Customer service is one of the most important parts of any business. No matter what you’re selling, your customers want to feel like they’re business is valued. Upgrading your customer service is an excellent way to stand out from your competition. In this post, we’ll look at 7 business tips and best practices for online businesses!
1. Establish Multiple Channels For Customer Service
Making things easy for your paying customers is key to doing good business. Your clients shouldn’t feel they have to hunt you down to get a response or some help with a question they have. Take the time to implement email, website, social media and mobile options for contacting your company. If your customers feel limited, they’ll likely find another option.
2. Be Proactive
Being proactive with your customer service is a great way to make your paying customers feel valued. Top-notch customer service is one of the critical components of creating a positive relationship with your target audience. Doing things like emailing your customers for feedback or reminding them of their support options go a long way to developing a positive reputation. Offering quick and helpful support will help you be seen as a legitimate business instead of just another website selling products.
3. Always Look For Opportunities To Personalize Customer Service
People are always going to appreciate service when it’s personalized to their needs. Simple things like using your customer’s names in emails instead of generic terms like “valued customer” is an easy gesture you can make to personalize your service. Non-personalized communications tend to get ignored and buried in email inboxes.
4. Keep Your FAQs Updated
Having a current FAQ page can save you from fielding a lot of different inquiries. FAQ pages are often dismissed because they don’t contain information people are looking for. Analyze your support requests and fill your FAQ page with the most common questions. Having an updated FAQ page will help both you and your customers save time. FAQ pages also count as content so your website will be able to reap the SEO benefits.
5. Offer Live Chat Support
Live chat support is an excellent tool for serving your customers. Live chat encourages people to stay on your website when they’re having difficulties instead of just heading back to Google like normal. You can resolve quick questions with a live chat application which will cut down on the amount of support tickets you have to deal with. You can also review your chat history to see how effective your support has been.
6. Make Things Easy For Your Customers To Do On Their Own
Giving your customer’s more autonomy is another way you can improve your service. People shouldn’t have to hunt around your website to find billing history or any pertinent documents. Many customers are happy and capable of serving themselves. Give your customers the ability to access their order status, billing history, payment methods, and other details. Giving your customers more control will give them more satisfaction.
7. Use Video To Your Advantage
Video is an underrated way of serving your customers. If someone is trying to find out how to do something on your website, a video will provide a much clearer and faster explanation than a text response. Video also gives you an opportunity to put a face to your brand instead of being a nameless eCommerce store. Creating videos about your trademarks, advice and detailed walk-throughs for tasks important to your customers are all great ways to enhance your service.
