What makes offering 24/7 customer services so important?

Do you know what is the biggest advantage of opting for e-commerce? The ability to serve a global marketplace. But many businesses are unable to take advantage of this. The different time zones that exist make it challenging to expand businesses across the globe.

But not anymore! Today many people are opting for 24/7 customer services. This ensures prompt answer to customer queries, immediate solutions to customer problems, a more effective order tracking system etc. The outcome of all these is customer satisfaction. The higher the satisfaction levels, higher will be the chances of customers repeating their visit to your e-commerce store. Ultimately, you will see enhanced sales and growth in revenue. So, if you are one of those online store owners who is still thinking about offering 24/7 customer services, now is the time to take action.

Still need some more convincing? Did you know 58% of customers opt for online shopping because there are no time constraints (As Per Forbes data)¹. 

Let’s look at the advantages you gain by offering 24/7 customer services.

•  There is an increased demand for real-time support and resolution to queries. In e-commerce, this need can arise at any touchpoint. A Live Chat during the buying process can potentially influence a buying decision and reduce chances of customers leaving without completing the buying process. When a customer is unable to track a delivery, they will seek help from your Live Chat. There are so many other ways by which you can enhance user experience during their online shopping journey. By reducing the First Response time and the query resolution time, 24/7 customer service can help enhance brand credibility and brand loyalty.
• Customer retention is an important contributing factor to e-commerce revenue. Statistics show that if you can increase your customer retention rate by 5%, your profits increase by 25% to 95%. You also know from experience that retaining an online customer costs much less than acquiring a new one. Also, 77% of customers prefer e-commerce websites that offer good customer service. Providing 24/7 customer service goes a long way in helping you retain these customers. It is a great way to offer value and be a truly customer-oriented e-commerce website.
• Customer loyalty is more than just buying products and using your services repeatedly. By improving and inculcating customer loyalty, you can elevate them to become your brand ambassador. Such customers will recommend your website/brand to others and automatically influence buying decisions. Customers place greater value on personal experiences of their friends, relatives and known ones than on advertising and social media campaigns etc.

Such brand ambassadors can also become your social media influencers. By speaking positively about your brand customer experience, leaving positive reviews about customer satisfaction, increasing your website visibility on their personal networks, they will automatically drive more traffic to your website.

24/7 customer service helps improve customer loyalty across the globe. This is yet another strong reason why you should not take implementing 24/7 customer service lightly.

• Improving conversion rates by decreasing shopping cart abandonment. Average conversion rates generally range from 2% to 5%. But what you would ideally want is a conversion rate of 10% or more, if possible. How can you achieve this seemingly impossible task?

Live 24/7 customer support is a major contributor to increasing conversion rates. Statistically, it has been seen that customers visiting websites with Live Chat are 2.8 times more likely to complete their buying process. They are also likely to spend 60% more than what they would otherwise. The main reason is that a Live 24/7 customer service offers immediate resolution to all their queries and personalizes their buying experience. Effectively with 24/7 customer service you are:

○        Shortening their sales cycle

○        Increasing the time, they spend on your website

○        Improving their website journey

• People are more brand aware and conscious about brand reputation now. People who come to your website are all smart buyers. Hence, irrespective of whether you are a B2B or a B2C organization, good customer service is a mandatory requirement. Providing a superlative 24/7 customer service shows that you adopt a professional approach and are concerned about your customer’s needs. This will ultimately have a major impact on your brand awareness and e-commerce store reputation. You will experience more customer retention, there will be an increase in customer loyalty and you will experience much higher rates of customer conversion.
• Good customer experience is critical for the survival of an e-commerce store. Three very important reasons why e-commerce stores value customer experience over almost everything else are that they help to:

○        Enhance customer retention rates

○        Increase customer satisfaction

○        Improve cross-selling and up-selling of products

Making it easy for customers to interact with you will enormously impact customer experience. While there are customers who still prefer to find solutions themselves, the majority like to have their buying, shipping, payment etc., queries answered by a knowledgeable Live Chat agent. Catering to this will help you to improve your customer experience and give a competitive edge over your customers.

• Providing faster solutions to customer issues is the need of the hour. It would be foolish to say you run a fool-proof system. No business is perfect. E-commerce is more plagued by problems and issues than physical stores where customers go and buy.

In e-commerce you have to look after several different yet related factors. Right from categorisation of the product, putting in the correct prices, integrating payment and delivery methods to live tracking of goods till their delivery in proper condition and processing returns and refunds etc, every aspect is vulnerable to challenges. Additionally , all of these challenges will have an adverse effect on a customer’s buying experience.

But having a 24/7 customer service facility integrated within your website will result in a decrease in your Average Resolution Time and enhance positive customer experience.

• Offering support only during office hours will reduce your reach. If you want to cater to buyers from different countries, you have to ensure 24/7 customer service. Else buyers of different time zones present will be left grappling with issues that need customer support. Such customers are more likely to abandon your brand and opt for competitor brands. This fact further enhances the importance of 24/7 customer support.

Pre-purchase or post-purchase, a customer who gets all his queries solved and issues resolved immediately is more likely to return to your website and recommend your website to others.

So why take any more chances? Why waste more time! Start offering 24/7 customer services immediately. The results of this implementation might just leave you pleasantly surprised.