User Experience / 5 UX secrets that ensure outstanding eCommerce customer service

5 UX secrets that ensure outstanding eCommerce customer service

Andy Thorne
retro style telephone

To attract and retain online customers, they need to be happy with their shopping experience from the first to the last click. ‘Personalisation’ and other strong UX techniques boost lead conversion and customer loyalty. In the highly competitive world of eCommerce, guiding website visitors to a positive transaction is just half the battle.

You also need to get your customers to come back for more, more often!

This makes User Experience (UX) – and effective online customer service in general – the key to profitable growth. Good UX makes customers more likely to register, enquire and buy and it attracts them back again, too. Poor UX means they could click away, never to return!

5 UX secrets

What constitutes successful UX depends on your own business goals, website design and sales targets. Constant evaluation and improvement are vital for any online business, as UX is a fluid and complex field.

However, many UX techniques and improvements revolve around ‘personalising’ customer engagement within your pages.

It’s the process of making them feel recognised as individuals.

We thought it would be helpful to offer up five UX techniques that improve customer service to build eCommerce success and repeat sales.

Online chat

Online Chat

Online chat makes customers feel like you are a responsive, interested and caring company.

This is potentially the best way to personalise your eCommerce website. Online Chat – when done right – also makes customers feel you are a responsive, interested and caring company.

There are many varieties of ‘chatbots’ and software options to create a 24-hour response to customer queries.

Your return on investment is likely to be more substantial if you choose an intelligent chatbot that builds its knowledge of your product or service. The answers it provides and the way it signposts customers will improve exponentially.

Combining chatbot technology with Live Chat is also invaluable for UX. Your automated system ‘knows’ at what point to hand over to a real person!

The value of this is unarguable. Your website answers questions swiftly around the clock and customers feel better looked after, boosting sales and loyalty.

Understand your customer

Understanding your customer

Successful user experience comes from drilling down and understanding your consumers.

This may seem a commonsense ‘secret’ to powerful UX. However, it’s probably the customer service priority that many eCommerce companies skimp on.

To provide individualised responses – whether it’s from your automated Chatbots or your telephone or email systems – you have to know exactly who you are talking to. What are your customers’ ‘pains and gains’? In other words, what are they looking for from products like yours, and what problems can you solve?

This means drilling down on your customer personae and demographic profiles.

Guest checkout

Guest checkout

Not allowing users to complete their purchase with a guest checkout and deter them from completing an order.

The way eCommerce websites respond to customers tends to be driven by capturing data and using it within legal and commercial perimeters.

Consequently, far too many businesses make internet users jump through hoops to place an order – or even to raise a product query! Good UX should lead to positive action – such as registering their details – with as little friction and effort as possible.

However, you could grow your internet sales if you let people buy as ‘guests’ rather than demanding layers of personal information and passwords. This can be particularly off-putting for potential customers using mobile phones, who get annoyed with tricky field filling.

Having multiple payment options

Multiple payment methods

Klarna has become the new look out payment system allowing you to purchase on ecommerce stores and pay with a 0% interest rate 30 days later.

One of the most common reasons for abandoned online shopping carts is the complexity of the final stage. If you make paying (and delivery terms) complex, then desire for your product dries up!

Making your eCommerce transactional page ‘user-friendly’ means keeping it clean, simple and logical. This includes providing the best online payment options – Direct Debit, Credit Card, PayPal and Klarna for example. It’s far better than giving them a bewildering choice of payment systems.

What do you think of us?

What do you think of us

Surveys have always been a great way of gathering feedback from your customers. There are free online tools such as Surveymonkey.com which allow you to create free digital surveys.

Surveys have always been – and will always be – a superb tool to feed your business improvement and growth. They are also an excellent way to underpin eCommerce customer service.

Even if you are not exactly swamped with responses to your customer feedback system, the fact that you asked for their opinions and ideas is appreciated.

It shows their individual views count and that you care. Especially if you issue surveys to follow up on your customer service, and then respond directly to any praise or problems.

Just think about this; if you capture customer dissatisfaction with some aspect of your website, service or product, it’s a springboard for improvement. It also potentially stops them giving you a poor review online!

Technology for hearts and minds

Modern website design and build tools make it possible to create an authentic, long term relationship with your customers. You can personalise the way users interact with your pages, using an array of automated and easy to use systems. As long as you integrate the best UX ideas into your website, and constantly evaluate and improve their customer service ‘power’.

We would like your feedback to know how we can help you when it comes to the eCommerce user experience and customer service. What are your thoughts?