In the never-ending battle against Amazon.com, tiny online retailers achieve success with a) a distinctive product and b) a memorable customer experience.
You've probably already checked off #1 if you've already set up your internet store. How can an online store's client experience be improved?
It's simple to anticipate modifications for a brick-and-mortar operation: I'm sure many of us have fantasized about owning a very cool coffee shop (or whatever) that treats customers like nobody's business.
While the in-person element is missing, there are methods to improve your customer service and, ultimately, your overall customer experience by incorporating that little something more into the correct channels.
A brand is similar to a reputation in that it is founded on what others think of you rather than what you think of yourself.
You can impact your brand by providing excellent customer service and developing a great product, but you cannot control it. You do have power over your personality. This is significant when you consider that brand loyalty is focused on personality rather than superficial numbers like engagement.
Even better, they blend their macho mentality into the product itself by allowing you to ship your" man crate" as a gift wrapped in duct tape. This makes it extremely difficult to open, which would be insane for almost any present other than one intended for guys and distributed to other guys!
Use the customer service tone
The customer service tone is a notion that promotes relaxed, conversational language on pages that only your customers will see. Consider your checkout success page and transaction emails.
These are simple occasions to use the customer service tone. Someone recently spent money with you ,therefore this page is solely for customers - you might as well personalize it. All you need to ensure is that customers are aware of what has occurred or will occur; after that, feel free to inject some levity with a casual writing style.
I obtain the information I require, but I also get a heartfelt thank you from the founder. Although it is automated, it is refreshing to receive a genuine "Thank you!" rather than the robotic ORDER NO. 4328 IS COMPLETE.
Improve and Analyse Your Emails
Automatic or transactional emails are among the most critical pieces of text you'll ever create, possibly even more significant than the copy on your website.
The reason for this is because these emails scale to be seen by a large number of people. Whatever you write in them will be visible by everyone who initiates the process (i.e., anew sale), thus they might potentially be seen by tens of thousands of customers.
They're brilliant, aren't they? You want to give the team a high five because they are so enthusiastic and pleasant. Tweaking your "behavioural" emails in this way can have a significant influence on retention, churn, and overall brand goodwill.
Consider an eCommerce scenario in which you plan an email to be sent automatically 30 days after a customer completes a purchase of one of your products.
A fantastic example of an ecommerce company's follow-up email I recall receiving an email similar to this from a shaving company from which I made a purchase. I didn't keep the email, but it said something like, "Hey, have we completely won you over yet?" I simply wanted to make sure you didn't make the mistake of returning to Gillette and to see how you're liking the product!"
I laughed out loud, but it also prompted me to repurchase some of their shaving cream. If you want long-term client loyalty, getting your emails right will go a long way, because this is how you'll be connecting with them the most.
Step back to provide better support
Excellent customer service should be available at all times, even when you are not.
Surprisingly, as long asthe online help content is accurate and relevant, the cost-effective method ofproviding "DIY support" does not appear to concern clients. Inreality, Forrester Research found in a 2010 study:
This involves having a knowledge base, or a collection of "FAQ" style articles that address frequent difficulties that customers may have. It reduces the number of tickets you receive while increasing the number of satisfied clients because they can now handle minor problems on their own.
Consider running a menswear store that sells leather products and being able to dodge the dozens of "How do I take care of my leather?" questions that are bound to come up every week.
Whatever software you use, perform some brief research on developing assistance content that people will want to 'interact' with.
Last but not least(because many publications will not mention it), I strongly advise you to keep track of your knowledge base content, either through built-in analytics, such as Wister's service, or through third-party services.
You'll soon discover which articles and videos people are swiftly leaving--which will offer a very obvious picture that something is amiss on your end.
Large amounts of content that educate and motivate
Many firms shun content marketing because maintaining a blog is time-consuming. That's why, if your ecommerce company doesn't have an in-house content marketing professional, I advocate going large.
One highly visible piece of content that addresses a big problem and encourages the customer to shop with you.
This is admittedly difficult if you're selling boat motors, but if you're in a high-social-currency market like men's fashion, a complete and highly graphic piece of "big" content can do you a lot of good.
We're a B2B company that sells help desk software with only one writer, therefore we're pursuing this strategy on our own.
Instead of churning out a bunch of mediocre customer service articles every day, we wait and release enormous pieces of content that attract a large number of people all at once.
Our most recent example is The Art of Customer Loyalty, a massive (free) guide that teaches businesses how to attract and retain loyal consumers. It demonstrates the importance of client loyalty and encourages individuals to use our assistance software.
Conclusion
If you don't have a regular blogger on your team, it's far better to take your time and put out a large piece of content that will have your ideal buyers rushing to you all at once.
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