Customer support is an integral building block for any e-commerce business—so integral, in fact, that 90% of consumers globally say that quality customer service is directly tied to their sense of brand loyalty. The good news, then, is that a solid customer service strategy can help you improve your customer experience and the overall success of your online business, too. However, providing top-quality customer support for your online store and Amazon shop can be difficult.
This is why you need to combine your Amazon customer support with your online store.
In this article, we will talk about why you need to outsource your Amazon customer support service and how Pexly can help you improve the level of your customer service.
Let’s start by taking a look at the disadvantages of the support offered by Amazon.
Table of contents:
1. What are the Disadvantages of Customer Support Offered by Amazon?
2. Why Outsource Amazon Customer Service?
3. Why Should You Combine Customer Support on Amazon and Your Online Store?
4. Benefits of Outsourcing Customer Support for Online Stores With Pexly
5. Trust Pexly With All of Your Customer Service Needs
What are the Disadvantages of Customer Support Offered by Amazon?
Amazon offers its own program, called Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which allows third-party sellers to store their items in Amazon fulfillment centers and let them handle the shipping and customer service. It can be used for all products, including books, electronics, apparel, and home goods. Amazon provides customer service as part of the FBA subscription. FBA users have access to Amazon’s global customer service network, meaning they can contact support via phone or email, day or night. Plus, Amazon’s online returns center provides help pages and details, so customers know exactly where to go.
While this may sound great, there are some disadvantages to the customer support offered by Amazon:
- 1. FBA Can get expensive. We mentioned earlier that FBA handles the customer service aspect of product delivery, but this is expensive. Amazon will charge sellers a fee between 6%-20% of a product’s selling price based on each product sold, regardless of which fulfillment method is utilized. The fee, also known as the Amazon referral fee, will depend on the category of the product you’re selling.
- 2. More Returns. Once you use FBA to fulfill your orders, expect higher return rates because customers can return their orders directly to Amazon, not to you, even without your approval. In addition, with Amazon’s 30-day return window, customers can choose to return the products, and Amazon will take care of the return shipping, especially if it’s fulfilled through FBA.
- 3. Lack of a relationship with the client. Once your products are already stored in an Amazon warehouse, they will become responsible for everything from packing to dealing with customer service. Therefore, this setup leaves no door for third-party sellers to interact with their customers directly. But, at some point, this is beneficial because it takes off the pressure on you to provide excellent customer service and handle any customer issues or returns.
Why Outsource Amazon Customer Service?
Since there are some significant drawbacks to Amazon customer support, we recommend that you outsource this function to a dedicated service provider.
Here are some of the biggest reasons why you should outsource your Amazon customer service:
- 1. Cost savings. Customers are valuable. When you outsource customer service, you are able to give your customers the best shopping experience without sacrificing anything. As a result, they are well taken care of, and you also have plenty of time to focus on your business goals. Outsourcing on its own is quite a cost-effective option. Getting people on board from your local area to manage customer service and other tasks of your Amazon business can be extremely expensive than hiring freelancers or an agency from other countries. However, you will only have to pay them for hours worked. So overall, it will help you save a huge amount of money without sacrificing quality.
- 2. Costs. There is a great opportunity cost to your business when you don’t let go of Amazon customer service. You are effectively taking valuable time away from growth projects and, often, even maintenance. By outsourcing, you get these hours back to invest in your business. Outsourcing is also a lot more cost-effective, even when it isn’t your own time you’re computing. Hiring local staff is extremely expensive. Hiring freelancers from other countries who can give you the same quality output without added benefits are super affordable. You only pay for the hours worked, there’s no overtime charge, and you don’t pay local rates.
- 3. Qualification. Qualified customer support outsourcing agencies that manage teams of dedicated agents know what they’re doing. This is their business. You can therefore leave Amazon customer care in their capable hands without worrying about how well the work is going to be done. Then, you can spend less time with them – just enough to get them up to speed on what your business is all about – and spend more time doing what you need to be doing for your business.
- The result is everyone performing at the highest possible level for your business and its future.
- 4. Focus on the Customer. When you make customer satisfaction a part of your core values throughout your organization, you will sow the seed of customer-centricity. When customer satisfaction becomes a part of your business philosophy, it impacts the way you view customer issues and how your employees and call center partners view customer satisfaction. Put your customers first clearly and concisely, and everyone related to your business will get the memo.
- 5. Create Relationships With Customers. Our goal is to make your customers happy. Because if your customers are happy with the support and services they are provided with, they will become your long-term brand advocates. We’re not only here to help you develop your business but to ensure that your customers have an emotional connection and trust for you and your brand. Long-term customers will also become your brand ambassadors because of their confidence in you, and because of this, they will be more likely to spread the good news about who you are and what you have done for them. This is important because people believe testimonials over ads and commercials.
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6. Access to Expertise. A good outsourcing provider has a dedicated team of highly-experienced recruiters who can deliver results by making quality hires. A solid recruitment team knows where to source candidates that will fit the unique needs of your business.
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Lastly, a short recruitment cycle attracts high-quality applicants and good candidates.
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7. Scalability. During peak business seasons, it is essential that online orders and inquiries are fully supported. It’s impractical to consider purchasing technology to handle incoming calls, hiring a team of customer service agents to handle the calls, and then training those agents to perform their tasks. However, outsourcing these functions to a contact center eliminates these obstacles. A contact center provides a staff of agents who are already fully trained to receive incoming calls and gather the needed customer information. Outsourcing provides businesses the ability to quickly scale up with an already trained staff that can handle the increased volume of business.
You may also like: The Complete Guide to Building a Customer Support Team
Why Should You Combine Customer Support on Amazon and Your Online Store?
When you combine your online store and Amazon customer service, you will receive all the benefits mentioned above. In addition to this, you will be able to meet customers on their terms. In e-commerce, one size fits none. Customers expect a personalized approach that makes them feel special. Businesses today have to interact with their consumers to get to know them better and form meaningful, ongoing relationships. Embracing “Me-commerce” means meeting a customer’s ever-changing and increasingly demanding expectations and habits. While there are customers who still want to call to talk to a customer service representative, others are interested in live chat or email, while some simply want to send you a tweet.
Another thing to consider is that combining your online store and Amazon customer support will help you stand out from the crowd. Unlike situations when customers just want quick answers to basic questions, there are times when they are looking for a personalized approach and expert advice. E-commerce customer service is more than just tracking packages and processing refunds. To provide the best experience, agents need to offer guidance to help customers make the right purchases for them. According to Accenture, 33% of customers who abandoned a business relationship did so because personalization was lacking.
Consumers, in general, expect a personalized approach, and a report by Segment found that 71% of respondents are frustrated by impersonal experiences.
Introducing a personalized, knowledgeable service is what sets leaders apart from other online businesses.
Finally, you will be able to improve your response time. E-commerce is all about speed and convenience. Customers who choose to shop online are expecting a fast reaction and prompt answers. According to Statista, 12% of Americans rate their number one frustration with customer service as “lack of speed.” Allowing customers to reach your customer service team using different channels is not enough. The key to a well-performing team is the balance between speed and convenience. When you’re able to serve customers with a consistent level of quality in a short period of time across different channels, you’re on the path to providing a fully functional, multichannel customer service strategy.
Benefits of Outsourcing Customer Support for Online Stores With Pexly
For businesses and companies, outsourcing customer service is not about cutting corners – it’s about offering the best possible level of service to fulfill the customer service needs of your customers at scale. After all, it’s the positive experiences that drive loyalty, gain fans, and improve overall brand reputation. Pexly can help you with any aspect of customer service for your online store and Amazon store. This includes reducing the workload on your in-house teams by responding to customer phone calls and emails distracts from more profitable activities like sales.
Outsourcing customer service can free up time for you and your employees, so everyone can focus on increasing sales.
In addition to this, we can help you provide multilingual support. Many businesses have customer bases that speak languages other than English. Outsourced customer service platforms give you better access to reps who speak multiple languages. As a result, your customers will feel more confident doing business with your company, knowing their questions will be answered properly without communication barriers.
Finally, we can help you lower the cost of offering top-quality support. When you hire contract workers, including call center employees, you don’t pay a fixed salary or employee benefits. Additionally, you don’t have to furnish customer service reps with equipment. A computer and all the necessary software could get expensive, in addition to providing all the hardware like headsets. When you factor in office space, a desk, a chair, an additional monitor, and so on, you could spend thousands of dollars on equipment for a single customer service rep.
Even before the pandemic, companies sought ways to improve their customer experiences. Customers expressed frustration with delays in response time or the lack of personal contact, and that often led to negative reviews on social media and elsewhere about customer interactions that were both damaging to businesses’ brands and cost them their customers.
Trust Pexly With All of Your Customer Service Needs
As more companies seek cost-effective solutions for customer service that also meet customer satisfaction criteria, it’s important to weigh the benefits of outsourcing a customer service team against keeping support positions in-house. There are many benefits of outsourcing customer service, including cost savings and offering high-quality support as your customer volume increases.
No matter what channel, location, type of support, and level of support you need, outsourcing could be a good solution for your business. Just make sure to do your due diligence and thoughtfully evaluate each vendor you talk to in order to make the partnership as effective as possible.
Pexly builds outsourcing solutions that work for companies of all sizes. We carefully hire high-quality customer service teams and help set up your tools to deliver customer experiences that still feel in-house.
Get in touch with our team to see how Pexly can help you scale your business.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you.
