Ecommerce Customers Happy
Happy customers are repeat customers and repeat customers are the lifeblood of any business. This is just as true when you sell ebooks online, as it is when you sell clothing, cosmetics, tires or flamingo feathers.
Whatever your enterprise, keeping ecommerce customers happy is crucial to the successful operation of your business.
These five tips will help you keep yours smiling.
1) Focus on Customers Rather Than Competitors:
The temptation to monitor your competitors and try to mimic their success is strong. And, indeed, there is much to be gained from keeping an eye on your rivals. However, focusing on them at the expense of paying attention to your customers is a surefire way to drive yourself out of business. Make every effort to get to know your ideal customer and do everything possible to position yourself to be of benefit to them—even as you keep your finger on the pulse of your industry.
2) Think Customer Service First – in Everything:
Whenever you’re faced with a decision, your first question should always be“How will this affect our customers?” When you make your company culture customer-centric, your shoppers will know—without you telling them. Zappos.com, noted for its outstanding customer service, routinely goes above and beyond for its customers. A Zappos customer service rep once stayed on the phone with a customer for six hours while that person shopped the site for shoes. This mindset inspires intense loyalty.
3) Learn from Unhappy Customers:
When a complaint comes in, the temptation to chalk it up to crackpot behavior on the part of the complainant is strong. However, for each letter or phone call you get from an irritated person, there are probably 10 more out there with the same concern who didn’t bother to say anything. Take every complaint seriously, look to see what lessons can be learned from it and apply solutions to your way of doing business.
4) Use Automation to Improve the Customer Experience:
If your business involves something like selling ebooks online, programming your platform to keep track of a customer’s preferences so you can personalize offers and rewards says you care. The best ecommerce sites, like those offered by the leading ecommerce platform provider Shopify, have these functions built in.
Chatbots are great tools for providing answers to frequently asked questions—particularly after hours. With that said, if your phones are staffed by people only during certain times of the day, make sure your customer knows when they can call back to get a real person on the line. Some callers are frustrated by bots, even when if do have the answer the shopper needs.
5) Admit It and Fix It:
Owning up to your mistakes is one of the classiest things you can do, both as a company and as an individual. Learning from them and putting systems in place to prevent repetitions of the act is one of the most intelligent things you can do. Companies are made up of people. People make mistakes. Therefore mistakes will happen.
While we’re on the subject, you must create an environment in which your employees do not fear making them. This will inspire the exercising of creativity when it comes to customer satisfaction. As long as they aren’t giving away the store, keep an open mind.
These are but five methods of keeping ecommerce customers happy. By the way, in case you hadn’t noticed, they are all basically common sense. Yes, we know common sense isn’t common. However, observing and adhering to the Golden Rule—“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – will stand you head and shoulders above much of the competition these days.