Four Essential Self-Help Resources to Include on Your eCommerce Site

As a business owner, you’ll understand the importance of great customer service. This can make or break a brand, turning first-time purchasers into long-term loyal customers who form the backbone of your business.

But customer service in 2022 looks rather different from what we’re used to. The focus is shifting from your staff to your website, with 40 percent of consumers now claiming to prefer self-service over human contact.

Self-service is when a business provides online support to customers without requiring them to interact with a human representative. It can take several forms, with the most common including FAQs, online guides, and knowledge bases.

Here, we look at four essential self-help resources your website needs.

Customer reviews

Customer service starts before a would-be purchaser ever buys from your business. It begins at the moment they stumble across it, and one of the first questions they’re likely to ask is whether the product or service they’re interested in is right for them. One way to answer this is by providing customer reviews.

Let’s use this online casino site as an example. One of the first things a customer sees when they click onto it is a carousel of reviews, with those who’ve already taken the plunge sharing their feedback. This not only provides social proof of the quality of the casino’s products and the caliber of its customer service but insight into what other would-be customers can expect. As a result of this, it can draw customers further down the page so they look at the range of games and the welcome offer among other things.

In many cases, these reviews will answer the questions they’re likely to have without them actively having to ask.

FAQs

FAQs are another must-have. Anyone who’s ever worked in a customer-facing role will know it’s common for consumers to ask the same questions over and again. Rather than wasting your staff and customers’ time by repeatedly having these queries asked and answered, compile a readily available resource that does the legwork for you.

As you can probably guess, your FAQ should contain any frequently asked questions that get sent your way. You can make it more easily navigable by dividing it into topical sections and having a search function on your website that makes relevant resources simple to find.

Online guides

Working from your FAQs, you could also compile a series of online guides. These should be designed to talk viewers through more complex subjects and show them how to manage tasks step by step.

Online guides can cover everything from how to choose the right product to set-up procedures and your returns process. This way, any problem that requires hand-holding can be solved without having to involve an employee whose time could be better spent elsewhere.

Video tutorials

It’s not only written resources you’ll want to include on your website. Video marketing is one of the top trends of 2021 for a reason. This type of content is easily digestible, with viewers often finding it simpler to follow and more engaging than solid walls of text.

If you have a solution you want to share with viewers, think about creating a video tutorial to walk them through the steps they’ll need to follow. This way, your brand still has a human face and personality but is also immediately accessible when customers need help resolving an issue.

When it comes to delivering great customer service, it’s not always a friendly face consumers want. In fact, many prioritize a speedy resolution over everything else. Self-help resources are one way to deliver this. Be sure to include them on your website to give consumers the contemporary customer service they desire.