When you order a pizza, how long are you willing to wait for the order confirmation? Five minutes? Ten minutes maximum, right? And if there is silence after that, band database you are most likely already ordering from competitors in another app. The same thing happens to online store customers . When they don’t get a response on time, they just leave. And it’s not even about how good your product is — people value their time much more. But what if the company doesn’t have the resources to respond quickly? Let’s figure it out.
The problem is obvious, but the solution is not always obvious.
Owners of online stores always have the same headache: “Why can’t my employees respond to all requests?” There can be many reasons: how to organize a hotline for a management company: instructions for
management companies
- How to improve There are simply not enough operators. Imagine: three employees and twenty requests per hour. Naturally, not all requests will be processed on time.
- Many communication channels. Chat on the website, messengers, social networks, mail – all this falls on operators at the same time, creating a huge load. Employees lose control over the flow of requests and the quality of service falls.
- Requests are lost. If the CRM system is set up incorrectly, requests simply disappear, and customers are left without an answer.
- Operators are “drowning” in routine. Everyone can quickly answer the same type of questions like “When will the delivery be?” But when there are hundreds of such questions a day, even the most experienced employee loses their enthusiasm.
Now the question is: how to deal with this?
Five ways to speed up your response speed
- Give Chatbots a Chance
Chatbots are a great solution for typical questions. They can quickly answer when a promotion starts or what your return policy is. Imagine, up to 60% contact lists of queries can be closed with their help. Customers get answers instantly, and operators can focus on complex tasks. - Don’t delay outsourcing Outsourcing
helps to completely close the issues with processing requests. How? You get a team of operators ready to work 24/7. You don’t have to worry about someone not showing up for a shift or getting sick. Plus, this is saving on hiring and training employees, because the operators are not on staff, and all the processes are already debugged. Transfer the tasks – and you can relax. - Get your CRM in order
In business, as in life: if everything is in its place, then work is easier. A properly configured CRM system allows the operator to immediately see the client’s request and the history of their purchases. No chaos and searching through different documents – all the information is at hand. - Combine all communication channels
Communication via messengers, chats, calls is convenient for clients. But what if they first write in Telegram, and then switch to WhatsApp, and you have to start communication from scratch. To avoid this, combine all channels into one system. This way, operators will be aware of the history of communication, and clients will not have to repeat themselves. - Assess the indicators and develop the team
Without metrics, it is not clear who works quickly and who works slowly. Set up KPIs and monitor the response speed to understand how employees cope with tasks. This will help control the process and constantly improve it.
What happens when someone slows down and How to improve
Now let’s be honest: what does an online store lose if operators are slow as snails? The question is rhetorical, but still:
- Customers are leaving. And quickly. The longer it takes one online store to respond, the faster the customer will move on to another.
- Trust is falling. Clients start thinking: “If they take so long to respond, what will happen to my order?” And they start getting nervous. And a nervous client is almost a lost client.
- Less repeat purchases. Customers simply won’t want to return to a store where they have to wait for hours or even days for an answer. And that, by the way, is a direct blow to profits.
- Negative reviews. Someone said that bad reviews are left more often than good ones. And this is absolutely true. A couple of such reviews . How to improve and the rating on the Internet begins to sag. And with it, sales.