10 Ways to Improve E-commerce Customer Experience

Offering your customers a smooth, efficient, and streamlined service through?customer experience?optimization?can help your business win new customers besides satisfying your existing customers.?As per stats, for the next 5 years, customer experience is going to be the top priority of e-commerce businesses. From making changes in your business model to using customer-centric technologies, there are numerous methods to improve the quality of customer experience.

Understanding the meaning of customer experience

The term refers to the consumers’ perception of a brand that they create depending upon their interaction with the brand. Factors like how your business communicates and comprehends customers’ needs and connects with them are key players in building their view of your brand.

Currently, most brands realize the importance of personalized customer services for their business growth. Platforms like?Glood.AI?are helping businesses in meeting their customer personalization standard actively as well. However, aside from personalization which has the potential to?increase conversion rate by 4X, there are other methods that can help boost your customer experience.

What is the importance of customer experience for e-commerce businesses?

Besides keeping up with?top e-commerce trends, you also need to pay attention to providing a robust customer experience to your consumer base to sustain brand loyalty. If you have?shifted from a third-party marketplace to a business website, customer experience becomes of utmost importance for your business.

When you work to?improve customer experience?and make customers feel that they matter to your brand, it increases their chances of reconnecting with your brand for their future shopping. Hence, customer experience becomes crucial for e-commerce businesses, especially for those that sell renewable products.

Another added benefit of improving the customer experience for your customers is getting referred by them to their network. A majority of brands get most of their sales when their customers refer their products to others. Also,?as per stats, there is a 4X higher chance that someone will purchase a product after getting a recommendation from their friends, family, or colleagues. As customers are the main drivers of any e-commerce business, providing the best service should be your topmost priority.

Top 10 ways to improve the customer experience for your e-commerce business

1. Create FAQ pages

The FAQ pages should be the first place to focus on while you plan to?improve the customer experience?of your brand with your e-commerce website. Ensure you address all the questions your customers usually ask regarding your products and services or might potentially ask for in the future. Also, regularly update your FAQ pages with any new queries from your customers. Ask your customer service department to keep an eye on any new issues and generate the most suitable answers for them. This will help you collect constructive feedback.

2. Educate your customers

Educate your customers on where to find answers to their queries. Setting up a FAQ page is not enough if your customers do not know it exists. Make sure your customer service department is effectively redirecting your customers to the existing FAQ pages for their future reference. As a majority of customers like to self-help, letting them know about FAQ pages makes it more convenient for them.

3. Active customer assistance

Make use of prior experience with customer service advisors to actively address customers’ emails and other forms of written communication. Do not delay, forcing your customers to feel the need to ask follow-up questions. Anticipate all the possibilities a customer might need help with. For example, at the time of performing a product return, let your customer know about your company’s return policy beforehand. Also, notify your customer about the expected time for their refund. Furthermore, for exchange items ensure you notify your customers about the carrier service, expected delivery, and other relevant information.

4. Work with a dedicated supplier who collaborates with expert carrier services

Robust carrier companies provide technical features, including package tracking and active consumer communication. With this technology, the companies update the customers with the expected deliveries of their orders through SMS and email notifications. As all of these services are provided by the carrier company, you can be free from many shipping responsibilities. It is also more convenient for customers as they can reschedule their delivery dates by directly contacting the carrier service. Hence, to improve the?customer experience?of your brand, this method is a must.

5. Choose calls over emails for complex customer queries

It is more convenient for your customers if you give them a phone call to resolve any complicated issue regarding your product or service. Doing so benefits your?customer experience?standard in two ways:

• Higher chances of queries being solved in the first go.
• Provides precise information that your customer is looking for, boosting their?customer experience?and brand satisfaction.

6. Keep updating your customers

In case there are any errors, issues, or delivery delays that are not in your control or might take some time to resolve, make sure to update your customers right away. It is advisable to keep them informed about the current status, making your business more credible in their view.

Critical dates in the e-commerce industry, including holiday seasons, are the best instances where you need to be proactive with your customer interaction. This time of the year, delays in delivery is most common. Hence, update your buyers and improve the?customer experience?for them.

7. Install a virtual assistant on your website

Virtual assistants allow consumers to experience better website navigation and guide them to support pages immediately. The best thing about virtual assistants is that they do not need human assistance for performing the majority of their tasks.

Customers can contact a virtual assistant both before and after purchasing the product at any time of the day. Adding a virtual assistant will not replace the need for human customer support when needed but will handle a majority of simple queries that consumers have ultimately, reducing the burden on your customer support team.

8. Provide customer-generated product reviews

By providing online?product reviews on your website, you enable your customers to help themselves and make an informed purchase decision.?88%?of users trust online reviews. Moreover, customer reviews are?12 times?more trustworthy than your own descriptions. For example, if you sell clothing items, then through customer reviews, other visitors will easily learn about the comfort, fitting, and sizing of the material. In the case of electrical devices, online reviews can help potential buyers with how to set up, how long you need to plug in the item to get it fully charged, and so on.

Aside from this, reviews also provide other important information like delivery speed, packaging quality, and others. It will boost your customers’ confidence to move ahead to your checkout page. Reviews are the best aspect of?customer experience analytics?that help you to understand how your audience is perceiving your brand.

9. Do not delete the negative feedback

Negative feedback is significant for any business to understand the exact issues your customers are facing. Further, you can make well-informed decisions to?improve customer service?for your brand. It will help you to learn any issues regarding your product’s features, shipping services, exchange or return processes. In instances where customers have complaints about product deliveries, provides you with an opportunity to inspect and choose a better carrier service for your future shipments if need be.

10. Offering easy and free-of-cost returns

A simple-to-follow and free return service can benefit customers significantly. One of the prime benefits is enhanced?customer experience.?In general, e-commerce businesses ask buyers to contact the business to get the return code or number to process their return request. Though it enables businesses to evaluate return volumes, customers are compelled to follow additional steps that can be a tedious process. As per the survey,?78% of customers?say they are willing to buy more products from a business in the long run if they get the free returns option.

If you want to enjoy repeated purchases by your customers, get referral benefits, and build solid brand loyalty, then improving?customer experience?is a must. Doing so will also increase your chances to become a leading business in the industry among similar niche brands. So, do not take the?customer experience?you provide to your visitors for granted and start the work for long-term benefits. A great shopping experience with your brand won’t let people forget your brand.