Online Customer Care

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- [Sarah] As online interactions with consumers continue to increase, quality online customer care is vital to the customer experience.

The experience you provide could be the difference between a customer purchasing from you and becoming or remaining a loyal customer, or that individual taking their business elsewhere.

Customer care is not the same as customer service.

While there is a great deal of overlap, customer service is traditionally viewed as reactive, that is responding to questions or complaints as they occur.

And while customer care also includes these actions, customer care is proactive through the anticipation of consumer needs and understanding of their values beginning even before they visit or engage with you online, that is before they become a customer.

Benefits of exceptional customer care include improved customer retention, greater customer satisfaction, and increased revenues.

Let's take a look at how you can create and cultivate exceptional online customer care with your website, online store, and social media presence.

Customer care begins and ends with people, even when conducted online.

Start by determining who will be responsible for online customer care.

Then make sure those individuals have the tools they need, perhaps a mobile phone or specific software.

Training is also vital, from web design to social media to customer service training.

A well-designed and organized website and online store are key aspects for providing quality online customer care.

Web visitors decide whether to stay on a website in 15 seconds.

By anticipating what information consumers want to see, will value, or information that consumers don't realize they want until they see it and making it easily accessible, you demonstrate to consumers that you're in touch with what they may need and is important to them.

Ensure the following items are addressed, contact information with notifications about responsiveness as appropriate, valuable content, call to action, shipping information, and the privacy policy.

Social media has evolved over the past decade and continues to do so.

People expect to be more than just recipients of information.

Rather, you should focus on building the community on the platforms you use.

Customer care best practices for social media include completing all of the About Us information sections.

This includes having your open hours listed, email address, website, phone number and so forth.

Also utilize the call to action buttons that some platforms offer, whether it is to send a message, make an appointment, call, or shop, that is to visit your online store.

Make it easy for members of your community to engage with you.

Providing content that your community values just as you do with your website.

Connecting your online store.

Social commerce is on the rise.

Remove the barrier for customers to purchase from you by creating a shop on your business's social media page and tagging items in your posts, taking users directly to that product in your online store.

Ensuring responsiveness.

In one study, 21% of customers were more likely to buy from businesses they can reach on social media.

Customers may post directly on your page, tweet at you, or direct message you.

Whether they reach out publicly or privately via social media, make sure you are responding.

In addition to understanding the type of online interaction, you also need to attempt to understand the individual who is communicating with you.

Consumers have rational, emotional, and social needs that they are trying to meet through their communications with you.

Rational needs can be addressed with factual information.

Customers' emotional needs can be met by sharing your business's values and operating principles.

Social needs are just that, a need or desire to develop a more personal relationship with the people in the businesses they purchase from.

Sometimes it will be straightforward to understand the individual's needs.

The times when it is not straightforward, however, highlights the importance of having a response plan that can guide you with questions and phrasing that can be used as you ask questions to understand, uncover needs, and respond appropriately.

To recap, steps you can take to ensure terrific online customer care include developing a user-friendly online user interface and experience for your website and online store, cultivating valuable social media presences through information and content, dedicated individuals to online customer care responsibilities, understanding customers, their communication preferences, and purpose in communicating, committing to responsiveness and having a response plan.

You should focus on online customer care as a competitive differentiator.

Customers may first purchase from a business based on the products offered or price, but they return and become loyal customers based on their experiences.