13 Effective Ways To Improve E-Commerce Customer Service

In a digital business world, customer service is the pivot on which a business's customer experiences turn. Weak customer service interactions can taint a brand and cause terrible social media disasters. Improving a company's e-commerce customer service should be at the forefront of their business development plans. 

Each brand has a unique method of engaging with consumers through customer service. The key is to change its perspective about the goals of its customer service representatives. The goal should be about building a unique customer experience that supports the brand's promise. To help, these 13 experts from Forbes Communications Council share their ideas about the critical ways in which a company can improve its e-commerce customer service offerings.

1. Leverage Live Chat

E-commerce is driven by instant gratification and convenience. The whole customer experience is centered around that concept: find a product fast, check out in seconds, and it shows up at your doorstep. Match this consumer expectation in your communication model through live chat. Customers get their questions answered instantly, while you build customer confidence through human interaction. - Devin Henry, Nomadic Real Estate Investments, LLC

2. Seek Customer Feedback

When launching a new e-commerce website or app, get customer feedback to make sure it’s easy and intuitive to buy online and get help. Include customers early on in the design process and again post-launch to ensure they can accomplish their goal. If any point in the digital journey is difficult, customers will abandon or, even worse, tell others about their bad experience. Word-of-mouth travels fast. - Stacy Sherman, Customer Experience Expert

3. Track Relevant KPIs

Customer service can be a powerful marketing tool and seriously impact a brand’s reputation online. For organizations looking to improve their customer service practices, one important step is to set standards for tracking and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs). This will help identify any pain points in the process and determine where resources should be allocated to make improvements. - John Orlando, Constant Contact

4. Identify Bottlenecks And Trouble Areas

The more you solve common issues, the more you free up customer service to handle the more complex challenges. Apply a heat map, send out surveys, engage in CRO, read the text of reviews, and poll your customer service agents to zero-in on areas that trip up average customers, cause cart abandonment, and eat up reps' time. Solving those issues will allow your agents to focus their energy more productively. - Ellen Sluder, RingBoost

5. Bridge The Gap To Social Conversation

In our current climate, all aspects of connection and relationship building have moved online. When people follow brands on social media, 74% reach out for customer service or support. Improve your customer service efforts by ensuring they work hand-in-hand with your social team to surface and resolve customer inquiries in a timely manner. - Andrew Caravella, Sprout Social

6. Improve Your Average Response Time

In an e-commerce world, customers expect service to be quick. Leaving a potential customer waiting can make you miss out on a sale. Even worse, delaying a response to an angry or confused customer could result in bad PR and a lifelong enemy. Quick response times in digital customer service channels can be improved by using tools like chatbots (even if just to screen and make initial contact). - Roshni Wijayasinha, Foxquilt

7. See Customer Service As A Key Part Of CX

Customer service is a key part of customers' experiences. Being aware and managing it with this view in mind will create support and services that accommodate to your customers' expectations, delivering good experiences worthy of being promoted via word-of-mouth. Either online or offline, customer service is an opportunity to engage with your customers, learn from them and deliver memorable, positive experiences. - Pablo Turletti, ROI Marketing Institute

8. Embrace An Omnichannel Strategy

Customers can engage with your brand from a variety of channels: phone, web, social, virtual assistant or chat. Make sure the responses are consistent while being customized for each channel. The website can have a lot more content and options. The same should be tailored for Twitter — short responses to the point. If the bot transfers the customer to a live rep, the customer shouldn’t have to repeat their questions. - Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brand and Buzz Marketing, LLC.

9. Make Things Easy

Businesses can improve their e-commerce customer service by making it as easy as possible for customers to contact them. There is nothing more frustrating as a customer than when you have a query or complaint but cannot figure out how to speak with the company. Therefore, businesses should make it as easy as possible for customers to initiate contact. - Liam Quinn, Reach Interactive

10. Focus On Personalization

Your customers want to feel valued. Customers today expect their shopping experience to be easy, frictionless and unique. To improve customer service practices, start by getting to know your customers — what they like and value — and build on these to create a personalized shopping journey that makes them feel like you understand their needs even before they recognize what those needs are. - Lynn Kier, Diebold Nixdorf

11. Be More Flexible

Avoid taking the hard line — it is costly to acquire new customers, but it can be even more costly to replace them. If you can resolve their problem and keep their business going forward, that's a win. Policies are necessary, but how you enforce those goes a long way. Give your support team the latitude they need to ensure reasonable customers are kept happy. - Jonathan Sasse, Metova

12. Follow Up With A Deal

After a customer service interaction, keep the customer engaged by reaching out several days later with a discount, deal or promotional code to reward them for reaching out. Customers who ask questions are opting to connect with the brand, and you want to wrap up their customer service experience with a positive, rewarding bow. - Melissa Kandel, little word studio

13. Prioritize Transparency

Your e-commerce customers should be given full access to their billing history, the status of their order, and their preferred payment options. Transparent businesses allow customers to view their entire order history several months, if not years, into the past. Opening up your e-commerce business's billing history is one of the easiest ways to improve transparency and increase customer retention. - Amine Rahal, Regal Assets

Article originally published on Forbes.com