Can I Help You?

Our friends at Internet Retailer just released a thought-provoking article about best practices in online customer support. “Can I Help You?” discusses trends in pre-and post-purchase support, including chat, proactive engagement, self-service and visitor monitoring.

TurnTo’s CEO and Founder, George Eberstadt shares his thoughts:

Yes, there’s a lot of room to improve the customer support experience for online shopping, both pre and post purchase.  But “better chat” isn’t the answer.  Real shoppers want input from peers who actually own the products.  Real shoppers want to hear from merchandise managers and category experts, not from CSRs looking up answers in a database.  And if the answer is already in a database, they want it delivered instantly, not just “live” chat fast.

That’s why Community Q&A is the essential backbone of a first-class Assisted Shopping experience.  Community Q&A is also highly effective post-purchase.  Just include a link in your review-request email, saying “We want to make sure you get the most out of your recent purchase.  Need help or have a question?  Click here to get fast answers from fellow customers who bought this, our own product experts, and our complete knowledge base”…Community Q&A is a fast, easy way to improve conversion rates, drive up customer satisfaction, drive down returns, and learn a lot about what your shoppers really care about.