What are some biggest advantages online stores have over brick-and-mortar ones? One, they remain open for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year (366 days in a leap year)!
Second, some of them serve customers across time zones and geographical boundaries. “Location no bar.” That’s the mantra of many e-commerce companies in the present age.
It’s not uncommon to find many online sellers that sell their products and offerings in different countries without setting up regional offices there. For example, there are many spice brands based in India that sell their range of unique and exquisite products to customers in the US, the UK, Australia, and many other Western countries.
Similarly, there are companies in other countries that sell authentic and distinctive products to customers around the world. Can they carry on their operations if they don’t provide round-the-clock customer support?
Why only those, let’s take the example of an online medicine company. Can it remain in business if it doesn’t provide continuous customer support irrespective of the time of the day? It can’t. It needs to be open 24/7 not only to receive urgent orders but also help callers and visitors in case of any emergency.
In this blog post, we will discuss the reasons e-commerce companies need to provide 24/7 customer support and how cloud-based contact center software can help online retailers provide 24/7 customer support.
If you own an e-commerce business or you work in one, then this blog post can provide you with immense value. So, let’s dive straight into the topic and learn more.
Reasons E-commerce Companies Need to Provide 24/7 Customer Support?
Unlike traditional stores, e-commerce companies don’t have the luxury not to provide round-the-clock customer support. It’s the bare minimum in the e-commerce sector and their existence depends on that. Here are some main reasons why e-commerce companies need to provide 24/7 customer support:
1. Global Reach
As discussed earlier, geographical boundaries don’t bound many e-commerce businesses. Such companies are global in nature and differences in time zones, distances, and locations don’t matter at all. Such online retailers need to provide 24/7 customer support to accept orders from overseas customers and provide them timely service.
2. Nature of Products or Services
Some products and services are much more critical than others. For instance, medicines. A little delay in delivery can have adverse effects on customers. Likewise, groceries as well as hygiene and sanitary products are also important. Online stores that deal with such products need to provide round-the-clock customer support.
3. To Reduce Cart Abandonment Rate
The cart abandonment rate in the e-commerce sector is quite high. As per a study, the average cart abandonment rate in the e-commerce sector is 70.19 percent! A majority of this happens due to unclear communication, improper customer support, billing and payment issues, checkout complexities, issues with the website, and others. Providing round-the-clock customer support can enable customers to get their issues and queries resolved immediately.
4. To Enhance Customer Retention
While on one hand the e-commerce sector has a high cart abandonment rate, on the other the customer retention rate in the sector is shockingly low. According to a recently released stat, the average customer retention rate in the e-commerce sector is about 38 percent. Quick customer support can increase customer retention. As per Microsoft’s Global State of Customer Service report, businesses that offer 24/7 support are more likely to witness a 50 percent rise in customer satisfaction and a 25 percent growth in customer retention.
5. Building Trust
“For e-commerce, the most important thing is trust.” This quote by Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist Jack Ma, also the founder of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group, speaks volumes about how important trust is for online retailers. Quick customer support plays a crucial role in bolstering trust. As per Qualtrics XM Institute study, about 90 percent of customers trust a company whose service they rate as “very good.” Only 16 percent trust companies they deem to have “poor” service.
6. Meeting Customers’ Expectations
Contemporary customers expect timely support no matter what. Depending on which study you believe in, forty to sixty percent of customers expect immediate response from e-commerce companies. That’s not all, at a time when almost all e-commerce companies are offering 24/7 customer support, not providing the same can put an online retailer out of the competition.
How Can Cloud-based Contact Centers Help E-commerce Companies Provide 24/7 Customer Support
Being hosted over the cloud and replete with sophisticated features, cloud-based contact center software solutions offer some unique advantages that equip them to enable e-commerce firms to offer round-the-clock customer support. Here are some of those:
1. AI and Automated Solutions
Cloud-based contact centers are equipped with sophisticated automated systems such as AI-powered chatbots, virtual assistants, and a wide array of automated resources. These tools don’t sleep. They don’t need time off. They can work 24/7 and help e-commerce companies provide round-the-clock availability.
2. Remote Workforce Enablement
One of the biggest advantages of cloud-based contact centers is that they are highly flexible and don’t require agents to be tied to a particular place. That can help e-commerce companies hire customer service representatives across timezones and different countries to provide 24/7 customer support.
3. Omnichannel Communication
Are you wondering how omnichannel communication can help in delivering round-the-clock customer support? A contact center that uses other channels of communication (web chat, email, text messages, social media, and others) than plain-old voice calls can automate some of the channels to provide 24/7 customer support.
4. Self-Service Resources
In today’s time, a majority of people prefer to solve minor issues and queries by themselves instead of speaking with customer service representatives. In such a scenario, self-service tools and resources are extremely beneficial for e-commerce companies. Such tools also enable online retailers to provide 24/7 service as they are readily accessible.
Everything Said and Done,
Whether it’s dead of the night or the peak of noon, an e-commerce website is always up and running. So, online retailers should ensure they provide round-the-clock customer support to help customers anytime of the day.
To make that happen, e-commerce companies must invest in the right tech stack and handpick the right cloud-based contact center solutions.
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