Customer contact in e-commerce

A product is undoubtedly important for the success of an online shop. Marketing should also be a high priority. But to put it in the words of Bruce Ernst, product manager at LeadID: “Your website is not the centre of your business. Your page on Facebook is not the centre of your universe. Your mobile app is not the centre of your universe. The customer is the centre of your universe.” High customer loyalty opens the door to long-term success – the key to this is customer contact. Do you nurture your customer contacts? And if so, how? In this article we take a look at what customer contact means, why it is so important and how you can implement it in a strategically sensible way.

What does customer contact mean?

Every type of interaction that you, your online shop, your website or your employees have with your customers is counted as customer contact. The classic here is personal customer contact within a real encounter, as reserved for stationary trade. As an online shop, you contact your customers through other channels such as by phone, email, social media and, of course, your website. The right customer contact is much more important today than it was a few years ago. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that customers’ expectations of competent service are constantly growing and, on the other hand, to the visibly increasing need for advice.

For a long time now, your customers have not only been interested in your products or services, but also in the quality of your customer contact. You win a customer’s loyalty and fidelity by communicating with them in a goal-oriented and authentic manner. Through friendly, polite and supportive customer contact, you build trust and create a positive image.

A customer contact can be a personal answer to a question via telephone, e-mail or chat or an invitation to an event. Product descriptions, the newsletter or pop-ups are also part of this. The consistency of the approach is important. If a uniform communication, coordinated with the corporate philosophy, runs through every customer contact, this results in an all-round coherent overall picture.

Why is customer contact so important?

The boom in e-commerce has meant that as an online retailer you have to look for “new” ways to stand out from other online shops – even if they may not be so “new”. Free shipping or easy payment are already considered basic requirements in the minds of your customers. They are important, but no longer make a difference. It’s a different story when it comes to communicating with your target group. With customer contact, you have an excellent opportunity to increase customer satisfaction and stand out from the crowd with a genuine service experience. With a carefully cultivated customer contact, you build or strengthen trust, retain your customers in the long term and win new customers more easily. With customer contacts, you lay the foundation for sustainable communication that makes your customers feel comfortable and in good hands.

Where does customer contact take place?

Customer contact can take place at every “corner” in the digital space. If you carry out a target group analysis in advance, you will know exactly where your customers and potential new customers are and can design the customer contact along the touchpoints. Whether on your website, in social media, in forums, at virtual trade fairs, webinars and much more. – you can ensure customer contact exactly where your customers are. It is important that your target group knows who to contact at all times. At best, you can design complementary customer contact in such a way that it does not require your presence at all. How do you do that? We’ll tell you in our 5 tips for effective customer contact.

The 5 best tips for effective customer contact

You now know what customer contact is and why it is so important. But how can it be implemented? That’s exactly what we want to show you with our 5 tips.

1. customer contact at a glance: Highlight contact options

Your customers need to know how to contact you. And preferably in a quick, uncomplicated way. This applies to all areas – whether on your website, your social media profiles, a guest post or advertisements. Therefore, make sure that your service telephone number and an e-mail address can be found everywhere in a prominent position. Ideally, place your contact details on every page of your website to optimise your online shop. The top header area or the footer are ideal for this.

2. use a CRM system for your customer contact

With a customer relationship management system, you have an optimal tool for maintaining your customer contacts and interacting with your customers. A CRM records structured customer information such as contact data as well as personal characteristics and stores the entire documentation of each customer contact such as telephone customer conversations or e-mails. With the software, you can personalise customer contacts and increase the quality of advice, because you always know what the last customer contact with your customer was like and what it was about. You can then refer to it directly without your customer having to repeat his or her request over and over again.

3. include FAQs and live chats for interactive customer contact.

Supplement the classic communication channels such as telephone and e-mail in your online shop with self-service solutions. FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), i.e. frequently asked questions and the answers to them, offer a customer-friendly and user-oriented option for this. They help your customers to find out without delay what your payment methods are, what they need to know about returns or how to assemble a product. You have unlimited creative freedom when it comes to FAQs. Ideally, focus on questions that your customers are increasingly asking customer service. FAQs on shipping costs and the like should be implemented as mandatory.

Another attractive extension of your customer contact is the live chat. You can organise this via personal service staff or use a chatbot. The latter relieves your customer service and provides your customers with answers 24/7. The technologies are already quite mature today. If a chatbot does not get anywhere in the customer contact, you can always offer the subsequent dialogue with a real employee.

4. do not forget the principles of communication in contact with clients

Customer contact is based on a few principles that you should always follow to ensure that your customers have a positive experience every time.

• Respond promptly to enquiries and concerns.
• Ensure a high level of accessibility.
• Treat every customer courteously and politely.
• Take every problem seriously.
• Present yourself in a serious and professional manner.
• Work in an organised way when contacting customers and use CRM.
• Take enough time for each customer contact.
• Find the right approach for your target group.
• Ensure reliable counselling throughout.

5. use intelligent software solutions for your customer contact

With the use of intelligent software solutions, you can prolong personal customer contact and also achieve a high level of satisfaction through your service. Surprise your visitors with exit-intent pop-ups at the right time and offer them an appealing advantage. The algorithm of uptain recognises undecided visitors and supports them in their purchase decision with a personalised Exit-Intent Popup. And all this automatically. In this way, you avoid the abandonment of a purchase with an effective customer contact and ensure a high quality of advice.

If a customer does abandon the checkout, you can bring them back into the order process with so-called abandonment emails. The valuable customer contact is carried out using situationally appropriate email retargeting and directly addresses the reason for abandonment.

Make your customer contacts attractive

Today, you have to come up with more to stand out from your competitors and increase customer loyalty in the long term. With effective customer contact, you can address the needs of your customers, build trust and lay the foundation for long-term relationships. Make sure that your communication is consistent across all channels and that it offers your target group added value. Our final tip: Conduct regular customer surveys. This way you know what your customers want and can constantly optimise your customer contacts.