With the depreciation of third-party cookies, a looming global recession, and the rising cost of marketing goods and services, it’s tougher than ever to acquire new customers via traditional marketing methods. Marketers and business owners alike are looking for ways to increase sales without the increased ad spend. As a business, you likely already have a pool of loyal, happy customers who both love your product and its mission. Keep those customers happy and watch sales soar.
When it comes to customer retention ahead of the holidays and throughout the year, one thing is for certain, customers want to feel special! By proactively displaying policies and frequent issues, creating referrals, and personalizing support interactions, you can both increase your net promoter score (NPS) and improve sales. Customer support is one of the most important pieces in the customer experience so you’ll want to ensure you’re doing it well. Here are a few ways to improve your customer support and, thus, increase sales.
Be proactive
Get ahead of any potential customer issues before they arise. While intuiting your customers’ needs before they’re stated is not always possible (you aren’t mind readers!), marketers can do things to get ahead of potential issues.
- Have clearly stated policies in place. Make sure your customer knows exactly what to do should there be an issue in any part of the buying, checkout, or shipping process. Is there a contact email for shipping issues? Direct your customer to this email address in the shipping confirmation email so they have it handy if their package is taking a little longer than expected. Does the chat support software or eCommerce chatbot have a personal touch only during certain hours? Direct customers to a support email where they can receive personalized support during non-peak hours.
- Pivot based on feedback. If you’ve been in the business for some time, there are likely a slew of common issues. Whether you ask for post-purchase feedback or simply receive it via the support feature, make sure you act on that feedback and address issues in a timely fashion.
Display your FAQ vs. direct customer support
There are two schools of thought when it comes to displaying a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section. Your small business may have a very different approach than a larger business with more resources and employees on hand to answer customer queries. Let’s go over the two schools of thought and some of their pros and cons.
Display the FAQ
The first school of thought argues that a well-documented FAQ is a great way to encourage customers to proactively diagnose issues before relying on the support team. This can cut down on customer support queries and limit the backlog for your customer support team. Some customers may also prefer resolving the issue themselves or obtaining the answer to their question without waiting for an eCommerce chatbot or email response.
Encourage customers to reach out to the support team
The second school of thought argues that all customer support queries should go through the customer support team. The Neil Patel Blog suggests that by encouraging customers to use the support feature, businesses can better understand the full scope of the issue. The business can then prioritize resolving the issue rather than offering a workaround via the FAQ.
Let’s say 30 customers send a customer support query regarding a checkout issue. This allows the customer team to personally respond to each issue and truly empathize with the customer. The customer support team, upon realizing multiple customers are struggling with the same issue, can then report that issue to the product and engineering teams to resolve. Rather than alerting the subsequent 200 customers of the issue with a workaround via the FAQ, those customers won’t encounter the issue at all because the fix was prioritized ahead of their visit to the site.
Zimply is in the business of communication and believes that a personalized approach is always best. While in support of a personalized response that prioritizes resolving rather than patching the issue, our team understands that this may not work for every business, especially small businesses with limited resources. Zimply offers a solution to small and large businesses alike so that streamlining their communication across multiple platforms, be it email, Instagram, Facebook Messenger or Twitter is quick and seamless.
Make customers feel special
A handwritten note thanking your customer for their support is a great way to make them feel special. While you may prioritize these gestures during the holidays, it’s also the busiest time of the year. Why not encourage your customers to return to your online store during slower, off-peak times of the year? Send a note in April or May thanking your customer for their business or surprise them with a promotional code for being a loyal customer in August or September.
Create referrals and incentives
A net promoter score (NPS) is a measure of a customer's loyalty to your company. Tracking a customer's net promoter score can be done by sending a simple one-question survey following a sale or customer interaction. On a scale of 1 to 10, customers who score a 9 or 10 for their likelihood to recommend your product to a friend are typically good candidates for incentives and referrals.
Simply put, customers who are happy with your product or service are more likely to recommend your product or service to their friends. So, why not encourage them to do so through a referral scheme? Referral schemes that give both parties an incentive are the most likely to be shared and utilized.
Personalize support interactions
Email and support query templates undoubtedly save time and, in the world of business, time is money! However, if support agents feel robotic, you may be leaving money on the table. Today’s customers seek personalized interactions and studies show that customer retention and personalization pay. There are a few ways to personalize support interactions.
- Empathize with your customer. Make sure the customer is heard loud and clear. Go a step further and make sure that understanding is reflected in your response, too.
- Match your customer support tone to the brand. Whether you’re selling quirky clothing or chic leather bags, you have an opportunity to greet your customer in a way that speaks to your business. Sprinkle in some humor or sign off with a cheeky email signature if it suits the tone of the brand.
- Utilize technology to quickly resolve issues. Whether it’s collating customer queries using Zimply or utilizing previous purchase data to understand customer preferences, easy-to-reference information on a customer’s habits can make personalizing the customer support experience easier for support agents. When the agent has all of the customer information in one place, the customer support experience is bound to be speedier, more succinct, and more personal.
Customer support is at the heart of any online business or shop and serves as a great way to drive sales ahead of Black Friday, during the holiday season, and throughout the year. By proactively dealing with customer complaints and displaying common issues, you’re letting your customers know that you care about their satisfaction. Take those customer interactions a step further by personalizing your support messages, sending handwritten notes to your most loyal customers, and creating referral incentives. Not only will these measures increase your NPS and overall customer satisfaction, but they’re also sure to drive future sales.
If you need help optimizing your sales, marketing, and customer support, look no further than Zimply. Superb customer communication is the quickest way to garner repeat sales and spend less on ads and marketing. Zimply not only collates customer communication from various channels in one easy-to-find place, but it also empowers your brand to build customer relationships that improve sales over time.