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Get startedECommerce has completely changed the sales landscape, for both B2B and B2C new sales . A well-functioning eCommerce call center gives you all the right tools to support your sales operation and boost brand loyalty.
Put yourself in the customers’ shoes. When you want to make a purchase, you may be inclined to go straight to the brands you know and trust. If you have any doubts, you might shop around a bit online, but unless there is some compelling reason to try a different brand, most people will stick to the brands they’re familiar with, even if the cost is a bit more than a competitor.
When you go with a trusted brand, you get the assurance that the product is good and you can rely on having a great customer experience every time you buy something. There’s nothing to think about or worry over as you click to buy. If you need to contact customer service with a question or problem, you know you can count on that too.
Call center software for eCommerce makes all that happen seamlessly for your business. Your customers will barely be aware that there’s a team of call center agents working behind the scenes.
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The Role of an eCommerce Call Center
The first internet system was called Arpanet and it went online in 1969 when Stanford University and UCLA met online for the first time. Soon after that, there were lots of various advancements in internet technology.
Commercial enterprises began to develop along the way, but security was an issue. Netscape developed SSL encryption in 1995 making it safer to sell products and services online.
Most people point to 1995 as the first year that the internet started to commercialize. Amazon and Echo Bay, which later became eBay, also started online programs in the same year. They were the first big eCommerce platforms.
Online retailers, commonly known as e-tailers, have been springing up in droves since then. E-Commerce encompasses all sales of goods and services over the internet, which is more commonly known as online shopping. ECommerce relies heavily on email, chat, web services, shopping cart platforms, and other software programs to attract customers, close sales, and deliver customer support functions.
According to Statista, about $255 million people will be shopping online this year and the numbers are slated to keep rising. Where lots of financial transactions are taking place, there has to be a good customer service and support operation to support it for your eCommerce business to be successful.
Why Use a Call Center
The role of an eCommerce call center is to increase sales, answer questions, and resolve problems before or after a sale. By setting up a call center, you’re positioning your company to enhance the customer experience, retain customers, and strengthen brand loyalty.
ECommerce call centers may be set up with the primary function of customer service, customer support, or sales. Depending on your business or industry, you can even set up a call center that has one or more functions.
Cloud-based phone systems and eCommerce call center software make it possible to turn your call center into a contact center that offers multiple communication channels for customer convenience. Analytics programs give you opportunities to define metrics and for further insight so you can take steps to improve the customer experience greatly.
How to Improve eCommerce Customer Service
As you set up an eCommerce store, your main focus is on getting your products and services listed and marketing them. Competition is bound to be stringent, no matter what you’re selling. The way to differentiate yourself is to set up a call center.
A call center helps your efforts on the front end of sales. This happens because it gets customers to the bottom of the sales funnel quickly. As orders come in and shipping gets busier, you’ll have calls coming in with questions and problems. A call center can be your saving grace. The right software tools will greatly assist your call agents with delivering superior customer service. This will keep your customers coming back, again and again.
“As a service” solutions like SaaS, CCaaS, and UCaaS software provide the foundation for a well-functioning call center, where call agents can access all the data they need to serve customers using one system. (See CCaaS vs UCaaS)
Check out these 10 ways that e-Commerce customer software improves customer service in your call center by giving your call agents a single source of data.
1. Self service
Software solutions enable you to set up an automated knowledge base where customers can get answers to common questions without speaking to an agent.
2. Omni-channel communication
Customers often prefer using the phone, but with more people using mobile devices, chat, email, and text are also popular ways to communicate with companies.
3. Extend the hours for your answering service
With eCommerce establishments, customers aren’t bound by standard business hours. Call centers make it possible to add shifts of call agents in the early hours, late at night, or even 24/7 so you’re available anytime they need help.
4. Use help desk software
Helpdesk software for call centers works much like email helpdesks, except they work better. Use it with your cloud-based phone system to tag calls and create help tickets to streamline your workflows.
5. Integrate the billing history
Your customers will be pleasantly surprised when they call to inquire about a billing problem and the call agent can talk intelligently about it because they have the entire billing history in front of them. The right software integrations also give call agents access to information about orders and shipping dates.
6. Monitor customer satisfaction
Take advantage of automation to send out customer satisfaction surveys to get immediate feedback on customer service. Get a temperature on how customers view your brand and take action when things are up to snuff.
7. Use call analytics to evaluate call flows
The right cloud phone system has a feature called live feed which gives you real-time insight into call volume and other insights so you can use your resources appropriately.
8. Scale your team according to call flows
Live feed and other call analytics from your cloud phone system will help you determine how to scale your call center for seasons, holidays, and other fluctuating sales trends.
9. Set up interactive voice response (IVR)
An IVR system routes calls to the right individual or department right from the start.
10. Use click-to-dial
This feature brings up a list of calls to allow call agents to dial rapidly using one click.
When you invest in eCommerce customer service, you’re setting your customers up for a good customer experience. You’re sure to get that back in long-term customer loyalty and increased sales.
The Benefits of Call Center Software for eCommerce
Call centers give you the benefit of having a trained workforce that’s 100% dedicated to serving your customers. Rather than setting up job descriptions where customer service is part of an employee’s duty, trained call agents become experts at handling customer needs. The right call center software solutions are designed for eCommerce platforms.
Ecommerce call center software gives your company the following benefits:
First call resolutions
Cloud-based phone features like IVR, call queue, and call transferring get calls to the right person so they can be handled immediately, resulting in great customer satisfaction.
Take payments securely
Take payments from customers without call agents being able to see credit card or other payment information.
Provide consistent customer experience
Customers are more likely to be more loyal when they know they’re going to get a consistent customer experience every time. The right training and software solutions give your call agents the tools to provide consistency.
Route calls faster
Call routing features on your cloud phone system alert call agents so they can transfer calls to the most appropriate person or department before or during the call.
Don’t miss opportunities
Cloud-phone system features like call queue, queue callback, and voicemail ensure that you won’t miss opportunities to make sales or call customers back.
Increase sales conversion rates
Sales software programs automatically guide leads from one part of the sales process to the next and you get the benefit of increased sales conversions.
Brand loyalty
Happy customers are inclined to buy again. Improving your call center operation gives you new opportunities to upsell, cross-sell, and get referrals and repeat sales.
Enhanced productivity and efficiency
With the right tools at their fingertips, call agents can resolve calls faster. Click-to-dial, call tagging, desktop notifications, CRM integrations, and other features increase call team efficiency and productivity.
Capability for remote teams and distributed teams
Call center software is remote-friendly. You can employ call center agents from any location as long as they have an internet connection and the proper login information.
Overall, eCommerce call center software gives you the greatest efficiency, flexibility, versatility, and functionality. If all that isn’t enough, it’s cost-effective too.
eCommerce Call Center Best Practices
The 2016 Microsoft State of Global Customer Service report showed that 97% of customers identified that customer service is very important to them. To bring it closer to today, the report also indicates that the customer experience will supersede price and product as the main brand differentiator by the end of 2020.
Follow these best practices for eCommerce call centers to improve the customer experience.
Be quick in answering questions, solving problems, and handling requests. Use analytics to learn your average response time and work toward improving it. ECommerce customers expect call agents to be quick and efficient or it’s just as easy to buy elsewhere.
Use the call history, contact information, billing history, and other data to anticipate a customer’s needs, even before they ask questions.
Personalize service. Train call agents to use their names. Make suggestions for other products they could use. Inform customers on how they can take advantage of coupons, rewards, and sales.
Use analytical tools to track call agent and call team performances and set goals for improvement.
Use call whispering, call monitoring, and call barging to coach call agents in real-time, or intervene during problem calls.
Listen to feedback from your call agents and provide regular training for them.
Continuously keep improving your call center practices.
How Cloud-Based Phone Software Improves eCommerce Contact Centers
There’s no greater companion for eCommerce call center software than cloud-based phone software. When combined, the two technologies are a mighty force for delivering a good customer experience on a consistent basis. Aircall’s App Marketplace offers pages of listings of software solutions that work in conjunction with Aircall’s cloud-based phone system to improve your eCommerce contact center.
Aircall offers a robust set of phone system features on its own to address customer needs personally and fast. Analytics enable you to figure out the cost of customer acquisition, making it easy to learn your ROI. Aircall’s analytics are also helpful for giving you the average call response time, average volume of calls, average time spent on calls, and how many calls are being resolved on the first call.
Automated survey tools give you customer satisfaction ratings so you can meet or exceed customer expectations.
All of your business tools work together seamlessly when you use Aircall, including your eCommerce software, sales software, helpdesk software, and Voxpay to handle payments securely.
When a customer hangs up the phone thinking, “Wow, that was easy!” your call center has succeeded in delivering a good customer experience.
Published on November 2, 2020.
