In conjunction with The E-Tailing Group’s 10th Annual Mystery Shopping Study of 100 eCommerce sites, the group defined 11 "must have" customer service features. Of the 100 sites they considered only 11 sites provided all of the features. How do you measure up?
+ Provide real-time inventory status on product pages or in the shopping cart
+ Display shipping status and order confirmation in the shopping cart
+ Send an email confirmation of the order
+ Display your toll-free number on your homepage
+ Provide prominent keyword search functionality
+ Respond to emailed questions within 25 hours
+ Deliver packages within 4 days of order being placed
+ Require 6 or fewer steps at checkout
+ Display recommended products on product or cart pages
+ Display customer service hours
+ Show holiday shopping deadlines
These can split into a few subsets: site features, order fulfillment and customer interaction. Several of these things should be enabled by your website provider - if they aren't you should be looking to switch! But as a shopper, it is the interaction that will really make or break the experience.
Looking for more ideas on how to engage your customers? Check out Infopia's customer lifetime value webinar: http://www.infopia.com/website/resources-webinars-recorded.shtml.
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