e-Commerce, the unexpected overhead

So you’ve made the decision to sell your products online. Wonderful. Clicks and mortar – it’s the future, right?

You’ll have weighed up the costs in terms of website design and development, you will have tested and identified the most appropriate payment gateway and set up an online bank account to handle your transactions. You’ve meticulously photographed and described all of your products in a clear and concise way that encourages visitors to buy from you. Think you’ve thought of everything?

Customer service is rated as the single most important factor in a customer’s decision to purchase. The level of that importance increases again when a second or subsequent purchase is being considered. In other words, you may sell something once because you’ve got a great product at a great price – but if you fail to deliver on your customer service, that will be all you sell.

How about when an item is damaged in transit or fails to arrive? Are you ready to take the call from your irate customer? What if they post about it on Facebook? Or Twitter? Are you monitoring your social media round-the-clock ready to respond in a positive way? What happens when an item is out of stock? How promptly do you contact your customer and let them know when the item will be available again?

If someone needs to arrange a return, do you have a procedure in place? Or something as simple as a customer enquiry – are you there to answer the phones when your website traffic starts to increase?

All of these factors can make the difference between a successful e-Commerce business and one which fails to deliver on its brand promises. So don’t forget to invest in your customer service infrastructure – and remember that with Everything Answered at your side, you can outsource the entire operation to them.

They will monitor your social media channels, answer your telephone calls, implement your returns policy, advise customers of stock levels and tackle any inbound customer service enquiries – all in a seamless and professional way that accurately reflects the impression that your brand makes online.

To find out more about how Everything Answered can help with your e-Commerce operations, or indeed to hear case studies of other online businesses that already use their service – get in touch today by emailing us at admin@everything-answered.com.