doesn’t take a genius to be able to guess that older and less tech-savvy customers will prefer using more traditional means of support - such as phone support.

At the end of the day, customer support is all about resolving your customers’ issues through the medium that they are the most comfortable with.

If they want phone support, give them phone support!

#4: How expensive are your products?

Last but not least, your prices also play a role in determining whether phone support is necessary for your eCommerce store.

It’s pretty intuitive:

If you’re buying a $5 bottle of shampoo online, you won’t devote too much time to learning as much as you can about the details of said shampoo, or the store’s return and shipping policy.

After all, even if the shampoo doesn’t turn out to be what you expected, you’re only out by $5. No biggie.

If you’re buying a $3000 engagement ring for your fiancée, though, things will be markedly different.

You’re shelling out big bucks here, so you’d probably be more comfortable calling up the store and asking them a few questions before you proceed with your order.

(Even if you don’t have any questions to ask, it’ll still give you more peace of mind if you see that the store does have a phone number and an address listed on its site).

Okay, so let’s say you’ve evaluated all these factors, and you decide that you do want to offer phone support.

Here are a few platforms that you can use to set up a toll-free sales line:

Grasshopper

Grasshopper is a great tool for small eCommerce stores which are just getting their feet wet.

For just $24 per month, you can get a toll-free number, 3 extensions, as well as features such as:

• Call forwarding
• Custom main greeting
• Call screening
• Unlimited call handling

Pretty snazzy, huh?

RingCentral

Then there’s RingCentral, which is a powerful system that enables you to set up custom routing rules and extensions.

RingCentral packs on a lot more in terms of functionality, but its basic plan ($24.99/month) only comes with 1,000 toll free minutes. So it’s not quite as cost-effective!

That’s all I have for you where customer service tools are concerned. Next up, I’ll be sharing some best practices that you can use to increase your level of customer service!

Tips and Best Practices for Ecommerce customer service

With these tips, your customer service team will become a lean, mean, customer-pleasing machine in no time.

Let’s dive in!

#1: Use your customer’s first name

You’d think that this would be obvious, but apparently not.

When speaking to your customers, you want to come across as professional, but not robotic.

One easy way to “humanize” your interactions? Ask for your customer’s name, and repeat it whilst you’re talking to them!

#2: Don’t be afraid to apologize

Listen, I know it can be hard to admit that you’re wrong.

But if you are in the wrong, and you refuse to acknowledge this, you’re only flushing your eCommerce store’s reputation down the drain.

Case in point?

Statistics show that only 37% of customers are satisfied with companies who offer their customers some sort of compensation to right a wrong.

But when companies offer the same compensation and throw in an apology?

Customer satisfaction levels shoot up to 74%.

Pro Tip: Make sure your apology is sincere! “I’m sorry that you’re feeling this way” does not cut it. If you have no idea what I’m talking about (and the above apology seems perfectly fine to you), read this article.

#3: Don’t ignore your social channels

You’ll probably get the odd enquiry trickling in through your social channels (maybe more if your contact information is tough to locate on your website, and people find it easier to Tweet you or Facebook message you instead).

If you don’t respond to these messages, your customers are likely to churn, so be sure you check in on your social channels regularly!

Pro Tip: Remember Zendesk, which we talked about earlier? It comes with a Facebook integration so that you can view and respond to all your customer enquiries (even those that come in through Facebook!) using the same dashboard.

Pro Pro Tip: If you really can’t keep up with all your customer enquiries, it’s better to completely disable the messaging function on your Facebook page, as opposed to letting your messages stew in your inbox for months on end.

#4: Look for customer service reps who possess the right traits

You can teach your customer service reps the answers to certain questions, but you can’t teach traits such as patience and empathy.

You’re looking for that guy who doesn’t have a meltdown when the train’s been delayed.

You’re looking for that guy who always greets his server at Starbucks before he places his order.

You’re looking for that guy who makes it a point to call his mom every weekend.

You can’t be micro-managing your customer service reps’ every move, so it’s important to make sure you’re recruiting the right people.

After all, they’re representing your brand!

#5: Show appreciation to your customer service reps

After you’ve hired the right people, the next step is to encourage them to perform better through words of affirmation.

The numbers don’t lie - showing appreciation is the most effective way of getting your employees to improve their performance, by far.

Remember: your customer service reps spend a large portion of their time pacifying unhappy customers, which can get pretty draining.

A simple “keep up the good work!” or “I really appreciate the effort!” will go a long way in improving your customer service reps’ job satisfaction, and motivating them to go the distance.

#6: Improve your FAQ

Keep hearing the same questions over and over again? Take this as an opportunity to improve your FAQ.

If your FAQ doesn’t already cover said question(s), it’s time to update your FAQ to include it.

If your FAQ does cover these questions, the phrasing might be unclear, or too complicated for your customers to understand. Reword your answer, and be sure to avoid jargon or technical language as much as possible.

At the same time, switch up the order of the questions on your FAQ, and feature the most commonly asked questions at the top.

Last but not least, make it easier for your customers to find your FAQ. Instead of burying it deep within your site, link to it from your homepage or product pages.

#7: Provide customers with more materials

This deals more with pre-empting your customers’ questions, as opposed to actually responding to your customers’ questions.

The idea is fairly straightforward:

Put together a user’s manual, guidebook, a walk-through of your product’s advanced features, or other “getting started” materials that your customers can refer to.

If you’re selling a product that’s demonstrable, you can even consider producing a simple “How it works” video for your customers.

You don’t need to get too fancy with this - just use your smartphone to film the video, and do some basic editing. Check out this guide for more!

#8: Create an amazing experience for your customer

…that will have your customers raving about you.

To get your creative juices pumping, here’s an example:

Author John DiJulius left his laptop charger behind in his Ritz-Carlton hotel room, and he was intending to give them a call about it when he returned to his office.

Before he got the chance to do so, however, he received a next-day air package from the hotel, and it contained his charger, along with a note that said: “Mr. DiJulius, I wanted to make sure we got this to you right away. I am sure you need it, and, just in case, I sent you an extra charger for your laptop."

At this point, you might be thinking:

That’s a cool story, but we’re talking about Ritz-Carlton, which has the budget to allow its employees to spend up to $2,000 per day to improve its guests’ experience. I’m just a small eCommerce store - how do I compete with that?

Well, here’s the thing:

Amazing customer service doesn’t have to cost a lot.

Take the story of how Sainsbury replied to this 3-year old girl who wrote in to enquire about one of their baked goods, for example.

They could’ve easily ignored the letter, or fobbed her off with a generic reply.

Instead, they took the time to answer her seriously, and included a £3 giftcard. (That’s the equivalent of US$4 - so it’s not a lot of money, but it’s still a sweet gesture!)

After Lily’s mother posted the correspondence on her blog, it went viral. (Sainsbury also eventually changed the name of its product in accordance to Lily’s suggestion, but that’s a story for another day).

A few final words on customer service

If I were to ask you to rate your customer service level on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst, and 10 being the best, what would you rate it?

If you’re like the majority of eCommerce store owners, you’ll probably rate your customer service a 7 or above.

Well, here’s a reality check…

...whilst 80% of companies claim that they deliver “superior” customer service, only 8% of their customers feel the same. Ouch.

This begs the question:

How do you make sure you’re not missing any blind spots?

Simple. Survey your customers, and ask them what they think of your customer service!

I recommend using tools such as Delighted, which allows you to calculate your Net Promoter Score (NPS) from your customers’ feedback.

All you need to do is to set up your survey, and once it’s up and running, you’ll be able to view how well you’re performing on the customer service front in real-time.

Why is this important?

Without quantifying or measuring your customer service level, you won’t be able to set actionable goals that will help you improve your customer service.

Remember:

Measure, execute, fine-tune. Rinse and repeat.

That’s all there is to exceptional customer service!

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