There is so much competition online these days that it would be very difficult to run a successful e-commerce store without having great customer service. One of the keys to success is to make sure you retain your customers so there is always revenue being generated by what you spend to acquire those customers. Customer service is one of the ways to make sure that you are able to get a better ROI on your cost to acquire them.

illustration by Bel Tsang

There are always going to be mistakes made even when you are dedicated to getting things right. How you deal with those mistakes is a big deal and will help you in the long run. In this article, we will go over some of the ways you can make sure that your customer service program is running on point.

1. Great communication

Many problems can be resolved before they even become problems by making sure there is an easy means of communication between you and your customer. You need to make it easy for people to contact you and get answers to their questions. It should also be fast communication, as well.

This means giving them a lot of options for communication. Having an omni channel system that gives them the choice of calling you, sending an email, or reaching out via social media is a good way to go about this. Not everybody will be able to use one way in particular as some will want to be able to use a website chatbot if they are not able to call, for instance.

Having multiple ways to communicate will ensure that there is a fast response from you and the customer understands that their problem is being worked on. With an omnichannel system, you can have communication open 24 hours per day.

2. Quick returns

When there is an inevitable issue with a product that has to be returned, it is important to get the replacement out as soon as possible. This is one of the missing pieces that people compare to shopping at a regular store since they can often get a replacement for a defective product right away.

Although that isn’t possible with an e-commerce purchase, it does need to be fast. Instead of waiting for the defective product to arrive at the fulfillment center before shipping the replacement, have the unit shipped as soon as the order for the return has been received.

3. Always follow up

Once the issue seems to be resolved with the customer, that really is only just the beginning. There is always a follow-up that needs to be done at some point in the near future to make sure that everything is satisfactory and that they are happy with the results. Some people may still have a problem and decide it isn’t worth the effort to continue trying to resolve it. This is a lost customer.

illustration by Bel Tsang

Make sure to send a communication to ask if they are happy with how things ended up and if there is anything else that you need to do for them. They may be happy just to receive a message asking them this because it shows that you were earnest about wanting to help them.