People that shop online have a great advantage over shopping in stores for various reasons that are inherent to their particular needs. One reason that people prefer to shop online is convenience. They appreciate the ability to purchase their goods with a few simple clicks and have it delivered right to their door. Besides convenience, however, customers prefer to shop with online retailers that offer great customer service.

Essentially, they're looking for a comfort level such that they might find by shopping in a brick and mortar store. In this article, we're discussing how to improve online customer service for e-commerce or businesses that sell products and services online.

Five Ways to Improve Online Customer Service

An online store is just the same as a traditional store in many ways. And while customer service options may differ from in-store techniques, it's still the most important aspect of running a successful and prosperous business.

When a customer encounters a storefront online they expect to find information regarding the product or service they're looking for, first and foremost. They're also concerned about pricing options and quality, of course. But whether they know they need it or not, online customer service is what makes a business stand out to online shoppers.

Beyond being available to customers and offering plain old customer service is providing stellar online customer service. Every online business should integrate the following into their customer service department.

1) Email

One of the easiest and most accessible ways to earn customer trust is through email. It's a personal touch that not all sites offer and customers will appreciate a business that takes this extra step.

A business should set up a contact form on their website that allows customers to communicate with them directly. In an ideal world, responses should be provided within hours but a 24 hour turnaround time is acceptable.

It's a good idea to set up a separate, dedicated email account that serves customer requests and concerns to keep things organized. There are services available that allow businesses to create custom email addresses. And Shopify has its own email forwarding feature that integrates with a preferred email account.

2) Live Chat

For businesses that really want to WOW their customers and allow their customers to get directly in touch, Live Chat is a great option. This is an online customer service tool that will never go out of style because it gives the customer an opportunity to access a live person. They can ask questions and get pertinent information right away, without leaving the site.

One reason Live Chat is such a great online customer service tool is the fact that customers can use it anytime, anywhere. They don't have to wait for a response or hold on the phone and therefore they feel more connected to the business. This is an effective and efficient method to retain customers and gain access to new ones.

With a Live Chat feature, businesses are projecting their availability to their customers.

3) Speed is Key

Another great way to offer online customer service that surpasses that of the competition is to maintain speed and efficiency. When a customer has a question before they want to buy something, they don't want to wait around until they have the answer.

If they find the answer somewhere else, they may also be more likely to buy somewhere else. Businesses should focus on quick turnaround times when a customer gets in touch.

Whether it be a live chat or email response, time is precious and any time that the customer waits can also be a time of distraction. Remember, they're already online where they can easily leave a site with the simple click of a button.

5) FAQs

Often times businesses find that many customers have similar questions. It may take some time to learn which questions come in more frequently than others, but when it's appropriate, creating a FAQs page will help.

Having a section where customers can see answers to frequently asked questions will alleviate confusion and unnecessary time wasted on the part of the customer and customer service staff.

A FAQs page is a great way to engage with customers without actually communicating with them. It can establish trust and urge customers that still have questions to reach out.

5) Accuracy

The motto of an online business should always be to get it right the first time. Accuracy and consistency are key to retaining faithful customers. And, if something does go wrong, prompt attention to returns and exchanges is pivotal. Keeping customers happy boils down to how they're treated.

When an order is handled accurately and efficiently, the customer feels satisfied with their transaction. If something goes wrong with an order, it's in the business' best interest to do everything possible to fix it and make the customer happy again, no matter what it takes.

Customer service department staff should all be on the same page with standard operations. This will ensure that there is never confusion with customer transactions.

Final Thoughts

Focusing on great online customer service is the best thing a business can do for business. Not only will it earn repeat business, but people will be more likely to share their good experience with others that may also begin purchasing products or services. People appreciate good customer service, they expect it in most cases.

There is more to good customer service than just pleasing a customer or giving them what they want. It's about going the extra mile to ensure the customer is satisfied beyond their original expectations. Great customer service on or offline is key to sustaining sales.

The goal is to WOW customers so that they are so impressed that they don't have a choice but to come back next time. And, when they do, it's important to do everything possible to WOW them again. If you're trying to improve your online customer service, or if you have questions, contact us! We can help.

What kind of customer is a Dropified customer?

A smart one and here’s why…

When it comes to requesting support, smart Dropified users know how to get the most out of our support system using our In-App Live Chat Support feature.

How do they get the most out of our Live Chat support?

Simple!

By using our In-App Live Chat Support our support experts are able to quickly access user account details, giving us more information to better assist our users with. Our users know how to upload screen-capture and screen-video attachments to show specific details about their support issue, which saves a lot of guesswork in getting an issue resolved.

We love emojis by the way, so we’ve enabled emojis within our Live Chat Support feature too

Here’s what one of our users says about Dropified’s support:

“Dropified has the best customer service out there. They are really knowledgeable.” ~Victor

Here’s a step-by-step process on how easy it is to access our Live Chat Support:

• From within the web application (app.dropified.com), click on the ‘support’ icon located at the bottom right of the page.
• Click the “New Conversation” button and type your message in the field provided. Note: We store these conversations for future easy access, and if needed, you can open and continue any of these conversations in the future
• To upload an attachment, simple click the ‘paperclip’ icon and choose the file you wish to share

What how easy this feature is to access and use!

It’s important to remember this…

…the more information you can provide about your support issue will really help to expedite the process. This is why our Dropified users attach screen-capture image or screen-video….we really like this!

Not sure how to send us a screen-capture image or screen-video?

It’s really simple.

Using free applications like “Jing” or “OpenVideo” you can easily take a screen-capture or record a screen-video to show us exactly what your issue is.

• Jing:
  https://www.techsmith.com/jing-tool.html
• OpenVideo:
  https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/openvideo-faststream/dadggmdmhmfkpglkfpkjdmlendbkehoh?hl=en

So whether you have a support issue, or just have a question about drop shipping, the friendly experts on the other side of our In-App Live Chat Support feature are ready to help you quickly, easily and knowledgeably.

Love this feature? Click here to login and start using it now.

Not a member? Click here to become one of our smart Dropified users today!

Happy Selling

The Team @ Dropified

What kind of customer is a Dropified customer?

A smart one and here’s why…

When it comes to moving their existing products and orders from Oberlo to Dropified, smart Dropified users know how to use the Oberlo Migration tool for a smooth transition.

Why should you use the Oberlo Migration tool?

Instead of manually adding products and orders, you can now do the whole process with the Oberlo Migration tool in just a few clicks. This process saves you more time and effort. Letting you focus more on marketing, plus getting sales, or talking to your customers.

We at Dropified automate more and more of what you need so you can stay focused on strategizing how to scale your business!

It is extremely easy to use the Oberlo Migration tool to move your existing products and orders from Oberlo to Dropified.

See this powerful tool in action:

Yes, it’s easy to use the Oberlo Migration tool.

Here’s a step-by-step process on how to use the Oberlo Migration tool:

To begin importing your products from Oberlo, simply:

• In Dropified, go to Stores  and click “Add Store.” Enter the URL of your Oberlo store to connect it with Dropified.
• Go to the products page of your Oberlo store and click Dropified Extension. Make sure to select your Oberlo store in the “Import to” dropbox selection before hitting “Import All.”  
• A progress bar will then appear to show you how many of the products have been imported into Dropified.
• After the process is finished, you can go to the Stores page of Dropified to view the imported products.

By connecting your Oberlo store to Dropified, the orders from Oberlo are automatically added to Dropified. It's so simple!

However, some of the orders might not have an AliExpress Order ID. To add the AliExpress Order ID to your orders, simply:

• Go to the orders page of your Oberlo store and click Dropified Extension. Dropified will give you the option to import the AliExpress Order ID of all your products or the order IDs of those that do not have any tracking information.
• Choose your preferred import option and select your Oberlo store in the “Import to” dropbox selection. Click “Import orders.”
• A progress bar will then appear to show you how much of the process is completed.
• Once the process is finished, go to the Orders page of Dropified to view the imported AliExpress Order IDs.

And that’s it! You have successfully moved your existing products and orders from Oberlo to Dropified. You're now ready to automate more of your dropshipping business than you ever thought possible!

So, if you haven’t moved your products and orders from Oberlo to Dropified yet, we suggest you do now! With the Oberlo Migration tool, all your products and orders can be easily migrated from Oberlo to Dropified in no time.

Love this feature? Click here to login and set it up. Not a member? Click here to sign up before you kick yourself for missing this!

A smart one and here’s why…

When it comes to making their products more enticing to Shopify store shoppers, smart Dropified users know how much product reviews from AliExpress can make a difference.

Why is it important that you import reviews from AliExpress?

Online shoppers are always on the lookout for credible products. And what makes products more credible than online reviews? Online reviews are one of the most important factors that a shopper considers whether to purchase the product or not.

However, what if your products in your Shopify store do not have reviews, yet?

Worry no more.

You always have the option to import product reviews from AliExpress by using Dropified! It is extremely easy to import product reviews from AliExpress and use them in your existing Shopify store!

See how incredibly simple it is to import product reviews from AliExpress.com

Yes, it is that easy to import product reviews.

Here’s how you do it:

• Go to the  Shopify Admin Section and look for the product in your Shopify Store.
• Click the Dropified Extension located in the taskbar and select “Find in Dropified.” Your browser will lead you to the product in the Shopify App.
• Click the “Original” tab > “View Original AliExpress” button.
• Once you are on the original product page in AliExpress, click the Dropified Chrome Extension. Scroll down and select the checkbox that says “Import Reviews.”
• In that extension, select the filters that you desire for your reviews. Then, indicate the number of review pages that you would like to import. Once done, click the “Save For Later” button, which will allow you to select the “Download Reviews Button.”
• The downloaded product reviews should appear as a CSV file in your computer. The file cannot be imported into your Shopify store just yet; it needs to be edited. To do this, simply open the file in Excel.
• In Excel, you will see a column entitled “Product Handle.” The links listed in that column must be edited to reflect the URL slug of your product page. To do this, simply go to your product page in the Shopify store and copy the ending portion of the link. Then, replace all the links under the “Product Handle” with the ending portion of your product page link.
• Go back to your product in the Shopify Admin section. From there, select the Apps > “View reviews for this product” button. It will lead you to another page in which you need to click Settings > Import.
• Choose the CSV file that you have edited and check the review dates option before importing the product reviews.
• Once the process is successful, refresh the product page in your Shopify Store. You should see the product reviews that you have imported from AliExpress.

And that’s it! You have successfully made your products more enticing to potential buyers by importing product reviews from AliExpress into your Shopify store.

It is super easy to import product reviews from AliExpress!

So, if you haven’t imported product reviews into your Shopify store, we suggest that you do it now! Don’t miss the opportunity to let your potential buyers see the positive feedback of the products in your store.

A smart one and here’s why…

When it comes to presenting your products in the best possible light to your customer, you need to have really great looking images.

Why is this important?

The fact is, your customers are buying from you online and are not able to see and touch your products in person, so great images really help to show off your products.

However, while it can be easy these days to take good pictures, not everyone is good at editing pictures, especially getting rid of those unwanted backgrounds behind those images.

That’s why you need to add on and use our built-in image editor.

With Dropified's image editor, you can edit product images inside the web application.

Using the image editor, you can perform simple image crops as well as more advanced edits like removing watermarks or adding your own logo.

You now have access to add on an image editing tool, and when installed, is made available inside of Dropified to further enhance your workflow.

See this powerful image editing tool in action:

Yes, it really is that easy to edit the images for your product shots.

To edit your images, you simply:

• Go to Products > All Products tab and hover over the image that you wish to remove the background from and select the “Remove Background” and a new image editor will then open.
• To indicate the parts of the image that you wish to KEEP, you select the Green “plus sign” icon, then draw a line over that section.
• To indicate the parts of the image that you wish to REMOVE, you select the Red “minus sign” icon, then draw a line over that section.
• To ensure that you are happy with the results, simple look at the picture in the “Results” image pane to see what you image will look like.
• Not only can you remove the original background (making it transparent), you can also select different color backgrounds instead if you’d prefer.
• You also have additional editing options, such as changing brush size, adding shades and drop shadows, cropping your image, changing your image borders and much more.
• Once you’re happy with your image edits, simple click the blue “Done” button at the top of the editor to save your image.
• To finalize and use your image in your store, be sure to click the green “Update In Shopify” button under the Product Image section to make sure your new image is live.

That’s it – you now know how to quickly edit your product images on your store.

IMPORTANT: While the In-App Photo Editing tool is available with our Dropified plans, each image requires Clipping Magic credits (the 3rd party image editing service we’ve partnered with) to be purchased and used.

To purchase Clipping Magic credits, simply:

• Log into your Dropified account
• Click on your Profile in the top left tab on your left navigation panel
• Select the “Plan and Subscriptions” tab and you’ll find the “Manage Clipping Magic Credits” section
• Review your purchase options and place your order.

It’s really easy to get set up.

A smart one and here’s why…

When it comes to making their store shoppers feel comfortable buying their products, smart customers know how important it is to use the product reviews from AliExpress in their stores.

Why is this important?

The fact is, potential buyers want to know other people were happy with their purchases. So, seeing positive reviews of the product you’re selling is vital to helping them decide to purchase through you.

The good news is it’s easy to export product reviews from AliExpress and import them into your Shopify store.

Watch this video below to see how easy it is to import and use these product reviews:

Yes, it’s really this easy to import the reviews.

Here’s exactly how to import them:

First, you need to install the free Product Reviews App by Shopified in the Shopify App Store here:

https://apps.shopify.com/product-reviews

Once you’ve installed that app, you’re ready for the next steps:

• Do a product search on AliExpress.com for the product you want to import the reviews from.
• When you’re on that product page, click the Dropified Chrome extension and you’ll get the product popup.
• Scroll down to the Import Reviews section and select the review filter options you’d like to export from AliExpress (i.e. Do you want to export reviews with pictures, personal information or reviews from your country, etc), and you’ll also select how many pages worth of reviews you’d like to export.
• After you select the filters you’d like to use, you’ll then select the Shopify store you’d like to send the results to and then click the “Send to Shopify” button.
• Once you do that, a new “Download Reviews” button will appear with the reviews in a .CSV spreadsheet file for you to save to your computer.
• Now, in order to have the exported reviews be imported into your Shopify store, you need to upload the CSV file into the Product Reviews app inside your Shopify dashboard.
• After you’ve opened up the Product Review app, you’ll click on the Settings tab. Then click the Import button.
• This will open up an “Import Reviews By CSV File” prompt.
• From there, you will choose the Reviews CSV file you saved earlier and select US format for dates option, then you’ll click “Import Reviews.”
• Once the file has been uploaded, the Product Reviews app will display all of the reviews it has imported in the app dashboard.
• To verify the reviews have been imported for the product in your store, go to your stores product page, refresh the page, and the section for Customer Reviews should now be filled with reviews you imported.

That's it – you now have a store filled with customer reviews to help potential buyers feel more comfortable buying the product from you.

It’s really that easy to add real product customer reviews to your Shopify stores.

We highly recommend you start adding the AliExpress reviews to the products in your stores to help new customers feel more comfortable and get great feedback about your products.

This feature is available on our dropshipping plans… so be sure to subscribe, log in, and then import your AliExpress product reviews today!

Happy Selling!

The Team @ Dropified

• Go to AliExpress.com and find the product page for the product you want to sell
• Click on the Dropified App Chrome Extension
• Then update the product details in the Product Window that opens up, and set the price to $0
• Then click the “Send To Shopify” button and you’re all set – you now have a “Free” offer in your store.

• Click off the Product box that you just had open, then click the Dropified extension again.
• You will see the changes you had made to the offer – now you’ll want to add a Retail value this time.
• Then click the “Send To Shopify” button and you’re all set – you now have a Retail version of that product as well.

To learn more about how Dropified can help your dropshipping business thrive over the coming months and years just click the button below and get started with a FREE TRIAL today!

A smart one and here’s why…

When it comes to running and managing all of their stores, smart customers manage all of their stores in one Dropified dashboard.

Why?

Because it increases efficiency and reduces frustration by managing multiple stores all from one place.

And it’s really simple to set them all up quickly in one dashboard.

See this awesome feature in action here:

Yes, it’s really that easy.

To set up a new store in your dashboard, you simply:

• Log into your Dropified dashboard
• Click on the Stores tab on the left panel
• Then click the “Add Store” button under the “Stores” section

The “Add Store” prompt will open up. When it does, you simply:

• Add the store URL where it’s requested
• Then click “Add Store”

And you’re all done – your new store has been added to your Dropified dashboard and it’s ready to be managed.

If you run multiple stores, you can easily add multiple stores for only $10/month per store, and run them all from your Dropified dashboard. Get started today!

Happy Selling!

The Team @ Dropified

To learn more about how Dropified can help your dropshipping business thrive over the coming months and years just click the button below and get started with a FREE TRIAL today!

• Find the products in AliExpress you want to save
• Open up the Dropified extension and
• Click the “Save For Later” button

• Go to the Products > All Products > Not Connected tab
• Click on the Board button on the product, then select the Board name you wish to add it to
• If you don’t have a board yet, you can select “Add New Board” to create a new board
• And if you want to add multiple products to the same board, select each product in the same category in niche that you want to add, then click Board, then select the Board or create a new one.
• To review your boards, simply go to Products > Boards and you’ll be able to see all the board you created, you’ll be able to create new ones, and you can review all the products in each board.

To learn more about how Dropified can help your dropshipping business thrive over the coming months and years just click the button below and get started with a FREE TRIAL today!

• Find the original product listing on AliExpress
• Click on the Dropified Icon near your browser bar
• Select the store you want the product connected to in the drop down
• Click “Save For Later”
• Then click “View In Dropifed App”
• When the product opens up in the Dropified App, Click the Connections tab
• Then click the blue “Connect To Shopify” button under the Shopify Products section
• After you do that, you’ll get a popup that says “Select Products”.
• Once there, find the new product you want connected – select it – and just like that, the product is now connected in your Dropified App.

• Click on the “Variant Mapping” button on the product you just connected.
• A new page will open up displaying all of the variants available.
• From there, you simple make sure that the variant name listed for Shopify matches the variant name in AliExpress.
• If they do not match exactly, click on the “Change” button for that variant and a popup with variant names will pop up.
• Select the correct AliExpress variant name, and you’re all set.

To learn more about how Dropified can help your dropshipping business thrive over the coming months and years just click the button below and get started with a FREE TRIAL today!