Interested in exploring customer support tips for Amazon sellers? You’ve come to the right place! Here at eDesk, we process more than 50 million eCommerce messages per month. As such, we’ve learned a thing or two about customer service.
Perhaps the most important lesson we’ve learned is that customer service has a strong and direct impact on virtually every aspect of your Amazon business. From profitability to growth to seller ranking, your brand’s performance depends on taking great care of your customers—and doing so quickly.
But, where do you start? Luckily, you don’t have to go it alone. Keep reading to discover eDesk’s top customer support tips for Amazon sellers.
5 Compelling Reasons to Care About Amazon Customer Support
Still wondering if you should even care all that much about customer support? Here are just a few goals you can achieve by providing great Amazon customer service.
1. Encourage purchases, repeat buyers, and great reviews
If you want to make more sales, get more return visitors, and receive glowing reviews, you need to offer excellent customer service. From answering prospects’ questions and inspiring them to buy from you to taking care of existing customers who have an issue with their order—delivering efficient, effective customer support can help you turn casual shoppers into fans.
And, as most online sellers know, repeat buyers and positive reviews are the cornerstones of eCommerce success. In fact, data from our recent article on customer loyalty statistics shows that return shoppers account for 65% of a company’s sales. Furthermore, a massive 86% of loyal customers will recommend a brand they like to their friends and family.
2. Get a higher seller feedback rating
Your Amazon seller feedback rating is fundamental to the success of your business. After all, this metric plays a huge part in winning the ever-coveted Buy Box. Improve your odds of getting five-star feedback by responding to messages quickly, answering questions correctly, and keeping customers happy.
Curious about how to boost your Amazon seller feedback rating through stellar customer support? Take a look at how online electronics and accessories seller Tekeir (formerly TV Tech) did it. Founded in 2015, Tekeir quickly went from two employees to dozens of staff across Ireland, Croatia, and the US. With tens of thousands of SKUs spanning more than 20,000 consumer electronic products, the company became inundated by customer service queries as it grew.
Given the brand’s staunch commitment to top-quality customer support, the Tekeir team was eager to find a solution. Enter eDesk’s suite of products made specifically for eCommerce. By using eDesk’s customer support software for eCommerce in conjunction with our feedback tool, FeedbackExpress, Tekeir is now able to maintain an incredible 98% Amazon seller feedback rating. Tekeir founder and CEO, Peter Walsh also said, “eDesk has made us 60% more efficient in customer service.”
3. Create less work for your team
Believe it or not, providing amazing customer service can actually help create less work for your team. That’s because, by streamlining your customer service strategy (especially if using a help desk software like ours), you can dramatically reduce the time and effort staff members spend taking care of inquiries.
For example, when you use eDesk and connect through our powerful Amazon integration, all of your customer messages are consolidated into one well-organized inbox. Our AI-powered system offers filters, sorting options, ticket assignment, and a host of other features that make prioritizing, managing, and responding to messages much easier and more efficient. Your staff can even communicate flawlessly with global customers thanks to two-way message translations. (Note: Tekeir named eDesk’s translation feature as a team favorite.)
4. Mitigate returns
By promptly addressing customer concerns, questions, and issues, you can minimize negative returns. Very often, customers will have questions about a product. If that query can be resolved quickly, the customer is less likely to return the product. Resolving problems effectively demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction, which can prevent negative experiences from escalating and damaging your reputation as a seller.
With a solution like eDesk, you can quickly classify queries and prioritize them based on how you would like to respond. For example, if there are common inquiries about how-to use a specific product, you can have answers and guides ready to go quickly so that the customer doesn’t get frustrated with a product they can’t quite use.
5. Increase profitability and business growth
By keeping customers happy and taking other steps to be competitive in the marketplace, you can also see a major increase in your brand’s profits.
Providing great service means you are far more likely to receive great customer reviews. And great reviews for your products and brand have a very real impact on shoppers’ propensity to purchase from you. For example, we know that sellers with higher star ratings and better product reviews can increase their prices above competitors and still win the Buy Box. We also know that customers are happy to pay a higher price for products that have more positive reviews than lower-priced, poorly reviewed items.
Again, just ask Tekeir. By using eDesk customer support software along with our automated Feedback management tool FeedbackExpress.com and our Amazon repricing tool Repricer.com, Tekeir and many more sellers have increased company profitability by at least 14%!
12 Winning Amazon Customer Support Tips for Amazon Sellers
“We’ve seen time and again that the most successful Amazon sellers have nailed their customer support; responding quickly and in a personalized manner to each customer. Great customer support in Amazon really is a game changer for sellers.”
– Gareth Cummings – Chief Product Officer, eDesk
We could go on and on about the impact of great customer service. But by now, it’s probably pretty clear to you that it’s important. So, how can you improve yours? Without further ado, here are our pro customer support tips for Amazon sellers.
1. Respond quickly
One of the first steps to providing top-shelf customer support is responding quickly to inquiries. Not only does this help you adhere to Amazon SLAs (service level agreements), it also keeps customers happy and ensures they don’t have to wait long.
By centralizing your messaging into eDesk’s customer support system, you can organize and prioritize your inbox like never before. This enables you to provide lightning-fast replies and smash SLAs. Plus, our AI-powered message classifications, sentiment analysis, templates, and HandsFree (Amazon-compliant) auto-responders help you save even more time and effort.
In fact, Tekeir shared that it used to take the team two or three days to get through all the emails that were sent over the weekends from customers. However, thanks to eDesk, the same task now only takes a few hours.
2. Make sure you have all the information you need
While responding quickly is crucial, it is also important to make sure you have all the information you need in order to adequately assist the customer. This could mean looking up tracking information before responding, checking on order status, or even asking the customer follow-up questions to make sure you understand what they need.
One of the worst things you can do is make assumptions and risk giving the customer incorrect information. For example, imagine a scenario in which a shopper emails you to ask when an order will ship. If you’re unsure, don’t say “Your item should ship tomorrow.” If the item doesn’t ship then, you’ve needlessly upset a customer. Instead, look up the customer’s order status and provide information that you know is accurate.
This is another aspect of customer service that eDesk makes much easier. When you pull up a ticket (or message from a customer), you will also be able to see all the other details you need right on the same screen. You can view order information, tracking numbers, customer details, and more without having to switch tabs. This means you can answer customer questions quickly, correctly, and comprehensively—with all the info you need right at your fingertips.
3. Be honest & empathetic
A big part of good customer support is honesty. Even if you have to tell shoppers less-than-ideal news (like their shipment is running late), you can foster trust by telling the truth. This also gives you a chance to offer solutions or take other steps to make things right.
Have you ever encountered a customer service representative who didn’t seem to care about your question or issue? Most of us have, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Furthermore, we are much less likely to shop again with a brand that doesn’t seem to empathize with our situations.
Try to put yourself in your customers’ shoes, metaphorically speaking, and show empathy during each interaction.
4. Provide friendly and helpful Amazon customer support
On that same note, it may seem obvious, but your customer support team needs to be friendly and helpful at all times. We know this isn’t always easy. The job can get stressful, after all. But a positive, cordial demeanor can work wonders in ensuring customer service interactions get resolved in the most effective way possible.
5. Acknowledge any mistakes (even if you didn’t cause them)
Any time a mistake is made having to do with your business or shopping experience, you need to own and acknowledge it. This is true even if you weren’t the one who actually made the mistake.
For instance, if an item’s shipping is delayed because of your carrier, that’s not your fault. However, the customer is still experiencing a problem after shopping with you. So, apologize for their inconvenience and do whatever is in your power to make things right (such as calling the carrier to confirm when the item will be delivered and letting your customer know).
6. Let customers know how you plan to make things right
When a mistake is made or a problem is encountered, be sure to let customers know exactly how you plan to make things right. This could be a refund, sending out a new item, calling a shipping carrier, offering a discount, or any other number of solutions.
And don’t forget, when necessary, go the extra mile or get creative to offer the most optimal resolution.
7. Use positive language
When dealing with customers, avoid negative language whenever possible. Saying things like, “I can’t,” may only escalate the issue further. Instead, focus on what you can do and keep your language positive.
Have you thought about tuning your response to customers based on an analysis of their sentiment? Our AI-powered sentiment analysis solution lets you know at a glance how the customer is “feeling,” and therefore enables you to craft your response appropriately.
8. Send clear, concise communications
You should also use clear, concise language. Don’t send overlong sentences and paragraphs filled with hard-to-understand words or technical jargon. Keep things simple, to the point, and easy to comprehend.
With a tool like eDesk, you can create templated responses that are well-crafted and consistently clear, regardless of which member of your customer support team is answering the question. You can now also leverage generative AI to ensure that you are crafting the most appropriate message in a timely manner in response to your customer’s query.
9. Thank customers for the opportunity to help them
Here’s a big one: always thank customers for the opportunity to serve them. Remember, today’s consumers have an endless array of online shopping options. Show gratitude to customers for shopping with you and giving you the chance to answer their questions or solve their issues.
Again, with a solution like eDesk, you can automatically close out resolved conversations with a message of gratitude.
10. Follow up with customers
And after your team has assisted a customer, be sure to follow up and make sure you fully resolved the issue. This also gives you a great chance to offer further perks, like discounts or links to knowledge bases, as well as to ask for feedback.
Interested in turning all the great customer service you provide into stellar reviews? Use eDesk’s feedback feature to target specific Amazon customers and request product or seller reviews.
11. Provide self-serve options
Statistics show that a majority of shoppers will use self-serve options if they’re available. So, free up some of your customer service agents’ time and enable customers to quickly find the answers they need. You can do this by providing answers to FAQs and other Amazon-compliant, self-serve options within your product listings.
Amazon has recently enabled a feature whereby you can direct your customers to your support center and knowledge base to find further product-level information. Why not reduce customer queries by up to 30% by connecting your eDesk knowledge base to your Amazon support pages?
12. Be proactive to prevent Amazon customer support issues in the first place
Finally, be proactive to prevent problems from arising in the first place. This could mean pricing your items fairly so prices don’t confuse buyers (Repricer makes this a breeze), providing accurate and detailed product descriptions, and uploading high-quality images.
In addition, if there are delays in getting information from your suppliers, ensure you have messaging automations in place for getting back to customers and letting them know. Keeping them in the loop will reduce their anxiety and build more trust in you.
More Ways eDesk Makes Amazon Customer Support Easier
We’ve already mentioned a centralized smart inbox, outreach tools, and a host of AI-powered features, but here are a few more ways eDesk makes Amazon customer support easier…
- Manage all sales channels seamlessly: eDesk has 250+ integrations with various marketplaces, platforms, and tools (including Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, Mirakl, and more).
- Everything from Amazon in one place: All your Amazon stores can be pulled into a single smart inbox (and each channel can be clearly marked with customizable labels).
- Easily log and trace every conversation: When an Amazon channel is authenticated, each one is assigned a unique eDesk email ID for easy mail forwarding.
- Never out of step: All incoming and outgoing messages show on both eDesk and Amazon Seller Central automatically, so you never have to worry about missing a thing.
- Product-level query management: Generic questions that are asked by a customer on an ASIN come through to eDesk as system messages so you don’t miss them.
- Orders, tracking, and tickets in a single view: Tracking numbers are surfaced directly on eDesk tickets so you don’t have to search for them. You can also automatically insert them into message templates in order to personalize your Amazon customer service.
- Unified order history: Customers’ Amazon sales and order data is received directly from the Amazon API and imported to eDesk.
- Easily identify returns and cancellations: Amazon returns and cancellations come through eDesk as system messages so you know when a return has been requested.
- Reduced message blocking: In eDesk, you can now declare the reason why you are contacting an Amazon buyer. Using this feature can help sellers avoid having messages blocked by Amazon or even being suspended.
Amazon Customer Support Tips for Sellers: Final Thoughts
When it comes to growing your Amazon business and winning the ever-elusive Buy Box, great customer service is the name of the game. Follow our pro customer support tips for Amazon sellers to take your business to the next level.
Ready to whip your customer support into shape without even breaking a sweat? Connect your Amazon store(s) to eDesk and discover just how much better your business can be.
