“Over the past five years, eCommerce Sellers (i.e. Amazon Sellers, Shopify Sellers, eBay Sellers, Lazada Sellers, Shopee Sellers, Online Stores, etcetera) have been able to take advantage of the most state-of-the-art mobile and internet technology in order to reach global prospective customers that weren’t possible to reach 10-15 years ago; since the internet has opened unlimited access to consumers worldwide and also has become the main portal to consumers’ favorite interests, it is crucial for e-Commerce startups, small, medium, and large businesses and corporations to keep their brands’ reputability clean and their customer loyalty high by providing exceptional eCommerce customer service that positively converts one-time shoppers into long-term customers and that also increases brand recognition.”
The Internet: the Central Connection Hub to the World
There is no doubt that mobile and internet technology has become a crucial portal to everything; people can more easily connect with the world – whether it be just to meet new people, to research data, or even to shop. The internet has opened omnichannel communication and telecom platforms which have become a central connection hub – such platforms as: phone calls, SMS messaging, e-mail, live web chat with or without integrated conversational AI, and social media. Since consumers can more easily connect with others – and since they are also utilizing the internet to purchase products and services from their favorite brands and from the comfort of their own homes – eCommerce sellers (i.e. Amazon Sellers, Shopify Sellers, eBay Sellers, Lazada Sellers, Shopee Sellers, Online Stores, etcetera) share the crucial responsibility of keeping their brands’ reputability clean and their customer loyalty high by providing exceptional customer service that positively converts one-time shoppers into long-term customers and that also increases brand recognition. Since consumers have the world at their fingertips (literally), it is very easy to reach thousands – if not millions – of people with a simple status update, detailed tweet, or even a strong blog post – meaning that a negative customer satisfaction experience can become a bad contagious vibe that spreads a disease of negativity to others and that compromises brands’ reputability to the extent that it hurts long-term sales success by giving each brand’s competitors a competitive edge in the global market. Strong customer experiences have the grand advantage of ensuring long-term sales success and financial security by increasing brand loyalty since “word-of-mouth remains the most valuable and preferred method of marketing for businesses around the world” ( an excerpt taken from the article, “Why Good Customer Service Should Be A Priority For Your Small Business”).
7 eCommerce Best Practices to Ensure Exceptional Customer Service
In order for e-Commerce sellers to ensure that their customer service experts provide top-quality customer service that converts one-time shoppers into long-term customers and that also ensures that such customers attract others to the same eCommerce companies for the same products and services, we would like to provide for you some eCommerce best practices to ensure that your eCommerce business’ can maximize on its long-term market success.
Develop Multichannel Strategies
As has been hinted to above, one of the best means of maximizing on your customer base potential is by utilizing omni-communication channels with multilingual language capabilities (English, Spanish, Mandarin / Cantonese, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, German, Turkish, Arabic, Portuguese – amongst others) that reach the world’s consumers at large; an omnichannel mentality blends promotional and distribution channels, positioning your business to connect and build rapport with customers. Since there is fierce competition in the global market, it is important for brands to have an omni-channel strategy that takes service directly to consumers’ doorsteps (symbolically), ensuring the delivery of high-quality customer experiences that emit or evade the pains of having customers wait for quite a while for responses.
Ensure Proactive Customer Service
So that customers see your eCommerce business as a partner instead of an abstract organization that doesn’t keep its consumers and their interests in mind, it is best to adopt a proactive customer service mentality that deals with potential issues before they happen; the direct benefit to this is that consumers feel respected and valued – and, by providing an early warning system for consumers’ pain points, long-term brand loyalty and advocacy can be built long before it becomes a tangible success.
Make Inventory Needs Known Ahead of Time
By forecasting inventory needs ahead of time, e-Commerce companies can ensure that customer demands are met on time; one way of forecasting such needs is:
- Calculate the Re-ordering Point – the formula for correctly calculating the reordering point is:
Reorder Point = (Lead Time + Safety Level Stock + Basic Stock) * Unit Sales- By utilizing the formula, businesses and organizations can balance re-stocking needs – which evades the reordering of excess quantities and, in the same time, also evades the ordering of less than what is needed which would result in an increased need to replenish all stock.
Automate and Optimize Online Order Fulfillment
Since global eCommerce sales opportunities are growing by leaps and bounds every moment, it is simply ludicrous to continue using manual order fulfillment systems; the benefit to moving away from this mentality to automated systems is that businesses can save time and energy, improve productivity, and also increase customer satisfaction since customers will not have to wait to get their order(s) delivered.
Find Gaps in the Order Management Process
A very common error in the eCommerce seller industry is when parts of the order management process system aren’t correctly stitched together; this can cause issues when it comes to order fulfillment because the wrong order(s) can be sent to customers – or even consumers can miss out on order deliveries altogether. By finding any gaps in the order management process – and then by automating and streamlining the process correctly – the human error that causes this kind of miscommunication can be successfully cut out.
Sell Brands Via Storytelling
Selling brands in an interesting way that resonates with consumers – often called brand storytelling – is a surefire way to get them to purchase your product goods and services; when customer service representatives that do cold selling or that cross-sell stop trying to be pushy and instead engage consumers with the information that they are looking for and that is consistent with the brand, then businesses – like your own – can successfully keep brands fresh in their minds, converting them into strong brand advocates.
Utilize a Strong Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Platform
CRM platforms offer many benefits when it comes to ensuring that customers receive superb customer service that increases their customer satisfaction experiences; not only is Customer Relationship Management software a nice way for streamlining communication across the various communication and telecom channels – but, a fully-featured CRM software package also offers management the ability to successfully measure customer satisfaction (CX) so that customer care agents can provide the best quality service that’s possible. Some of the added advantages to utilizing CRM software are:
- Enhanced Customer Service
- Easier Discovery of New Customers
- Stronger Internal Communication
- An Increase in Customer Revenue