In the online retail sector, there are a lot of moving parts. A retail business owner needs to be a multitasker of sorts to make sure the company not only survives but thrives. The most important aspect of a successful retail company’s operations, however, is its customer service.
Retail customer support includes a wide range of activities: answering customers’ questions about the product, addressing their complaints, handling returns, and even refunds processing. A support team worth its salt should make sure that customers have a seamless online shopping experience, and that any problems they face are quickly resolved.
But online retail business owners need not be multitaskers and try to figure out things on their own, especially when retail BPO services are easily within reach. Support Services Group, a global, high-touch omnichannel BPO solutions company has been offering white-glove customer service to retail brands since 1998.
Over the years, we at SSG have provided quality retail BPO solutions to satisfied clients by focusing first on giving their shoppers excellent customer care.
SSG can help you supercharge your retail operations and grow your business. Here are just a few of the ways:
A Seamless OmniChannel Retail Solution
Retail customers nowadays expect a seamless shopping experience across multiple channels: online, mobile, and in-store. By extension, customers should also get omnichannel support across various communications channels such as phone, email, live chat, and messaging apps.
True omnichannel customer support is different from multichannel support. While seamless omnichannel support offers customers consistent experience across all channels, multichannel support gives customers several ways to reach out, but without the consistent experience.
SSG’s support model is truly omnichannel. We offer an omnichannel solution to our clients wherein data flows across all channels to make the customer experience seamless from one channel to the next.
Personalized, White-Glove Service
One of our many long-time clients is a luxury fashion retail brand whose customers love our white-glove service. SSG defines white-glove customer service as surpassing clients’ expectations by prioritizing their needs, genuinely caring about them, and giving them personalized experience. We at SSG understand that personalization creates a unique customer experience that can help set your business apart from competitors in the online retail space. SSG specializes in building brand loyalty by acting as a true extension of the brands we serve. SSG agents are brand ambassadors who not only know the product line but can enthusiastically recommend the perfect accessory to complete a look.
For this aforementioned luxury fashion brand, we’ve leveraged existing AI capabilities that allow callers to self-serve without speaking to a style consultant. SSG and the client collaborated on a solution that allows the caller to identify their order number, and after a short verification, the interactive voice response (IVR) reads back the order status. With this solution, agents can focus on higher-level conversations. Callers can get the tracking numbers for up to 3 items, but any orders with more than 3 items would be directed to a style consultant for white-glove support.
And we extend this personalized, white-glove customer service to other retail businesses, not just fashion brands. Can you imagine delighting your shoppers with white-glove customer care reminiscent of a luxury brand? Our representatives are passionate about the brands they support. They will be a seamless extension of your business and will champion your brand to customers.
Effective Communication
Effective communication is a big factor in keeping customers happy. It is one of SSG’s customer strategies that we believe is key for our retail clients to build loyalty and trust with their shoppers. For us, excellent communication means providing accurate and timely information to customers, listening to feedback attentively, and answering questions and complaints promptly.
Good communication can also lead to retailers upselling and cross-selling to shoppers by better understanding their preferences. In retail, cross-selling and upselling are two of the most powerful strategies to increase your sales.
SSG’s representatives continually undergo soft skills training to ensure they have a handle on the needs of the client’s business and to understand customers better. For instance, excellent communication skills ensure that representatives communicate effectively to the shopper additional services or higher-value products without sounding pushy or too “hard-sell,” which may end up annoying the customer.
Efficient Customer Service
Efficient service is a must in the retail industry. Online retailers need to provide efficient and fast service to their customers if they want them to become repeat customers.
We at SSG believe that retailers can achieve efficient service by streamlining the shopping experience for customers and reducing their wait times. This, by extension, means delivering “wow” customer service to shoppers. Efficient customer service means representatives are knowledgeable about your products and can quickly give shoppers the answers they need.
Our representatives are adept at providing reliable service, which can mean repeat customers for your business, as opposed to one-time buyers who would more likely leave for a competitor. In fact, a survey conducted by Newsweek found that a whopping 54% of US consumers would stop using a brand after just one bad experience, the majority of them millennials (57%). On the other hand, satisfied shoppers are more than happy to refer your business to their family and friends, leading to increased profits.
Conclusion
At the beginning of this post, we mentioned that online retail business owners need to be a multitasker of sorts to ensure business success. But an omnichannel BPO company like SSG with years of retail experience in BPO services under our belt will allow your in-house team to focus on what matters. This means you can spend more time on your core business activities such as marketing, merchandising, inventory management, etc. This, in turn, will allow you to put out better product offerings and leave you to concentrate on strategic planning for your business.
We’ve outlined in this article how BPOs like SSG can help enhance your retail operations. With our retail BPO solutions, you can focus on areas that directly impact your brand while you leave the customer experience to us.
Are you interested in learning more about how we can help you enhance your retail operations? Let’s schedule a sales call today. If you need more convincing, check out some success stories from our retail clients or read our client testimonials.
