When selling software on a subscription basis, however – in which retaining lifetime customers and minimizing churn plays an even more integral role in profitability and growth than acquiring new ones – quality customer service should be a central focus across all lifecycle phases, from awareness to retention.

Below, we’ll explore a series of customer service best practices designed to foster trusted, ongoing relationships with your customers and maximize satisfaction with your product.

Customer Service Should be Convenient and Easy to Access

Many websites tend to bury the “contact us” or “support” links in the footer of the homepage or deep within the navigation, making it difficult for a customer to communicate with your company and resolve their issue. And if they’re already experiencing frustration with the product – a bug or other malfunction, difficult feature or billing problem – the added headache of finding the hidden link may lose you a customer.

Your website and in-app experience should be clear and easy to navigate, from product features and video testimonials, to the checkout process and “thank you” page. The customer service option should be no different. Feature your support center prominently on the site, and set upfront customer service expectations for prospective and current customers.

Offer Multiple Customer Service Contact Points

Just as each customer maintains a different level of technical savvy, they too have varied preferences around how they communicate with a company before – or after – a purchase. In a previous blog, we discussed the importance of using confirmation pages as a vehicle for quality customer service. But what else can you do to offer a truly omni-channel experience?

Some consumers appreciate the one-on-one experience of a phone conversation, so make sure the customer service number is prominent on the page. And for those who prefer the more traditional email route, include the address and communicate specifically how long it will take to receive a response.

Given the level of expectation consumers have around modern customer service, it’d be wise to offer an on-page chat feature as well, which enables your team to troubleshoot a consumer’s issue in real-time. This also supports your efforts to turn prospects into customers. A new web visitor has likely not conducted as much research on your product as someone who’s already bought, and the real-time education process may streamline the conversion process as well.

“Customers will always remember how easy it was for them to get in touch with a company based on their preferences,” says Bernard Aguirre, Customer Service QA Analyst. “Consider them carefully. Think of your key demographic. Are they older and more prone to using traditional support? Or are they younger with a preference toward self-service? Maybe a blend is needed for what you offer.”

Overall, offering as many traditional, self-service and semi-self-service touchpoints as possible enables you to match the communication method with the consumer need. The greater number of options you can use to accommodate varying preferences, the better.

Create a Helpful FAQ Page; Pre-empt Issues Before They Arise

The best form of customer service is answering the question before it’s asked, and solving the issue before it arises. Given the sheer breadth and depth of possible consumer concern around a product or service, this isn’t always possible. But providing rich, relevant information in the form of an FAQ page or video series offers the best chance to educate your customers, and ultimately lighten the load on your customer service team.

According to Zendesk, 91 percent of customers said they would take advantage of an online knowledge base if a company offered one. This implies that a significant majority of web visitors would have a more positive experience on your site if they were armed with deeper knowledge around your software.

“We have seen the positive impact that helpful and pertinent information can have in reducing contacts to our customer service team (via email and phone),” Aguirre says. “The key is to be aware of how relevant and clear your FAQ/Help Center information really is in providing answers and solutions to your customers.”

For more ways to deliver effective customer service, read on:

• Re-evaluating the Information You Share With Customers
• Improving Confirmation Pages With World Class Customer Service
• World Class Customer Service – Enhancing Confirmation Pages

Look for commonalities among support tickets, survey your sales team to better understand prospect and customer concern, or use a tool like Google Analytics to identify keywords and phrases that visitors are searching for to find your site. Then, build a page featuring content designed to educate the market on those issues.

And what’s better than educating prospects and customers on common concerns? Preventing them in the first place. Once you’ve identified the content to be included on your FAQ page, it can be used as a jumping off point to fix product bugs and confusing features, better educate the market, and help you more clearly define your value proposition as a service provider.

Hire the Right People and Train Them … Well

Everyone knows the frustration of taking a question or concern to a company’s customer service portal, only to be passed from department to department, and ending the experience no more educated or satisfied than when you began.

In order to mitigate this all-too-common experience, bring the right people on board. When hiring members of your customer service team, create a clearly defined criteria around experience level and problem-solving skills, empowering your team to provide the best possible service experience for your customers.

Additionally, customer concerns can comprise technical functionality, installation, price point or billing issues, and anything in between. Ensure that your team is ready to field any and all queries appropriately. Either train each team member across the full slate of possible scenarios, or route the appropriate customer to the appropriate representative based upon their particular expertise.

Customer Service vs. Customer Success

For many companies, customer support, customer experience and customer success remain fairly interchangeable terms, and more or less refer to any team responsible for interacting with their client base. But as a SaaS company, developing a tiered approach to customer communication can offer a more focused ability to meet their needs.

According to SalesForce, “Customer support can be seen as the reactive, day-to-day response to customer requests, whereas customer success is there to take a proactive role.”

In support of your client relationships, develop a customer support team responsible for resolving issues in a timely manner, managing phone calls, emails, live chats and all other shorter-term customer touch points. And build a second team focused on long-term, organization-level value that supports larger company-wide initiatives. This supports your efforts to both close a prospect into a customer in the short term, while retaining them as a lifetime customer in the long term.

“Both teams strongly impact the other because the frontline personnel can help identify what challenges are impacting the software/service on so many levels,” Aguirre says. “This in turn influences the evolution of the long-term relationship by offering data and experiences that can help head off these potential challenges in the first place. This results in a successful symbiotic service relationship.”

Keystone

As the world of ecommerce becomes increasingly competitive, customers look to invest their money not just in the quality of the product or service, but in overall experience. Building trusted relationships with your customers isn’t easy, especially for small- and medium-sized companies that don’t yet have the brand value of the larger software heavy-hitters. But implementing these strategies can help get you on your way.

Kyle Shamorian is the content marketer for cleverbridge.

The post Best Practices for Delivering Effective SaaS Customer Service appeared first on cleverbridge.

“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”
– Stephen Covey

A New Perspective on Confirmation Details

In our previous post in this series, we showed some examples of the installation/activation instructions that software companies display on their order confirmation pages. In this installment, we’ll present ideas that will further your new understanding of confirmation pages and the role they play in your customer’s support experience.

We’ve already discussed how using your first post-purchase contact with your customer to share helpful support resources is part of providing exemplary customer service. The most tangible benefit of this strategy is customer retention. This clarity and access to helpful information results in building or maintaining a positive image and providing a positive customer experience.

In the software industry, confirmation pages should perhaps be thought of more as introductions to your company. They are your brand’s opportunity to solidify the relationship that started when your customer purchased your product or service. Considering it simply a confirmation of purchase or a set of technical instructions is really a wasted opportunity. Instead, you should use confirmation pages to set customers up for a lasting relationship with your lineup of offerings.

The strategy of setting the groundwork for a great introduction to your company was touched upon in our first two posts where we talked about clarity of information and providing additional resources for the customer to access when experiencing a challenge of some sort. Now let’s focus on:

• Support options
• Links to additional help resources

Support Options

What are your current support options? If you were your least experienced customer, would the lack of a direct contact option help you — or would it turn you off? If your company has chosen to allocate resources towards other areas in your organization, a phone number may not be an option you can offer. What about a simple, memorable email address? How about a direct link to a contact form that is not buried somewhere a customer has to dig through layers to get to it?

Offer an Email Address or Easy Access to a Contact Form

Remember, without a phone number, you are already at a disadvantage. Flashback to our quote in our first post where it was mentioned that, “71% of customers believe that calling is the most effective channel for a quick response.” Adding extra layers to get to your support options increases the chances that a customer will request a refund or refuse to make further purchases.

Instead, use your confirmation page to clearly indicate an email address or contact form and include reassuring wording like “Dedicated Support Email Address/Support Form.” This informs your customers that you have established avenues of contact and responsive staff to receive their requests for assistance.

In today’s day and age, it seems that quite a few businesses are actually striving to hide their support options — or at least they aren’t making them easily accessible from a support page. Now, only you can view your specific numbers and determine whether this tactic is a worthwhile risk for you to take. However, from personal experience on the front lines of providing support, the accusations made by frustrated customers are, “This is a scam because I can’t get the support I need!” or “You made taking my money easy but not taking my request for help!”

The prevailing belief of the consumer is that if you want them to buy something, you better be prepared to help them with their purchase. Failing to do so, or making it an Easter egg hunt to find your contact options, can only frustrate your customer and leave them with a negative perception of your company.

Provide Links to Additional Help Resources

In the second part of our series, we showcased examples of companies that provided links to additional support options and information. These options can be a valuable resource for customers, but you have to remember to make sure that they are relevant, easy to navigate and up-to-date.

Here’s one thing to double-check: Is the link that a customer clicks on taking them to the support for the right product? We have seen examples where a software vendor had good intentions by providing a resource link, but the link took the customer to a page for a different product. Sure, there could be a listing on a sidebar to the correct item, but is that really helpful to someone who’s potentially already confused?

If you take the customer to a support page with many options, you need to clearly indicate what each option is for — perhaps by creating categories with individual software product names noted under each. This could make things easier for both you and your customer. They can easily choose the topic they need and it makes your resources easier to maintain, as you can update or remove links to product sub-pages as needed.

As you experiment and evolve these options, make sure the wording is consistent with your current products. Outdated screen shots or instructions that don’t match up (or provide clarity) can create confusion for someone relying on step-by-step instructions. Most importantly, as your site structure changes, you must offer a helpful redirect to a current page or present a more helpful message than “Link not found.”

Keystone

Think of your confirmation pages as introductions that your customer can rely on to provide helpful details. To provide a positive experience with your brand, give clear support options and resources that are relevant, easy to navigate and up-to-date.

Bernie Aguirre is the Customer Service Quality Assurance Analyst at cleverbridge.

The post World Class Customer Service – Enhancing Confirmation Pages appeared first on cleverbridge.

The team at cleverbridge developed the Five Fundamentals of World Class Customer Support. These five simple actions allow representatives to provide efficient and polite support that leave customers overwhelmingly satisfied. The Five Fundamentals also free customer support representatives from formally scripted interactions, which customers will spot from a mile away. As long as each of these Five Fundamentals is kept in mind, the representative can be assured their call will go over well.

Shirin Caiola, head Quality Analyst for cleverbridge Customer Support, points out that the Five Fundamentals not only improve quality for customers in one part of the world, but they translate beyond borders, ensuring that, “[we] can guarantee that we’re providing World Class service to our customers, whether we’re speaking to a British customer calling in Cologne or a Canadian customer calling us in Chicago.” We reviewed the Five Fundamentals, along with some comments from the cleverbridge Customer Support Team below.

First Fundamental of World Class Customer Support

Be courteous and professional

This First Fundamental may seem like a no-brainer. Then again, think of your past interactions with customer service. It is certainly possible that one or more of your experiences was neither courteous nor professional. So the First Fundamental is to show courtesy to your customer and to be professional. The best way to show this is no mystery — say please and thank you.

Even the best support professional is no mind reader. Your support team cannot assist customers without their cooperation. Saying please when requesting relevant information shows respect to your customers, and saying thank you upon receipt of their information invites them into the process of resolving their difficulty. Your representatives can establish a base line of communication supporting a polite and courteous tone.

Second Fundamental of World Class Customer Support

Use the customer’s name

Dale Carnegie‘s famous admonition to, “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language,” remains as true today as when it was first published. This is why the Second Fundamental is so important. Caiola says, “[using the customer’s name] is a great way to build rapport with the customer throughout the call.” When added to the courtesy and professionalism displayed in the First Fundamental, using a customer’s name helps to build understanding between the representative and the caller on a personal level.

Using the customer’s name is also an excellent call control tactic. When a customer hears you use their name, it can grab their attention away from the frustration they might be experiencing. Unfortunately, most customers have had such negative customer service experiences, they often meet a customer support representative ready to speak to a robot or girded for an epic fight. When a live human representative uses a customer’s name, it helps them disengage from the fight they were expecting to have, and can often help to turn a contentious call into a successful one.

“The greeting should set the tone for the entire call and have the same impact as a firm handshake.” — Shirin Caiola

Third Fundamental of World Class Customer Support

Have an energized tone

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Because of this reason, the greeting should set the tone for the entire call and have the same impact as a firm handshake.” says Caiola. If your representatives show an energized tone and start strong with a confident greeting, it is easier to get the customer’s relevant information and keep an upbeat tone no matter the disposition of your caller. Your representatives’ energized tone can be the difference between a good call and a World Class call.

Of course, the inverse is true as well. We have all been in a room where one person’s bad attitude can destroy the group’s otherwise positive energy. This can happen on a customer service phone call as well. The last thing a customer service representative should do is suck the life out of a caller, or compound an already negative tone with low energy or zero enthusiasm. Keeping an energized tone can actually be infectious, inspiring an upbeat attitude in your caller as well.

Fourth Fundamental of World Class Customer Support

Restate the problem

Once the customer has described their problem to the representative, he or she should find a way to restate the problem back to the customer. Caiola emphasized this Fundamental builds rapport with customers by, “demonstrating active listening. The customer knows we understand the issue and are committed to resolving it.”

Representatives can ensure customers feel heard especially by using phrases like, “I heard you say you were looking for…, is that right?” or “I want to be sure I understand your challenge correctly…” and then detailing the issue the customer described. Besides building rapport with the customer, the other benefit of this fundamental is that the representative can ensure they truly understand what they need to do before moving further. If there is a misunderstanding, restating the problem allows the customer to clarify their inquiry before precious time is wasted tracking down the wrong task. Going back to the First Fundamental, representatives should remember to say ‘thank you’ after the customer has confirmed the nature of the challenge.

Fifth Fundamental of World Class Customer Support

Explain what you have done and any next steps

Shirin noted that, “By following this step, we are insuring the customer understands the resolution process for their request and what has been done so far.”

Once you have completed the task at hand, be sure to review what has been done. This way, if a customer has forgotten anything, you will have a chance to resolve it in the same call, keeping your contact to order ratio low. Reviewing the next steps for the customer helps them feel like they accomplished something, and they know how to move forward.

Do not skip this step. Even if there are no further actions that the customer must take, there’s nothing a customer likes to hear more than, “You don’t need to do anything else; it’s all taken care of.” Of course, this will also help to keep your contact rates down, as customers will not need to call back and check what they need to do next.

The Fifth Fundamental also helps your representatives control the call. By recapitulating what has been done, and explaining what, if any, steps remain for the customer, they are signaling that the call is concluding. The customer has a chance to ask questions and will not feel like they were rushed off the phone. If the customer is satisfied, they may take the pacing cue to end the call. In either case, the representative can easily pivot to meet the customer’s expectation.

Keystone

The Five Fundamentals of World Class Customer Support are more than guidelines for your support team. When employed consistently, their positive effects on customer satisfaction can be easily tracked. By using the Five Fundamentals, the cleverbridge support team regularly garners customer satisfaction ratings above 90 percent. In addition to increasing customer satisfaction and reducing costs, providing World Class Customer Support increases customer lifetime value by extending the lifetime of a customer’s relationship with your business.

Want to learn more? Download our Six Guides on Ecommerce Essentials today.

The post Five Fundamentals of World Class Customer Support appeared first on cleverbridge.

“It is what we think we already know that often prevents us from learning.” ~ Claude Bernard, French physiologist

This is the second part of a series of articles whose information was garnered from working the front lines of customer support for software companies. Its purpose is to teach you how to better leverage your communication opportunities with customers after they make their purchases.

In this post, we teach software companies how to improve confirmation pages and reduce customer contacts.

As discussed in this blog recently, the customers that contact your customer service department often seek assistance with installing, activating and using your software. They are easily frustrated, and information that is not clearly explained in confirmation or support pages increases refund requests, and your goal is to reduce those.

First Example: Minimal Information

This example begins with a brief description of the software and includes registration and activation details.

In many cases, these customers already have a free/trail version of the product installed. When the order confirmation details are read, the end-user does not always know that the download link installs that same free version once again. Instead, the instructions may lead them to believe they will download of a different full version of the product. In this case, the customer’s free version simply needs to be activated to unlock the program to the full version.

For those customers that understand that the link is still for the free version, the challenge is in finding where to go to activate and register their product.

Note that the name details, captured during the order process, are necessary for activating the software. However, there are no instructions that say the name details must be entered exactly as they appear in the confirmation page. Customers can easily modify their name during activation and registration — including a middle initial, or they shorten/elongate their first name.

The license key must also be entered exactly as displayed, but it is often the case that customers don’t realize they can copy and paste the license key into the appropriate field.

One option for software publishers to consider is making a instructional video on activating the software and posting it to YouTube. Why not provide a link to that information so customers struggling with this process can see how easy it is to accomplish?

Example Two – Setting Up Next Steps and Offering More Help

This software maker provides additional guidance aimed at helping the customer after purchasing. Using phrases like “getting started” is a great way to make the customer aware of steps that will need to be taken after completing the order.

Note that there is an emphasis on the importance of the product key and that it is essential for activating the software subscription. Though this is a helpful reminder, challenges may ensue when costumers attempt to manually enter these details. A notice to customers about the possibility of typos would be beneficial.

The link to additional installation instructions can take the customer to an area where they can download the software. They will also find visual aids detailing the download process. This is a great self-help option that safeguards against confusion and uncertainty.

Example Three – Providing Steps and Additional Tips

These instructions are helpful in key areas. The activation details are provided along with an important note to save them for future reference. The purchaser may need to re-install the software at some point and this information will be required. If customers remember to save it, they won’t have to contact a customer support representative to have the details resent.

Next, there is a download link and sequential activation steps. Important information is emphasized recommending the copy and paste method to prevent manual entry errors. There is additional advice to pay attention to special characters.

Still, customers may get confused when reading the details as presented. Slightly rearranging and rewording the information can help.

For example, start with the following line:

In the first step, consider mentioning the following:

Experiment With Ideas

These examples are only a few that we come across on a daily basis. Consider using a blend of these details on your confirmation pages. Provide information that gives additional clarity and guidance that will help customers. Remember to think about the least experienced software purchaser and start building help content from there.

Keystone

Engage in comparing your support documentation and resources to those utilized by other companies. Taking the time to evaluate differing support methods and content arrangement can lead to inspiring new ideas that will help reduce contacts and refund requests from frustrated customers who want to use your product but can’t figure out how.

Bernie Aguirre is a Customer Service Quality Assurance Analyst at cleverbridge.

The post Improving Confirmation Pages With World Class Customer Service appeared first on cleverbridge.

Everyone understands that customer support is a crucial aspect to any business. Nevertheless, we are sometimes lulled into a false sense of security and think that our customer service efforts are good enough for the time being.

In actuality, a customer may be struggling at this very moment with installation instructions or billing information. If only customer support resources were more accessible this customer could have used your product successfully at the time they needed it. Instead, the customer is growing more frustrated and ever closer to initiating a refund request.

As important as preventing refunds is, you also find yourself in the position of having failed a paying customer, and your brand’s reputation takes a hit because you did not offer clear guidance.

To improve your customer support offering, review and optimize how you help your customers immediately after the transaction occurs. It is best to start by looking at the order confirmation page/email and reevaluating the information you share with customers. This is the best way to learn from your least experienced customers.

Consider Your Customers’ Needs

Asking questions is a great way to make sure you are offering superior support to your customers. Consider the following questions and how their answers can improve your communication to customers:

• Are you sharing information that can help to avoid situations that might result in a refund?
• Are you avoiding the resulting dissatisfaction that can lead to negative brand perception?
• As your products evolve, are your instructions and support resources keeping pace?
• Are you looking at the information in your confirmation pages from the point of view of the least experienced user or the most experienced user?

Remember, what seems obvious to the seasoned user (how to purchase, install and activate your software) may not be so clear to the inexperienced user who reaches out to you for support. Providing clear instructions right in the confirmation page helps retain revenue that may otherwise be refunded because the customer got frustrated with challenges that are easily resolved.
Review the information your confirmation page currently offers in these areas:

•  What was purchased
•  Installation and activation details
•  Download links
•  Payment/transaction information
•  Support options
•  Links to additional help resources

As you review this information, make sure you are considering your customers’ needs. Also, keep in mind the insights you have acquired from tracking your refund data (the reasons stated for cancelling the purchase). This is a crucial step in thinking proactively about scenarios that influence a customer to contact a support department, and help your company think of ways to eliminate these challenges.

Screen and email real estate is valuable and your goal should be to find the right balance of information to present without losing customers. Keep in mind that your communication efforts don’t have to contain everything and the kitchen sink. This is where clearly noted links to additional self-service options can come in handy.

Phone Support Supplemented by Self-Service Resources

Quite a few customers will seek phone support options and may need more “hand holding” through the support process. A benefit of providing coordinated and easy-to-access resources is that these options not only provide self-help opportunities but also can serve as great tools for those customers that reach out to customer service representatives (CSRs) by phone.

Consider that a primary objective of most call centers is to cut down average handle time (AHT) without sacrificing service. For a CSR to be able to direct customers to an easy to use and well-organized support resource is a dream come true for both parties. It also serves as a great framework for the CSR to follow when guiding a customer through solutions to their needs when remote access is not an option.

Self-service resources translate into email support perfectly as links can easily be copied into responses to customers. Having these resources for social media exchanges or live chat sessions can improve a CSRs ability to solve challenges successfully and provide a more fulfilling experience for the customer.

Keystone

Strive to better leverage your communication opportunities to provide superior support to a customer after their purchase. Begin by adopting a strategy of observing what you share with your customers and thinking about the least experienced purchaser to make sure your resources are as helpful and clearly aligned as possible with anticipated needs.

Bernie Aguirre is Customer Service Quality Assurance Analyst at cleverbridge.

The post World Class Customer Service: Learn From Your Least Experienced Customers appeared first on cleverbridge.

This trend will only continue as digital natives become the core consumer group. While 16 percent of customers will voice dissatisfaction with a company online through product review pages or social media, among 16 to 34-year-olds that number jumps to 53 percent.

Valuing Customer Realtionships

The companies that value their customer relationships are busy providing world class customer support. Companies with a bad reputation need to find those areas where they can improve, or they risk significant consequences from the market.

Providing inferior customer experiences means being left behind in the world of subscriptions. Since your company must maintain a positive relationship with customers over time, ensuring continued renewals and recurring revenue, neglecting excellent customer support will result in lower customer lifetime values and increased churn.

In addition to the negative impact on your company’s revenue, there’s an added incentive to keep customers happy: Their voices are getting louder. Because of social media, any negative feedback a customer wants to provide, either to your or with their network, is amplified and remains online forever. If the interaction is negative enough, it could even go viral, like this infamous Comcast customer support call. If your poor customer support is becoming a meme, your company is losing the battle for positive customer voices.

Check out the full infographic below.

Supporting customers means understanding their subscriber journey. Download our complimentary guide today.

The post Customer Voices Are Getting Louder [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.

Every touch point counts. No matter what your product or service is, your customer support team should be treated like another essential feature. Afterall, whether a customer is interacting with your website, your product or a support representative, they are constantly assessing the overall experience with your company. The best product ever created will fail if customers feel disrespected or left out in the cold.

World class customer service is intuitively a good idea and its value is borne out by the numbers.

Customer Service by the Numbers

This infographic from KissMetrics explores where companies fall short when it comes to customer service and how customers actually respond to what they consider good or bad service. Their numbers prove the value of excellent customer service — and the pitfalls of getting it wrong:

• 50 percent of consumers give a brand only one week to respond to an inquiry before they stop doing business with them.
• 26 percent of consumers with a negative customer service experience will post about it on social media.
• But when a brand responds to their complaint, 51 percent of customers had a positive response.
• Bad customer service costs businesses an estimated $338 Billion world wide.
• 70 percent of consumers are willing to spend an average of 13 percent more with companies that provide excellent customer service.

Check out the infographic to learn how your company can create memorable experiences to keep customers happy and coming back.

Learn more about nurturing customer relationships in our complimentary guide, Retaining Subscribers & Optimizing the Renewal Process. 

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy — Why Do Companies With Great Customer Service Succeed? [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.

Companies are refining their self-service processes to provide a rich, effective experience. From utilizing new digital channels and employing CRM data to streamline interactions to improving the transfer from self-service to live agents, companies are looking for ways to ensure customers do not have to repeat themselves eternally to a recorded voice prompt.

These advancements in technology are making it easier (and cheaper) to solve customers’ problems with a personalized self-service environment. Companies that provide outstanding customer service will win customers for life. But do not take half-measures in your solution. Research shows users will quickly abandon a faulty customer self-service option. Succeeding with customer support, even with self-service options, means investing in a solution that works for every customer.

Take a look at this infographic from Aspect to get a better idea about what your customers really want from self-service.

Learn more about how to keep customers engaged in our complimentary guide, Attracting and Acquiring New Subscribers.

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy — Customer Self-Service [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.

Subscription Commerce Guides

We wanted to highlight three important subscription commerce guides we published in 2015. The first gives you a peek into the subscription commerce solutions landscape, while the second discusses the subscriber’s journey and its attendant KPIs.

Navigating the Subscription Solutions Landscape

What kinds of subscription billing platforms exist? What are the best ways for your company to establish a subscription model for your products or services? Let our guide orient you to the ever evolving subscription market in our complimentary Navigating the Subscription Solutions Landscape White Paper.

Mapping and Measuring the Subscriber Journey

Once you’ve implemented a subscription solution, how do you measure success? Are you thinking about your customers’ experiences? Seeing the subscriber journey through their eyes is the best way to begin building a profitable relationship with them. Download our complimentary guide, Mapping and Measuring the Subscriber Journey, to be sure you understand all the stages of the subscriber journey and subscription KPIs.

Attracting and Acquiring New Subscribers

Our third guide, Attracting and Acquiring New Subscribers, addresses a major challenge faced by all subscription businesses. This guide takes you through the basics of attracting new visitors to your website, acquiring free trial and freemium users, and converting free users to paying subscribers.

Popular 2015 Ecommerce Blog Posts

Customer Experience

Your customers’ experiences with your website, your service and with your customer support team are all opportunities for your business to increase customers satisfaction. Positive customer interactions burnish your brand and increase customers’ confidence in your ability to deliver on your promises. Three posts on this topic were very popular in 2015. They explore ways to improve your user experience, specific KPIs to reduce your customer contact rate, and confirmation pages that leave your customers satisfied.

• Fifteen Effortless Ways to Improve User Experience
• Customer Service KPIs: Reducing Contact Rates
• World Class Customer Service — Enhancing Your Confirmation Page

Popular Ecommerce Tips

Earning online revenue has become more complex than simply maintaining an online store (traditional ecommerce), so it’s no surprise that blog posts explaining the ins and outs of maximizing your online store continued to rank high with readers in 2015. Below are three important tips about encouraging timely payments by customers, maintaining an ecommerce site with effective features, and navigating Google policies that can potentially kill your business.

• Are Your Customers Missing Payments?
• Five Features of Effective Ecommerce Sites
• Beware Badware: Google’s Policy on Unwanted Software

Legal Compliance and Fraud Prevention

Source: GIPHY

Common challenges surrounding credit card processing were also top of mind among ecommerce professionals. A popular post from June challenges the idea of friendly fraud. Tim Russo points out that the concept is not friendly at all and increases costs for all parties involved in credit card processing.

In addition to friendly fraud, retailers also take on considerable risks just taking credit card information from customers. Are the basic compliance standards enough? Should your operation consider PCI certification? What other measures can your team take to ensure you not only meet the minimum standards, but exceed them?

• Friendly Fraud Is a Lie
• Data Security: Why PCI DSS Alone Doesn’t Cut It

Ecommerce Eye Candy

Our weekly Ecommerce Eye Candy series also made it into the most popular posts. This one from March of 2015 explores the state of the Indian Ecommerce Market, its exponential growth and largely untapped potential.

No matter which market customers were in, though, retailers had to become more savvy in their metrics to accurately gauge Customer Acquisition Vs. Retention Costs. Careful measuring of your costs per customer acquisition compared to your customer retention costs help focus your customer communication efforts to increase revenue and reduce costs.

Check out all our Ecommerce Infographics.

“Don’t protect your cash cow if there’s a risk of being disrupted. You may as well disrupt yourself before somebody else does it to you.” — Craig Vodnik

Meanwhile, on the Internet

2015 was also an amazing year for cleverbridge across the Internet. What follows is a selection of popular articles and interviews that appeared here and there over the year.

This very blog was featured by Digital Marketer in their list of the Eight Best Conversion Rate Optimization Blogs. Experts at cleverbridge were also important contributors to other publications, including these two gems from CIO and CreditCards.com.

• CIO | 7 simple, low-cost ways to acquire new customers
• CreditCards.com | 8 steps to fighting chargeback fraud

cleverbridge co-founder Craig Vodnik was very busy this year. He was featured on the 2X Ecommerce Podcast in April of 2015, discussing the current state of subscription commerce, and he penned How to Select the Right Subscription Commerce Solution for Website Magazine. You can also watch him featured on Bootstrapping In America over at tastytrade.

Finally, The Paypers featured an interview with cleverbridge co-founder and CEO, Christian Blume: Subscription commerce is about understanding the customer life cycle value.

Keystone

Join us in raising a glass to the year that was, and have a happy New Year!

Start 2016 off right by downloading our Six Guides on Ecommerce Essentials today. 

The post 2015 Year in Review appeared first on cleverbridge.

With all this effort and expense, and even with loyal customers who love your product, you can still lose customers in an instant with a negative customer support interaction. According to our friends at Zendesk, “When customers have a bad service experience, they don’t just get mad, most of the time they try to get even.”

“When customers have a bad service experience, they don’t just get mad, most of the time they try to get even.” — Zendesk

More than 50 percent of frustrated customers tell their friends, family and peers, spreading the word about their negative experience. A whopping 35 percent will stop doing business with the company. And 16 percent will post negative comments on social media and other review sites. This can really damage your company’s reputation considering 60 percent of consumers say they are influenced by others’ comments.

Take a look at the infographic Zendesk produced examining just how bad a reaction your customers may have if your customer support team is not up to the task. Even loyal customers may choose to share their poor experience with friends, broadcast it on social media or simply terminate their relationship with your business.

Overall, the findings point to the relationship between customer experience and revenue, highlighting a critical need for companies to ensure the highest level of customer support. Stop looking at service operations as cost centers, and instead view every interaction as an opportunity to increase satisfaction, build loyalty and grow revenue. While bad customer service hurts your reputation, in the age of social media, good customer service can be your best advertisement.

Want to learn more? Download our Six Guides on Ecommerce Essentials today.

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy — Customer Loyalty and Quality Support [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.