We live in a world of abundance, where anything we could possibly want is available for us to buy in just a few clicks.
That means the eCommerce market has never been more competitive, and providing exceptional customer service could make the difference between somebody choosing to shop with you, or heading over to your competitor’s website.
Managing a high volume of customer service requests definitely isn’t easy—you’ll know yourself just how time-consuming and costly it can be. But thankfully, there are ways to reduce the volume of requests you receive while still expanding your business and making more sales.
Here are three big-picture strategies to help you reduce customer service inquiries and improve overall customer satisfaction:
1. Optimize Your Product Information
First, having clear and comprehensive product information on your website will help reduce customer confusion and minimize the need for customer service inquiries.
Make sure that your product descriptions are detailed and accurate, written in simple, easy-to-understand language. You can also add a few FAQs, answering commonly-answered customer questions, at the bottom of the product description.
Text aside, the images and videos on your product pages should be high-quality and showcase the product from all angles. It’s also worth considering using a product review system to allow your customers to share their experiences and help other people make more informed purchasing decisions.
2. Improve Your Inventory Management
If you get a lot of customer service inquiries related to out-of-stock items, you need to work on improving your inventory management. This isn’t something you’ll have to do manually—automation tools like Syncio are now available, enabling you to synchronize your inventory across all sales channels and (hopefully) significantly reduce your customer service inquiries.
Syncing your inventory with Syncio will help you keep your inventory levels accurate and up-to-date on all platforms, meaning you can avoid frustrating customers with false promises of availability. And from your own perspective, you’ll have fewer customer requests to deal with, so it’s a win-win situation for everyone.
3. Streamline the Checkout Process
Finally, having a smooth and efficient checkout process is another strategy that can significantly reduce the number of customer service requests you receive, specifically related to orders and payments.
If your checkout page is more complicated than it needs to be, start there. It should be as simple and easy to navigate as possible, and offer multiple payment options to accommodate different customer preferences (and prevent questions from customers about whether you take X or Y payment option).
Many businesses now use a one-click checkout feature for returning customers, which streamlines the process even further.
Conclusion
Customer requests and inquiries are an inevitable aspect of running any eCommerce business—but if you want to give your customer service an easier time, you’ll need to fix the cause of the problem (a high volume of requests), not just the problem itself.
These three strategies should steer you in the right direction. Try implementing them today and see how your business can benefit.
