Ecommerce Customer Service Best Practices

What do a party host and ecommerce customer service have in common? Both anticipate needs, juggle unpredictable situations and ensure everyone feels valued. The goal is to keep your customers coming back for more. An ecommerce customer service strategy does just that.

Shoppers want consistent, accessible and convenient support across multiple ecommerce channels. In fact, 71% of customers make purchasing decisions based on customer service quality. And 80% say good customer service matters just as much as the product or service they buy.

But here’s the truth: Offering consistent ecommerce customer support across every channel requires a defined strategy and the right technology. Here’s how to create an ecommerce customer service plan that fosters brand loyalty .

• What’s ecommerce customer service?
• Why is ecommerce customer service important?
• Understanding customer expectations
• Best practices for customer service in ecommerce
• How AI and automation can improve ecommerce customer service
• Common ecommerce customer service pitfalls to avoid
• 5 KPIs for measuring ecommerce customer service
• Getting started with ecommerce customer service

Ecommerce customer service is all about helping your customers throughout their shopping journey. You can implement tools, solutions, staff and strategies to make this happen at the right moments. This includes providing support wherever your customers prefer — from answering product questions to resolving common queries about delivering or returns. Your brand can communicate with customers through email, chat, social media and phone. It goes without saying: Good service builds trust, brand loyalty and improves customer retention.

The success of your customer service is directly proportional to your brand’s success. A whopping 88% of customers say good service experiences make them more likely to purchase again. It’s crucial to meet your customers on the channels and in the ways they prefer. Brands should offer omnichannel experiences and support through websites, apps, social media platforms, multimedia chat and hands-on support. That’s a tall order. Retailers face a range of customer support challenges, including rising customer expectations, worker attrition and talent shortages. However, technology, automation and training can make staff more productive and efficient. For example, ecommerce and customer service agents can augment service reps to help them work smarter, not harder.

Dealing with a high volume of customer enquiries and rising expectations can feel daunting. But the right approach to and solutions for ecommerce customer service can make all the difference. Here's why it's worth it:

• Repeat customers: Mediocre service is more expensive than good service because ‌74% of customers will abandon a brand after three negative experiences.
• Engaged customers: 85% of customers are willing to go out of their way to do business with a brand that offers superior service.
• Higher revenues and profits: More profits? Yes, please. Improving the customer experience increases sales by 7% and profitability by 2% .
• Lower customer acquisition costs and higher profits: Did you know 5% of an ecommerce business's repeat customers drive 35% of revenue ? Clearly, great service generates higher customer retention, increased customer lifetime value and lower acquisition costs.

Focusing on your customer needs and raising the bar for customer service can benefit your business in big ways. Want to know your customers better? Examine your data and speak ‌to your customers and support agents for deeper insights. Often, today's customers want:

• Multichannel support: Consumers expect brands to deliver support beyond the common channels of phone or email, including:
  • Chat (31%)
  • Social media (18%)
  • Messaging apps (18%)
  • Video or live chat (18%)
  • SMS/text (17%)
• Greater personalisation: 65% of customers expect brands to adapt to their needs, but many fall short. Most customers (61%) still feel that brands treat them like a number. But your customers may not feel this way if you send aptly-timed, relevant, personalised messages and product recommendations. Your support agents should also have access to your customers’ historical data to provide more context and help them to deliver better support.
• Quick service: Customers expect faster service when technology advances (81%) — particularly when they provide more data (75%) or spend more money with your brand (65%). In fact, 80% of consumers will choose quality service over speed.
• Enhanced experiences: Customers want more from brands, whether it’s compelling narratives or immersive experiences. In fact, 42% of customers prioritise spending on experiences over possessions. You can tap into this trend and build a strong brand recall value by showcasing product stories and bringing a human touch.

Great customer service is invaluable, but it can be complex to implement. Some of these best practices offer ‌time-tested steps for ecommerce customer service success:

Develop a strategy

Identifying your customers’ pain points and their solutions can help you craft a strategy. For example, if customer communication is challenging, you should create an ecommerce strategy. Focus on simplifying email workflows and ecommerce logistics through automated delivering notifications and tracking.

Invest in your team

Retaining top retail talent is crucial. 40% of retail employees feel their workplace is chaotic and many are stressed or burnt out. Give your team the right training, tools and support. A good employee experience is the key to good customer support.

Use channels that matter

Which channels do your customers or potential customers use? Understand which channels matter to your audience and how you can communicate with them in a way that feels authentic. For example, if your website experiences high traffic, conversational commerce tools or AI shopping assistants might create an impact. For a global business, investing in a round-the-clock support team or AI agents who can multitask and navigate multiple functions and channels could be helpful.

Enable self-service

Our research shows that 61% of customers prefer self-service. FAQs, chatbots for basic queries and manual tasks or thorough product descriptions can significantly improve the customer experience.

Use live chat and chatbots

Chatbots can play many roles and provide support across any device or browser. Humans with AI can provide customers with seamless issue resolution while allowing support teams to help more people efficiently.

Choose customer support software

Ecommerce customer service requires two things: Easy access to customer data and an intuitive interface for agents and customers. Your customer support software should connect all channels and give agents quick access to knowledge bases. In short, it should act like an all-in-one tool featuring easy call management, escalation paths and reporting for top-notch customer service.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation can transform ecommerce customer service. Quick communication, personalised experiences and targeted interactions can drive more sales. 53% of customers believe that AI will help companies serve them better. Consider the following:

• Transparency is key. 81% of consumers prefer knowing whether they're talking with an AI chatbot or a human. For example, if your first-line self-service support involves a chatbot, programming it to say, "I'll transfer you to a human support agent" can provide transparency and help customers distinguish.
• AI represents progress as well as unknowns. While 51% of consumers trust brands, nearly half have concerns about AI when it comes to privacy and security. 68% of consumers emphasise ‌the importance of trust-building amidst the latest AI developments. Only 37% believe that AI matches human accuracy — so if you use AI in content creation, validate it to build customer confidence.
• Keep a close eye on bias and security risks. Consumers are concerned about AI — 63% fear bias and 75% fear security risks. Developing transparent AI policies, explaining how you use customer data in shaping AI interactions can iron out any apprehensions.

Automation is your hero. It can deliver an on-demand, multichannel and personalised ecommerce customer service experience at scale. You can use AI and automation for:

• Generating FAQs, knowledge bases and other supportive content
• Deploying chatbots to answer common queries and provide 24/7 support
• Creating automated workflows to support self-service for simple tasks such as tracking deliveries or initiating product returns
• Sending instant order confirmation communication to customers, soliciting reviews or sending satisfaction surveys following a contact centre interaction

Understanding these common pitfalls can help you to prevent them before they affect your business:

Technical challenges

If can be difficult to juggle multiple solutions for omnichannel customer support. But you don’t have to hustle alone — ecommerce software can make your team more productive. With ecommerce customer service solutions that integrate with your key channels, you can focus on what truly matters — resolving customer issues efficiently.

Lack of personalisation

When you scale your support operations, it should offer more personalisation, not less. Connect all your support channels and give your agents access to customer histories to deliver consistent, personalised service throughout the buying journey.

Inconsistent information

Introducing more channels can add more complexity. Expanding your customer service is an opportunity to reduce inconsistencies and streamline experiences across all touchpoints.

Implementing specific KPIs isn’t enough — you should also track the before-and-after progress. Keep an eye out for these metrics:

• Time-based metrics: First response time reveals how quickly customers get their first reply, while average response time shows how long it takes to resolve customer issues. Average handle time captures the whole picture, including wait times and follow-ups.
• Effectiveness-based metrics: Evaluate first contact resolution to see if customers get their issues resolved the first time or through multiple contacts.
• Satisfaction-based metrics: Customer satisfaction scores analyse how customers feel about every interaction, while broader metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) help you to understand how your customer service impacts long-term loyalty. Customer effort scores show how complex or easy your service process is.
• Logistics-based metrics: Analyse contact volumes to see if enquiries are increasing. Do more questions need answering? Are you gaining a reputation for good service? Answer these questions and track escalations and service abandonment to see how customers respond.
• Agent-based metrics: Agent utilisation rates show how efficiently your support channels and processes work. Low callouts, minimal turnover and high satisfaction rates show your team is thriving.

Success in ecommerce comes down to one thing: meeting customers' evolving demands. A good ecommerce customer service strategy should include the right technology, tools, training and a consistent shopping experience across all channels. You can make your brand stand out by delivering personalised, fast and engaging experiences. Sure, implementing such a strategy takes time and effort, but the rewards are worth the sweat. Better brand loyalty, higher revenue and business growth — what more can you ask for?

Ready to deliver just what your customers need? Grab a demo of Commerce Cloud today.