Not all users who come to your site have the same technical skills or use the same devices.
If you manage an e-commerce, it will therefore have happened to you more or less often to manage support requests during the purchase process.
In most cases, the first contact is extremely vague and therefore you will receive messages like this: “the cart does not work”, “I cannot make a purchase on the site” up to the more generic “the site does not go and I want to place an order”.

Before contacting whoever took care of the development of the project, we advise you to answer these simple questions that could be useful to solve the problem in a short period of time and together with your consumer.

Check with the user that he has a working connection, asking him to open other sites (for example Google).
Ask what type of device it is using. Browse from pc, mac, smartphone, tablet?
And let us also indicate which browser is (eg Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Explorer).

If you are using Explorer, it may be sufficient to switch browsers using Chrome or Firefox. In fact, some versions of Explorer have various operating problems with the most modern technologies and this could inhibit some functions.

It begins by asking the user which page he is on.
It could be on the product page, cart, checkout, or checkout and understanding this is very important to provide a quick resolution and finalize the conversion.

Always remember to ask if any errors are visible and if there were any, ask for the text present or, even better, send you a screenshot to an email dedicated to customer care to which you have access.

Get a precise description of what it is doing and try to repeat the same operations on your terminal.
This is the simplest way to replicate the same error or to understand if it is related to the specific user.

If recent changes have been made, the user could view a cachata version (i.e. stored on the browser) and not updated. Then ask to delete the cookies or to use an anonymous browsing window.

While simulating your customer’s actions, we suggest you add the same products and use the same account settings. Then check if the user is logged in or a guest and which products he has added to the cart.

In some cases, there may be problems related to the session. It may therefore be sufficient to log out and re-credit to the site, or reduce the number of products in the cart.

In some cases, there may be problems on the shopping cart or checkout page. The intervention in these phases must be as fast as possible in order not to lose the sale.

Sometimes the user may simply need to be guided to understand where to apply a discount code or how to enter the data, but may have difficulties during the payment phase.

Then ask which method he chose (in case there are more than one).
Some payment platforms have a portal that offers detailed information on the collection logs. This information can be extremely useful for example to find out if the credit card number or verification code entered is invalid, if there are insufficient funds, if the card is no longer active.

You can try to invite the customer to pay in another way, this could unblock the situation or give you a way to collect more details on what is happening.

If after carrying out these tests you too run into an error, apologize to the customer for the unexpected, offer to manually place the order, sending them the bank supports on which to make the payment or a PayPal link and, of course, email confirmation.
Reorder all the information you have collected and write an email to your trusted web developer so that he can intervene and resolve any errors as soon as possible.

E-commerce systems are complex platforms. Therefore, bugs that are completely independent from the platform could occur, for example due to a temporary disservice of integrated third parties (for example PayPal or other payment systems).
Any automatic server updates such as database or PHP versions could also cause temporary interruptions or disruptions.

If you have an e-commerce there are some tools that can be really useful for providing support to your customers.
Some are very easy to install and fit any platform.

We advise you to provide a chat on your site, it is an extra reassurance for the consumer who lands on the platform because he knows he can talk to someone in case of need. The contact will also allow you to speed up the intervention and to have immediate feedback during the resolution of the problem.
There are several free solutions such as Olark, Smartsupp or Customerly.
Some companies have added Facebook Messenger to the site. It could be a good compromise in the case of large teams or to optimize the activity.

There are also some applications that can provide you with detailed information on how users use the site, to allow you to identify possible obstacles to purchasing and then plan interventions to improve usability or prevent requests for support.
We especially recommend Crazy egg and Hotjar. Both are paid but offer a large number of data, essential for those who want to grow an e-commerce platform.

Remember to monitor cart abandonments from time to time.
To do this, it may be sufficient to integrate the E-commerce monitoring of Google Analytics. From here you could collect important elements that could help you increase conversions.
For example, you may find that the higher blocking percentage is being applied to shipping charges, and therefore a cost reduction could increase sales.

Helping people isn’t always easy, you may find yourself talking to an angry or frustrated user.
Try to be patient and always offer the best possible support.
It will be easier for you by proceeding in precise steps, following our suggestions and taking advantage of all previous experiences.
Competent and decisive support is the most important element in user evaluations that pushes the consumer to talk about you and prefer you to other platforms with similar articles.

In summary then:

• check the connection
• ask which device and browser it uses
• check if it displays any errors and if possible retrieve a screenshot
• ask which page it is on
• simulates the same process that the user described
• retrieves the list of products in the cart and other useful information
• try to log out and login
• check that the payment method is valid
• delete cookies, use anonymous browsing or change browser
• if you can’t solve it, manually place the order or check the web developer.