The number of online shops in the Netherlands now exceeds the number of physical shops. With about 120,000 webshops, the number has exploded in recent years. Of every euro we spend in the Netherlands, about 30 cents is spent online. A huge market in which it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish yourself. Read all about your webshop accessibility and webshop customer service here.
There are a number of very large online retailers. With these, it is often difficult for an average webshop to compete. They have a wide range of products, work with sophisticated websites and can often offer low prices. Yet the majority of webshops in the Netherlands are small. We are not online marketing experts; we are customer contact experts. Something that is becoming increasingly relevant in a competitive online environment. We are convinced that a webshop or online retailer can distinguish itself from its competition by being there for its customer. Your webshop customer service is therefore very important. You achieve this by being available when your (potential) customer wants it and by being available on the channels your (potential) customer likes to use. Zappos is an excellent example of this. Zappos is an online department store that grew from a small webshop to one that was bought by Amazon for $390 million in a (relatively) short time. Why? Zappos' motto is "powered by service". Their strength is their customer service. As the CEO of zappos himself puts it:
"Commit to Customer Service. Make it a Part of Your Mission, it's not (just) a department. Freely translated, it reads: "commit yourself to customer service. Make it a part of your mission. It's not (just) a department". This attitude ensured that Zappos built such a loyal customer base that they were one of the few companies that felt virtually nothing from the crisis. This did not go unnoticed by Amazon either.
Outsourcing customer contact to an external contact centre brings with it some advantages. Some advantages at a glance:
Since 2014, it has been mandatory for every webshop to have a phone number available on their website. Telephony has the reputation of being an expensive channel for customer contact. Many companies and therefore webshops tend to hide their telephone number as much as possible. This makes your webshop customer service difficult to find and you receive fewer incoming customer contacts. They prefer to send customers to a self-service environment (frequently asked questions) or to a contact form. From an internal approach, this makes sense. Self-service costs nothing and e-mails can be answered at your convenience. From the customer's point of view, it makes no sense at all. In practice, we see that people just like to call, just that personal contact. After all, they buy something from a company they often don't know, that doesn't have a physical shop and where you just have to assume it will turn out all right. So good accessibility and promoting that accessibility is an opportunity, not a threat. An opportunity to give your customer confidence, to answer questions, a means to retain existing customers and to win over potential customers by saying: "Any doubts or questions, give us a call!".
Did you know that last year half of US adults used chat to get in touch with organisations from which they took something? For years, the death of the telephone medium has been predicted. The reality is that with an increase in the number of channels through which contact can be made, the number of contacts is only increasing. Customers call over an e-mail, chat over a conversation or e-mail over a letter. More channels = more contact = more opportunities. Every contact is an opportunity to give your customer a certain experience and generate extra sales.
We are SpangenbergGroup! And we can help you make your customer service a good customer service to make. Just good customer service where the basics are in order. Where customer contacts add value to the customer experience. We unburden you in the area we are good at (customer service) so you can concentrate worry-free on what you're good at. Sound good? Get in touch.
With over 25 years of experience in optimising customer contact and customer experience SpangenbergGroup can help you. The optimise customer service or outsource? Use the form or see our contact page.
Also with other questions about customer contact and customer service you can always contact with us!
Get in touch, we'd love to check it out with you!
SpangenbergGroup.nl
Specialists in customer contact
Randwycksingel 20 (C03)
6229 EE Maastricht
T: +31 (0) 85 8884661
Info@spangenbergGroep.nl
Wondering if we can help you with just good customer contact? Also your outsource customer service? Take contact with us!