How to Provide Great Customer Service in an Online Environment

In a world where more and more of our daily transactions take place without any need to speak to a human being, it’s easy to lose the skills that were once considered the heart and soul of sales. Offering product recommendations, following up with customers, and even providing a social outlet are a few ways that ecommerce store owners can reach out and take their sales to the next level with good customer service. Today’s ecommerce software and similar tools make this easier to manage at a distance.

Keep Orders Organized
One of the first things that you can do as an online business owner is to organize your ecommerce store. By grouping your products or services into categories, you’ll make it easier for your customers to navigate the shop. Using an e-commerce CMS can be helpful for this, because having a centralized dashboard will help you better keep track of inventory and product updates. Adding in gift and sale categories will help you provide more focused options for your customers.

Another thing to think about in terms of organization is how to keep track of the orders that come in. When a customer places an order using your online payment system, you will want to be notified immediately so that you can dispatch their order in a timely manner. Using software that sends you notifications and provides a platform for communicating with your clients can help you to provide better customer service, which hinges on great communication. One example of this type of program would be Shopify ecommerce software, which also allows you to track payment and shipping status to make sure your customers get on-time deliveries.

Get to Know your Customers
Online shoppers want to feel that they are able to send in secure payments and receive products on time, and feel valued at the same time. If you can learn more about them, you can target your online store’s content more effectively. Analytics tools can be useful for this purpose, providing you with statistics regarding your site’s visitors. You can find out what search terms they’re using, what countries they live in, and which URL’s are sending customers to your site. It’s also helpful to reach out with a blog and social networking sites, allowing you to share information and have conversations with your customers. This will help build brand loyalty.

Provide Follow-Up Services
Maintaining a social networking presence is one way to have continuing communication with your customers. You can alert those who are interested in your products whenever you have a new sale or promotion, for example. It’s recommended to offer a subscription service to products or other promotional tools that will entice clients to come back to your site. Many ecommerce shop owners also offer a mailing list to provide customers with periodic newsletters to retain their interest. These methods can not only help you land sales, but also hold on to your customers.

Republished with Permission from Everything Small Business Journal – http://esbjournal.com.

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