Excellent Customer Service

Today, your shoppers call the shots. So if you want to woo your customers, your best bet is to create great experiences that help them stick to your brand. Here’s what you could do:

Responsive and helpful customer service: 

While everybody thinks about omnichannel marketing, not a lot of brands focus on omnichannel customer support. Big mistake. In fact, 83% of your customers are looking for an omnichannel presence - across email, text, and social media. You’d be able to reach your consumers on their channel of preference, offer timely support, and improve customer satisfaction, through simple integrations like the Vitals Live Chat App. Do note, there is a difference in multi-channel and omnichannel support.

With omnichannel support, customer conversation history and context travel from channel to channel - allowing your business to provide better, more personalized support.

In fact, Kelli Durkin from Chewy says, ‘Our customer service reps have good energy and staff is excited to delight the customer. We service customers 24/7 across phone, email, chat, and social - holidays and weekends. I encourage the team to think about what they can do to “wow” the customer.’ 

‍

Handling returns and refunds 

Handling returns and refunds gracefully is crucial for e-commerce success, built on three key pillars: a clear return policy, an easy process, and excellent communication. 

A clear, easily accessible return policy should be prominently displayed on your website, using simple language to outline timeframes, conditions, and any exceptions. 

The return process itself should be as straightforward as possible, featuring an online returns portal, prepaid return labels, and multiple return options to cater to various customer preferences. Throughout this process, excellent communication is paramount. This includes sending confirmation emails at each stage - when a return is initiated, received, and processed - and providing tracking information and prompt notifications about refunds. Consider implementing automation to expedite the process and maintain consistent communication. This can help you demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction. 

With this, you will easily be able to build long-term trust and loyalty creating a positive customer experience and ensuring future sales.

‍

Going above and beyond

When companies go above and beyond for their customers, your shoppers would want to show appreciation, often publicly, which can be great for word-of-mouth marketing. The amplification by the internet serves to be another big bonus.
As Scott Redick writes, the surprise is still the most powerful marketing tool! 

Chewy is perhaps the best example of an e-commerce brand, going above and beyond for its customers. Just look at the tweet below.

Surprisingly, this is not a one-off instance. So many other Chewy customers chimed in to share their own stories of the company’s exceptional customer service.

Chewy over-delivers by design through simple gestures like: 

• They send handwritten notes to first-time consumers. 
• They send birthday cards to customers’ cats and dogs and wedding cards to their customers. 
• Additionally, they make over 1,000 hand-painted portraits of customers’ pets as surprise gifts. 
• And of course, like the tweet says, flowers and handwritten condolence notes for their customers. 

‍

Now would you ever shop anywhere apart from this store? That is the power of going above and beyond to build brand loyalty amongst your consumers!