For dropshipping to work well, your store needs to have great customer service. It might seem like a bother, but putting effort into it will pay off in a big way in the long run. Even so, not many dropshipping stores focus on good customer service, which costs them a lot. This post is meant to show how important it is to give good customer service and to show you how to do it.
What Is A Dropshipping Store?
How about we start with the basics? In recent years, dropshipping stores have become popular because they are easy to set up and use. As a dropshipping store, you don’t have to keep any products in stock. Instead, you send your customers’ orders to a third-party supplier, who ships the order to the customer.
Even though it might look like a way to get rich quickly, we can assure you that it is not. It’s a business like any other, and if you want it to do well, you need to put all your efforts into it. It’s not easy by any means. It has its own problems and needs to be managed every day. There are many important things that need to be taken care of, but we’re going to focus on one that’s often overlooked: customer service.
Customer Service for Dropshipping Stores
A big yay! You might be too focused on marketing and other costs as a dropshipping store instead of putting money into customer service. We’re here to tell you that the customer service department of your dropshipping store is just as important, if not more important, than the other departments. What gives? This is because it connects your business directly to your customers. Good dropshipping stores pay attention to customer service and are always looking for ways to make it better. For example, you could print and hang up different customer service quotes in your office. They will always serve as a reminder of how they should treat customers.
A happy customer will talk about your dropshipping store more than anyone else.
How do you make sure that as many customers as possible are happy? Good service to customers! Are you still not sure?
Check out these compelling reasons why you should spend time and money on good customer service for dropshipping;
Customer retention Vs. Customer Acquisition
Did you know that Bain says that a 5% increase in keeping customers means a 25% increase in profits? What gives? That’s because people who buy from you again are likely to spend more. How much is that? More specifically, 67% more! Keeping customers is cheaper than getting new ones, and it makes more money because a customer who comes back to your dropshipping store will spend more.
Customer Service Represents Your Mission, Values, & Brand Image
Customer service is your direct line to your customers, and it’s a great way to get across your brand’s mission, values, and image. That’s why it’s such an important part of your dropshipping store and why you should pay attention to it and make sure it’s built right.
A Happy Customer Equals Brand Ambassador
HubSpot says that 77% of customers tell others about good brand experiences. In a nutshell, the happier your customers are, the more likely they are to tell their friends and family about their experience. This means that if you provide great service, you’ll create brand ambassadors for your dropshipping stores, which will help you increase sales.
You Will Have Brand Loyal Customers
If your customer service dropshipping team lives by a list of customer service quotes, you’re giving your customers a good experience. How does this help your dropshipping store? If a customer has a good time, they are very unlikely to shop somewhere else. They will keep buying from your dropshipping store instead of those of your competitors.
Customers Are Willing To Pay More For Improved Customer Service
Did you know that when a customer has a good experience with customer service, more than half of them end up buying more from that brand? According to a 2019 study, 28% of customers are willing to pay more for better customer service.
Customer Lifetime Value Goes Up!
A key metric for your dropshipping store is the customer lifetime value. It is a number that tells you how much money you can expect to make from one customer. If this number goes up, it means that your customers are buying from you more often or for more money. By giving good customer service for dropshipping, you can increase the value of a customer over the course of their lifetime. If a customer is happy with your customer service, they are more likely to buy from you again and again. There’s also a chance that it will get passed around their group of friends. Because of this, it’s easy to upsell and cross-sell without much trouble.
Explore Marketing Opportunities
This is where customer service that goes the extra mile comes in. Customer service that is proactive is all about showing customers that you will go the extra mile for them even after they have bought something. You can help your customers solve problems or tell them about deals or discounts that will save them money. It leads to a relationship that is good for both sides. You can even suggest new dropshipping products to customers based on what they have already bought!
Competitive Edge Over Your Rivals!
At the end of the day, it’s all about making your dropshipping store stand out from the rest, right? With good customer service, you can do that without much trouble. Microsoft says that 60% of customers stop buying from a brand after just one bad experience with customer service. Good customer service can help you get more customers and keep the ones you already have happy.
How Can You Provide Amazing Customer Service To Your Customers?
Now that you know how important good customer service is for your dropshipping store, the question is how to give it to your customers. Check out the tips below to help you set up your own customer service mottos and make sure you provide excellent service.
Take Ownership & Responsibility For Your Brand
If a customer calls your customer service, it’s safe to assume that they are upset. There’s a good chance they ordered something, but it hasn’t come yet or it doesn’t match what they ordered. In either case, you don’t want your customer service team to point the finger at someone else, even if the supplier is to blame. It will only make things worse. Your customer service team needs to actively listen to the customer, take ownership of the problem, and solve it.
Always Be Respectful
Yes, they will be annoyed and maybe even angry. But you should always show them respect. Your customer service team should understand how they feel and learn how to treat customers with respect and humility. Even the most angry customers tend to calm down when you treat them with respect, try to help them, and show that you understand how they feel. Never forget how powerful being calm and saying nice things can be.
Address Them Using Their Names
It’s always a good idea to use your customers’ names when you talk to them. This small change makes them feel more powerful and unique. It can make a huge difference in how happy your customers are.
Apologize & Mean It
When it comes to customer service, words are important. It might not be enough to just say you’re sorry. We strongly suggest that you apologize to a customer who is unhappy in a way that shows you understand their problem and are being honest. In the end, a customer doesn’t want a half-hearted apology. They want a real apology and are more interested in what you’re going to do about something than why it happened. Remember that an apology should always be followed by a way to fix the problem.
Give Customers Means To Connect With You
When your customers reach out to you, they expect to hear back from you. Of course, you might not be available 24/7. That’s where good customer service software comes in. (If you use live chat, it can also help you help more than one customer at once.) You can set it up so that it responds automatically to questions asked outside of work hours and makes tickets for them. So, when they get to work, your customer service team will be able to quickly sort through them and solve the problems. Bonus tip? Give your customers more than one way to reach your customer service team. For example, they should contact them through social media and the website of your dropshipping store. It’s also a good idea to say when you work so that people know what to expect.
Create & Maintain An Incredible FAQ Page
Since your customer service team won’t be available around the clock, it makes sense to make a detailed FAQ page for your dropshipping store. We strongly suggest that you set it up and organize it in a way that makes it easier for customers to find what they need. For example, you can have a whole section about returns and another one about refunds. This also helps you because it makes your customer service team’s job easier. It is also important to keep this page up to date. Good customer service software can also help you by telling you what problems most customers have so you can make a Frequently Asked Questions section.
It’s All About The Customers
You should always try to make your customers’ lives as easy as possible. This means that your policy should be clear and should say whether a return or a refund is possible. Also, you should always pay attention to your customers and try to learn as much as you can about the problem they’re having. Great customer service comes down to actively listening to the customer and finding a solution to their problem.
Embody The Best Customer Service – Invite Loyal Customers To A VIP Sale
You want your customers to feel like they are part of a small, exclusive community. How does that work? One way is to make your past customers feel extra special by making them VIPs. Always keep in mind that good customer service is about showing how much you care about your customers. If a customer has bought something from your dropshipping store, make them a VIP. From now on, plan special events for your VIPs every now and then. It could be in the form of a sale that only your VIP customers know about, or it could be in the form of discount codes that only your VIP customers can use.
Customer Service Should Be Playful & Fun
Netflix and Amazon seem to have everything under control, right? When responding on social media, Netflix uses a conversational tone, and Amazon’s customer service staff will sometimes act like the Avengers for their customers. Instead of asking your customers to send you a direct message (DM), go the extra mile and send them a DM asking for more information in a fun and playful way. This is something that only a few brands do, but it can help you go a long way!
Conclusion
As a dropshipper, you already know how important it is to have a good product that gets the attention of your customers. Now you know that it’s just as important to make sure your customers are happy after they buy something.
We’ve given you a lot of tips in this article on how to deal with your clients and keep them happy. But let’s take a moment to think about what makes an eCommerce client happy.
To understand the psychology of e-commerce customers, we can look at Amazon and the reasons why it is so successful:
Good products, fast shipping, and great customer service.
So how can we do these things if we have a dropshipping store? We talked a lot about the first point about good customer service in this article, so we’ll focus on the last two points in this section.
We need to find a supplier who can give us high-quality goods and ship them quickly. Now, most dropshippers get their products from Chinese suppliers, and most of those suppliers are just AliExpress resellers.
Using AliExpress is a real gamble, and it can lead to a number of problems, as these resellers often:
Use slow shipping methods that can take up to 30 days or more to get to your customers. Have low-quality products that they sell to you at B2C prices.
If you want to avoid all of the problems listed above, you need to find a serious dropshipping supplier who can find your products at B2B prices and ship them quickly to your customers.