eCommerce Customer Service Tools to Boost Retention

In 2021, eCommerce is quickly becoming the primary shopping channel for millions around the globe who are looking for safe ways to purchase products during the ongoing pandemic. There are 12 million eCommerce websites worldwide, and the competition is rising in every industry.

Now online stores strive to acquire new customers to sustain their businesses. Although reaching wider audiences and attracting potential buyers is essential to any eCommerce site, some may underestimate the importance of existing customers, who are 50 percent more likely to buy new products and spend 33 percent more than new customers.

Gaining customers is undoubtedly challenging but losing them is as simple as clicking the back button, so online businesses need to find a way to retain their customers.

One of the crucial factors in building customer loyalty to your brand is customer service.

Regardless of what you sell, shoppers have so many options at their fingertips that finding an alternative to your website will not require more than a few clicks and a quick search on Google.

Customer service can play a vital role in expanding your business and building a positive reputation which will help you gain new customers in the future.

Luckily, there are numerous excellent customer service tools to help you improve your eCommerce store’s customer service and, therefore, retain customers.

Here are the top 7 tools to improve customer experience and help your business grow in 2021.

1.   Live Chat

Phone calls were the most crucial part of customer service back in the day, but it’s no longer the case.

Today we are in a constant hurry. If asking a simple question requires someone to initiate a call and wait in line to talk with a representative, your prospects may find another store that offers more flexible customer service. And what’s more comfortable than phone calls? Live Chat.

Today, more than 40% of customers expect live chat on your website, and if you don’t have one, perhaps you’re losing customers.

Even if they are an existing customer, if they need to reach you and find it challenging to contact you, that’s when they might decide to leave for good.

What’s Live Chat? It’s a dynamic chatbox where customers can ask questions directly to your company representative. It helps shoppers quickly receive helpful information and help them make a buying decision.

More than 60% of consumers who used live chat on a website are likely to return to that site, so if you don’t yet have one, it’s time to add it to your website.

2.   Zendesk

When your store has high traffic and customer engagement, it’s time to store all your customer communications in one place, and that’s when you’ll need Zendesk. It’s a great tool to run your customer service operations smoothly. Zendesk offers online messaging capabilities and supports messaging, voice, social, email, and live chat. The tool also allows you to build an integrated help center and community forum to give customers the freedom to help themselves at their own pace— while reducing resolution times for agents.

Moreover, the tool enables you to automate and initiate chats even before they get to ask you a question.

Zendesk can reduce support costs and ticket volume so that agents can focus on more significant issues. Customers with simple questions can find information without initiating a real-time chat and support.

3.   JivoChat

Your website isn’t the only place where customers will want to contact you or have questions regarding your products. Tools that allow you to hold real-time conversations on different platforms such as social media channels and your website are emerging on the scene. JivoChat is a popular tool you can use for your business. It is an all-in-one business messenger that teams use to talk to customers everywhere: live chat, phone, email, and social media. Most importantly, you can install JivoChat basic for free for your first five agents, making it an excellent solution for small businesses and startups.

4.   Document360

Over 60% of U.S. consumers prefer automated self-service, such as through a website or mobile app, for simple customer service tasks. Such services allow you to create and publish answers for customers who can conveniently find their answers without contacting customer support.

Document360 is a cloud-based help desk solution that enables businesses to create self-service knowledge bases for their products. It helps bring external systems like chat, commenting, and analytics into your knowledge base and utilize your knowledge base in help desk and chat. Knowledge Base Assistant in Document360 is an embeddable widget for your website that connects your product or service to your knowledge base so users can get instant answers regardless of where they are.

5.   HelpDesk

HelpDesk is a customer support tool to simplify different tasks by keeping all customer communication in one software. It offers multichannel customer service with HelpDesk-LiveChat integration allowing to manage all support tickets using one tool. It will enable your support team to stay organized by responding to emails and talking on chat in the same place. HelpDesk makes it easier for your customers to reach you.

Here you can try automated workflows for repetitive tasks and adjust them to your business’s needs. As automation takes care of simple tasks, you can focus on more complex cases. As a result, you can devote more time building better relationships with customers and optimizing response time.

6.   Tidio

Tidio is amongst the most famous customer support tools on the market, with bots that employ AI solutions to recognize customers’ queries and act upon them. For instance, an FAQ bot is a chatbot that answers your customers’ most frequent questions regarding your products. Instead of having a customer support representative answer them manually, users click the question, and the FAQ bot will provide the answer. Tidio bots can also save abandoned carts, offer discounts, generate leads, and work 24/7. Tidio Chatbots allows you to set up automatic responses in the chat, so you don’t do extra work when you can save time and energy to deal with issues that need your attention.

More importantly, Tidio Live Chat software works great with many CRM, eCommerce, and email marketing platforms so you can easily connect with your customers in one place.

7.   Klaviyo

Consistent, relevant communication with your customers is crucial for building customer relationships and drive your business’s growth – that’s why email marketing is highly effective for retaining customers. Moreover, email campaigns help your store increase sales by announcing new arrivals, offering special promotions, or reminding shoppers of their abandoned carts.

Klaviyo is an eCommerce marketing automation platform offering automated email flows. Here you can trigger messages based on what customers do, whether it’s browsing your site, engaging with your campaigns, or making a purchase.

You can also target customers by attributes like location or use data like gender or birthday to send highly personalized messages.

From open rates to sales, real-time reporting in Klaviyo allows you to easily see how different emails in a series drive different results.

Customer retention is crucial to help your store grow, build reputation, and stand out from the competition. We hope the tools above will help you deliver an excellent customer service experience to retain existing customers essential to your company’s success and encourage growth.

If you’re interested in improving your customer retention and eCommerce platform, there’s another solution — Internet Marketing Geeks. We can help you use all of these tools and more. With more than twenty years of experience in eCommerce and digital marketing, we can help you improve your customer experience and build your brand. Speak with a member of our team today!