Direct answers, real-time solutions, and 24/7 customer service are crucial for e-commerce. This leads your customers to conversions and thus to success for your online store.

Along with your online store, your potential market and your target audience grow, and with that transition comes the need for 24/7 customer support. 24-hour support plays an important role in developing lasting customer relationships and increasing conversions.

According to Zendesk Benchmark Data, 73% of consumers will switch to a competitor after multiple bad customer service experiences.

If that sounds like a nightmare for you as an e-commerce entrepreneur, take a deep dive with us to see how 24/7 customer service is important to you.

Benefits of 24/7 Customer Service

Consistently delivering seamless customer service experiences can have a major impact on your online store. Here are some of the key factors.

1. Support for Local Time Zones

There is a chance that you will receive visitors from outside your local time zone. What is daytime for them may be evening for you. Is there a problem? Then this time difference can cause extra unnecessary frustration that remains unresolved until you are able to respond again. 24/7 customer service allows you to handle questions in a timely manner - regardless of your customer's location.

2. Meeting Customer Expectations - Strengthening Loyalty

In today's fast-paced, digital-first world, customers have little patience and high expectations. 24/7 customer service is an arrow that hits two targets - in this case, your customers. Direct and high-quality customer support builds a strong brand image that also leads to increased customer loyalty in the long run.

3. Gaining a Competitive Advantage

Although 24/7 customer service is still a much-discussed topic, companies that understand its importance gain a competitive advantage and distinguish themselves from competitors. It is one of the strongest USPs for any company. Imagine that you are reachable, but the competitor is not. Everyone can imagine who wins a potential customer with a question and who does not.

4. Adding Support in Premium Product

24/7 Customer Service is valuable and can be used to generate more revenue. There are companies that can afford a higher price because they are known for their excellent customer service. Customers prefer a slightly higher price, knowing that they will get security and service in return. This strategy transforms customer support into a profit center for medium to expensive B2B services, but also for B2C online stores where Amazon and bol.com are good examples with higher prices for the same products.

How can you offer 24/7 Customer Service?

Now that we have explored the benefits of 24/7 customer service, we will discuss a few effective methods to implement it:

1. Provide a Trained Dedicated Customer Service Team

It all starts with having a dedicated customer service team available for your online store. Where it usually goes wrong is that customer service is done "on the side," resulting in slow or long response times or even none at all. Customer service is something you have to consciously commit to and therefore consciously make people and resources available for. Half focus is no focus.

This also means that in the simplest case, you never have enough with just 1 person! Think of breaks, sick leave, vacation days, or departure. This immediately creates a gap in your service level. This is the biggest challenge for most online stores, because committing to this means a significant investment from day 1, without any form of flexibility as an employer.

2. Outsource to an External Customer Service Team

Hiring an external support team means that you can offer 24/7 customer service without the high fixed costs of an internal team. It is a smart way to ensure that customers always have help when they need it, without being tied to fixed costs.

A good outsourcing partnership is based on a variable model, where you only pay for what you use. Of course, this stands or falls with choosing a good partner. Because with the wrong choice, you can spend more money than on an internal team.

3. Offer a Self-Help Section (such as a help center or knowledge base)

A page with frequently asked questions or a knowledge base provides customers with a way to find answers themselves, so they don't always have to wait for live support. This helps to shorten response times and makes it easier for both your team and your customers. For simpler questions, customers can go here and most will find this pleasant..

4. License the Right Tools

The right tools for customer service employees can already take a lot of work off their hands, but also make your service available 24/7. Think for example of the following possibilities:

• A customer service system that allows customers to leave a message outside of working hours (if 24/7 is not yet an option).
• Automated emails after placing an order or the breakdown of a shipment, so that customers are proactively kept informed of possible problems or progress.
• Self-service return portal where customers can request returns or warranty requests without the intervention of your customer service employees.
• AI tools that help your customer service employees prepare answers without making customers feel like they are talking to a chatbot.
• A help center where customers can look up the most frequently asked questions themselves. From there, customers can contact the customer service team again if they cannot figure it out themselves.
• Live chat systems with which customers can easily leave a question. Link these systems directly to your help center and online store so that questions about orders and other knowledge are immediately available to your customer service team and thus your customers.

Conclusion

24/7 customer support is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity for e-commerce companies that want to improve customer satisfaction, improve brand reputation, and drive conversions. By implementing a well-structured support system, companies can meet customer expectations, build trust, and gain a competitive advantage in the ever-evolving digital market.

Are you ready to take your customer service to the next level? Start implementing 24/7 support today and see how your online store flourishes!

About Hikari CS

With over 15 years of experience in supporting online stores, we love to share knowledge about the opportunities and best practices we see in the market.

As a customer service company specializing in online stores, we are one of the few specialized partners to whom you can confidently outsource your webshop's customer service.

Want to know more? Then schedule a no-obligation appointment with us or take a look at our services on our website!