Elevating Your E-Commerce Customer Service with a VA in 2024

Get closer to your milestone this new year! Elevate your e-commerce customer service with virtual assistants who are experts in managing all your customer service dilemmas.

Nobody says that starting an e-commerce business is going to be easy. Surely, you have experienced first-hand the abandoned carts on your site, correct?

So, as we enter a new year, it’s about time to switch things up and seek out new solutions to grow your business. In 2024, a smart way to begin that journey is to enhance your e-commerce customer service with virtual assistant support.

How could a virtual assistant help a company grow? What does an e-commerce virtual assistant do? How to step up your online store customer support.

Lucky you, all the answers to these questions are right here.

Hang around with us for a couple of minutes and explore how starting your year with a VA will surely delight your online shoppers, prosper your customer service and ultimately increase sales.

What is an E-Commerce Customer Service?

E-commerce customer service is a way for online stores to assist their customers in their online shopping across different platforms. The goal is to provide online buyers with a seamless shopping experience and help them make the right purchasing decisions. To ensure that, they will make sure every customer concern is promptly attended to and resolved.

Customer service is an essential factor to be considered for your business to thrive. About 95% of consumers give weight to customer service for brand loyalty.

However, having customer service isn’t enough; what you need is excellent customer support to attract and retain customers. Otherwise, you will lose 96% of your buyers.

Why is it important?

Is it worth your dime to invest in e-commerce customer service? If losing 96% of your buyers doesn’t scare you, then NO.

But trust our word for it, as an online brand in a highly competitive market, you want consumers who will stick with you and spread the word out. That’s when customer service for e-commerce comes in, offering you the following possibilities.

  • Builds trust
  • Encourage repeat business
  • Increase sales
  • Improve customer experience
  • Offer free referrals

How Different is an E-Commerce Customer Service from Your Typical Customer Support?

The difference between e-commerce customer service and traditional customer support boils down to face-to-face interactions.

It’s easier for a business owner who runs a physical store to build rapport with clients and offer personalized assistance because they can directly engage with them.

Online retailers don’t have that kind of luxury because interactions are merely impersonal. They need to be a little more creative to create loyal fans.

Surprisingly, online stores have something that physical shops do not—any guesses? They offer accessibility anytime, anywhere, providing round-the-clock shopping convenience.

Imagine not having to go out after a hard day’s work to buy those new shoes you’re dying for. All you need to do is browse through your smartphone, add the item to your cart, and check out. It’s super convenient, and your e-commerce business should take advantage of it.

E-Commerce Customer Service Dilemmas

Let’s face it—e-commerce customer service is easier said than done. Lack of personal interaction is not the only issue here; there are so many major concerns that leave your customers feeling frustrated, angry and dissatisfied such as…

  • Negative feedback is not resolved, and no resolution is implemented
  • Customers are kept on hold for a long time.
  • No personalized approach at all; having to explain a problem to multiple consumers at once
  • The customer service representative is rude.
  • The employees are not knowledgeable.
  • Difficulties in reaching out to a human representative

How Can a Virtual Assistant Help with Customer Service?

When you hire a virtual assistant as a customer support solution, you can maximize your resources and avoid expensive investments.

Here’s how a virtual assistant can assist your e-commerce customer service in 2024:

  • Answer Phone Calls

    Having someone to answer the phone every time it rings makes your business look very professional. Not putting anyone on hold or those long ring cycles is a show of how much you value their time and an indication of a high-quality service to your clients.

    With the help of a virtual assistant, you can complete a range of phone support for your online store. From guiding customers through their product browsing to offering suggestions based on their preferences, VAs are experts in handling all sorts of phone support needs.

  • Manage Email

    Each day, an individual spends two to 3 hours managing emails. While it is a necessary task to check on supplier updates, daily transactions and feedback issues on your very full inbox, these are the daily chores you could easily delegate to someone else to free your time for something more important.

    Virtual assistants can reduce response times even while dealing with billing and shipping issues on the side. By ensuring effective email inbox management, you can keep your inbox organized and complete tasks more efficiently.

  • Live Chat Support

    Live chat support gives clients quick answers to their questions. It solves problems faster and assures clients that you’re always reachable whenever they need you.

    Though this might seem so plain and simple, it is quite very effective in boosting your e-commerce customer service and overall customer satisfaction.

    You need the support of a virtual assistant and their proficiency in the different software tools for this comprehensive live chat support to be effective. VAs can answer questions and handle shipping queries in real-time interaction, which will surely delight your clients.

  • Research

    Remember researching and how it bores you to your core? You don’t need to do it. Let a virtual assistant handle this time-consuming but necessary office chore. They can find the important data you need to track customer satisfaction quotients across numerous channels.

    Rest assured, VAs are trained to handle all your e-commerce customer service research requirements— from monitoring various customer engagements to exploring whether your website is user-friendly for your customers or not.

  • Order Processing

    Once your customer makes a purchase online, a series of order processing steps get into motion; customer information verification, product shipment preparation and order tracking.

    Fortunately, your virtual assistant can take over on your behalf. They can cover all the tasks we mentioned above and more. What’s even better is that they can work on all the reports concerning reimbursements and inventory stocks —you need only ask.

Why Virtual Assistant for Your E-Commerce Customer Service

So, it seems you’re not satisfied with how a virtual assistant supports your customer service, and still scouring for more reasons to get you to hire. In that case, here are the remarkable ways a VA can enhance your e-commerce customer service and endorse growth.

  • Effective Line of Communication

    Understand that customer service representatives are not made equal. Some are just born without customer service abilities. This is why you must have an effective line of communication with customers.

    Client engagement is pivotal in building trust and brand loyalty. A virtual assistant can support you with these things. Beyond customer care, they excel in doing blog posts or newsletters, offering you a prompt communication line across different platforms like Amazon or Shopify.

  • Quality Service

    Unlike AI chatbots, virtual assistants have emotional intelligence that enables them to add the “personal touch.” At the end of the day, customers prefer talking to fellow humans rather than a robot. They enjoy having those conversations, sprinkled with personal greetings and appreciations.

    Moreover, the time zone difference allows virtual assistants to cater to customers even at irregular hours. And let’s be honest, customers crave efficiency and exhibiting this immense accessibility is crafting customer goodwill.

  • Positive Brand Building

    The secret to positive brand building is effective customer service. This 2024, hiring a virtual assistant ensures you get to finally enjoy this wonder.

    If you didn’t know, VAs add consistency to your workflow. With them, you get to attract new clients while retaining the existing ones.

  • Customized Approach Tailored to Your Needs

    It’s a new year and the trends are changing. So, don’t panic if you ever have a sluggish month; this is indeed natural.

    However, to maintain seamless management of your workforce, every time the demands go up or down, you need a VA as part of your virtual squad.

    Virtual assistants work on an as-needed basis without long-term contracts. This is why you can easily scale them when the situation demands it—an arrangement not possible with an onsite full-time employee.

Conclusion

Have you accounted for all the benefits of having virtual assistant support for your e-commerce customer service? When you calculate all of it, the benefits of boosting client experience more than pay for your little investment.

So, feel free to connect with us and we’ll be happy to help you transform your e-commerce customer service to the next level.

Latest Articles