The importance of customer care

Have you ever shopped online and needed technical support or advice on ordering? How many times have you been confronted with an almost non-existent or poorly organized customer service?

There are many shops that underestimate this aspect, but having effective customer service is now essential. A survey suggests that about 73% of consumers emphasize customer experience when making a purchase decision.
Now that these services are critical to the growth of the e-commerce business, you also need to keep an eye on emerging trends!

The channels
Until a few years ago it was communicated with customer support only through calls and emails, but for some years the phenomenon of social media has also established itself. These platforms with a fast and immediate communication flow, allow a greater closeness between the brand and the end customer, who is reassured to be followed and never left alone. Therefore, the omnichannel service has become a must for e-commerce and requires your presence in multiple social media.

The devices
Among the main tips to improve the experience is to adopt a mobile-first approach: devices such as smartphones and tablets allow customers to connect wherever they are, so your e-commerce strategy should start from the needs required by mobile. In addition, make sure that your website has a satisfactory FAQ page, where you can find all the answers regarding orders, payments, returns, how to use them, etc., because customers often find all the answers to their questions here.

Customize the service
Make answers more personalized for your customers because, according to a Forrester study, Companies that prioritize this have seen a 33% increase in customer loyalty and engagement, and these are 60% more likely to buy from those who offer personalization.

The timing
Timing is crucial for this task and speed must be emphasized. About 79% of social media users expect a response within an hour of sending the message, while another 32% want a response within 30 minutes and 11% want an immediate response. That means you have to be fast to be on top. In addition to social media, this factor is closely linked to the now established chats linked to the site (the challenge is still open on which is the best solution between live chat and call, but we talked about this right here).

But let us now see what innovative methods await us in the future!

The future of customer service is already rapidly emerging and brings with it new opportunities that will differentiate themselves from the competition and increase both revenue and customer loyalty.
Here are the trends for the near future:

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI): By collecting data on customer preferences, AI can propose more and more personalized offerings and provide predictive responses to quickly solve customer problems. Robots are on the rise, enabling companies to provide H24 support through automated responses and helping customers solve technical problems, thus ensuring better ROI than hiring dedicated staff.
2. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR): The two interactive experiences offer better user engagement, for example by showing the functionality of a product and the possible harm caused by misuse.
3. Intelligent voice assistants: They are useful for solving problems quickly, keeping operating costs low, but offering the customer a different experience than usual.
4. The internet of things (IoT): they connect online devices to each other and can be embedded in smartphones, household appliances, cars, and much more. In particular, they can allow you to collect information about behavior and how to use it, anticipating any need and functionality.

All these emerging technologies can be used to automate customer service, leading to a decrease in time, resources and energy.
The fact remains that for some exceptional cases the presence of a real person remains precious and absolutely necessary, especially to reassure the customer in panic situations and make him feel listened, understood and helped.

Whether they are automatic systems, machines or humans, you must always keep the golden rule of customer care firmly: treat customers as you would like to be treated.