Best Practices for Customer Service in Online Businesses

How do you provide excellent customer service in the digital age? Online businesses have to deal with unique challenges and opportunities, such as satisfying customer expectations, responding in a personal and timely manner, and using technology to boost customer happiness.

In this article, you will discover some of the best practices for customer service in online businesses and how they can help you build trust, loyalty, and repeat business with your customers.

What is Customer Service?

Everyone is familiar with customer service as a means of resolving complaints. However, customer service is much broader and has to do with ensuring the overall satisfaction of your customers before, during, and after they purchase your products or services.

Regarding the traditional offline business model, customer service seems straightforward since that is what we are used to. However, online businesses introduce a new dynamic with peculiar challenges. Consider the following:

• Because of the internet, people have become used to getting things fast, within seconds, if possible. And to get quick responses, they would reach you through multiple channels, including email, chat, social media, etc.
• Customer service could affect your website’s ranking on search engines. For example, poor and unresolved Google My Business reviews could affect your Local SEO. Use the Eye10 Rank Checker tool to determine if your website sustains and improves its position.

• Online customers have access to far greater information than offline customers. They can easily compare different products or services’ prices, reviews, features, etc. And if they want to switch to a competitor, it only takes the click of a button.
• Interactions online tend to be less personal. Since you can’t communicate with them on an emotional level as you would offline, you have to find effective alternatives.
• Online customers have a less personal interaction with you than offline customers. They can’t see your face, hear your voice, or feel your emotions. They judge your credibility and trustworthiness by relying on your words, tone, and actions.

These differences mean that you need to adapt your customer service strategies to meet the needs and expectations of online customers. And with that, we’ll explore the importance of customer service to online businesses.

Why is Customer Service Important in Online Businesses?

Providing excellent customer service in online businesses is not only a nice thing to do; it’s smart to do if you care about making a profit. There is a lot you stand to gain, with a few of these benefits highlighted below:

• In the internet age, information travels fast. A negative review about your product on social media can tank your business within hours or even mere minutes. Therefore, you have to provide helpful customer service.
• Previously, we mentioned how easy it is for dissatisfied customers to switch to another business. This means you can’t afford to be slack in delivering efficient customer service as an online business. Use the Eye10 Industry Checker tool to analyze the leaders in your business field.

• When running your business online, you have various avenues to interact with customers: website, email marketing, social media, etc. Not maximizing these channels for effective customer service will lead to a loss of opportunities.
• Customers who experience great service will be encouraged to leave positive reviews and ratings on your website or social media platforms. This helps you build more trust and credibility.
• E-commerce gives online businesses more opportunities to cross-sell and upsell by utilizing customer information, product insights, and support metrics across the company.

How to Provide Excellent Customer Service in Online Businesses?

Now that you know what customer service is and why it is important in online businesses, let’s look at some of the best practices for customer service. Here are some tips and examples that you can apply to your own online business:

1. Respond quickly

Online customers expect fast and timely responses from you. They don’t want to wait hours or days for an answer or a solution. That’s why they are sending you a DM on Twitter or Instagram; they want an immediate response.

It’s interesting how many customers don’t mind automated responses as long as they are helpful. So, to respond to customers quickly, invest in automation tools, chatbots, and autoresponders to streamline your communication process.

Sometimes, certain issues may not be resolvable in a short time. In those cases, you should set clear expectations for a resolution and keep customers updated on the status of their inquiries and issues.

2. Empathize with customers

The goal of customer service is not simply to resolve problems. It is generally to be helpful. And helpfulness begins with the tone of communication. Make your customers feel that you understand their needs and empathize with their problems.

Particularly, listening to customer feedback to frame their issues properly is important. Leading with empathy is often the surest way to avoid any escalations.

3. Personalize interactions

It might be easy to say you always want to be professional and insist on using only formal language. However, online media don’t work that way. Customers prefer informal, personalized interaction.

Businesses have a legacy of often treating their customers merely as numbers, statistical figures in the race to make a profit. But customers now demand more. Tailor your messages and offers based on their previous purchases, browsing history, feedback, etc.

You could also use humor, emojis, gifs, etc., to add personality and warmth to your communication, especially on social media.

4. Solve problems effectively

Sometimes, in trying to offer customer service, many people take steps to hide the problem rather than make it go away. Understandably, the expectation from customers that complaints must be resolved right away might be pressuring. However, it would be best if you focused on effective solutions.

That means, sometimes, customers don’t even need to speak to an agent. Knowledge bases, FAQs, tutorials, and videos are some helpful resources that can help customers resolve their issues in time.

5. Ask for feedback

This is a part that many people miss. They feel that once the problem is ‘solved,’ that is all. No, it shouldn’t be so.

At the least, you must ensure that the solution is offered as it should. Also, you need to determine if your customers are satisfied with the solution offered or if they have further complaints to make. You can’t achieve this without requesting feedback.

Conclusion 

Customer service is not a cost center; it’s a profit center. It’s not a necessary evil; it’s a competitive advantage. It’s not a department; it’s a culture. Following these principles will give your customers a remarkable and memorable experience that will make them loyal, happy, and profitable.

Eye10 tools, effective for SEO, are also useful for consolidating your customer service efforts alongside other tools. By analyzing competitors, determining your search engine ranking, and so on, you can easily measure the effectiveness of your changing customer service strategy. Sign up for Eye10 now.