What customer self-service resources do you use? Customer self-service is an important part of the online shopping experience. It can help increase conversions and reduce complaints.
Let’s review 9 different customer self-service examples.
Pages
Care Page
A dedicated Care Page is helpful for high value products. These high-value products tend to cost more and be made with higher quality materials. Customers want to know how to take care of the product to keep it for a longer period of time.
TIP: If you are creating a care page, brainstorm all the ways a customer will use your product. How might it get dirty or damaged? What are tips to prevent damage? How can they keep it clean? What are easy repair tips?
Contact Page
Curlbox has a Contact Page with a drop-down menu to make it easier to identify and resolve customer issues. At the top of the page, they remind the customer to visit the site’s FAQ page. Then if the customer can’t find their answer they can use the contact form.
TIP: Including a drop-down menu allows you to segment issues. The segments can be assigned to specific teams (shipping, accounting, etc.) to provide a quicker response. If you’re tracking these segments, you can identify which areas in the business are strengths and weaknesses. This allows you to work with your teams to improve solutions and reduce customer issues.
FAQ Page
Otherland has a simple FAQ page with a sidebar menu. The sidebar menu allows the customer to quickly navigate to the topic they need.
TIP: Regardless of menu placement, I recommend putting the FAQ topics in alphabetical order. This makes it easier for the customer to find their solution.
Help Center
Italic’s Help Center is one of the most comprehensive sites I’ve seen. The help center prominently features the option to chat, email, or track a package with icons. It is easy to navigate with clearly defined topics and top questions asked.
TOOL: This service is provided by Gorgias and can be used on multiple eCommerce platforms.
Product Page
Oatmeal Lace uses the product description to answer questions McKays’s received from Instagram followers and customers. This helps to address customer concerns immediately and set proper expectations for their experience.
TIP: What questions do your followers and customers ask? What objections might need to be answered in the product description? Use bullet points and short paragraphs to make it easy to read.
Haus launched as a new aperitif brand in 2019. They use the product page to share simple recipes for customers not familiar with how to create an aperitif, This makes it easy for customers to understand how to enjoy the drink.
TIP: Review your product pages. Do the pages show how the product can be enjoyed? How is your product used best?
Daily Harvest uses customer reviews to share tips on how to enjoy their products. This is a great way for social proof and developing community. You have customers who enjoy the product and want to share their experience with others.
The community tips also provide Daily Harvest with additional content to repurpose. Daily Harvest can create a digital or printed cookbook either as a gift or to purchase.
TIP: How are you creating a community for your customers? A community where there is an exchange of ideas between customers. Community isn’t a broadcast of the brand to customers, but of customers engaging with each other. Customers who love the product so much they want to help others enjoy it too.
Blog
Product Post
Cultivate What Matters’ flagship product has an annual release. The annual release includes a launch because it is something their customers anticipate. With each release the product is updated.
A blog post is created to highlight the updates and describe the differences between releases. This transparency helps foster trust and enthusiasm for the new product. It also tells their customers, we listen to your feedback and made these changes. When customers feel heard they are more likely to purchase again. This increases the life-time value of a customer.
TIP: What customer feedback have you implemented into improving your product? How do you share this story with your customers? Before and after photos, side-by-side comparison in a video, comparison charts, and infographics can all be used.
Implementing feedback is a sign of gratitude for the time customers took to share their experience. Sharing the story of how you listened and what you updated is an opportunity to celebrate them.
Additional Tools
Banners
Salvaged Studio used Etsy’s banner announcement area to share important shipping and delivery information. Customers have high expectations for delivery (fast and cheap). With Rachael defining shipping expectations her transparency helps reset the customer experience. No one likes to be caught off guard or be told after the fact.
TIP: What expectations do your customers have this season? How can you reset those expectations upfront? Where does this information belong? Is it as a banner or note on the product page, shopping cart page, the home page, or multiple pages?
Chat
What I love most about this video chat is the personal welcome. You can create a static welcome message (Cultivate What Matters) as I talked about here. Or create a welcome message to start a conversation as shown above. It allows your customers to chat with you via video, audio, or text.
What I love most about this tool is it allows the customer to engage with a face behind the brand instead of a bot. My first job was in retail and greeting customers who stepped into the store or my department was a favorite part of providing service. The personal connection is important in establishing a connection and building a relationship.
TOOL: The video chat is available through Warm Welcome. Warm Welcome launched this year and provide multiple uses to incorporate video messaging throughout the customer experience.
How can you add a personal touch to the customer experience? What are ways to create connection and build relationships? People buy from people they like and trust.
Footers
The footer is a great place to add a menu of the self-service solutions, policies, and contact methods for your customers. This doesn’t replace a link in the main menu but is an additional location for navigation.
TIP: The key is making it easy for the customer. What do they need? Where will they go to find an answer? How can I make it easy for them to find a solution? Then organize your navigation accordingly.
Customer Self-Service Solution
The customer self-service solution for your business will vary based on needs, size, budget, and ease of implementation. You are not limited to one solution. You can choose multiple or create a hybrid.
Your Turn
What has your experience been with using one of the solutions mentioned above? What self-service options or tools would you add? Share in the comments below.
Melissa Kay Jones 