In our recent Customer Experience Series, Mashable dove deep into the mysterious alchemy of customer service. Those who own their own business will tell you: Getting (and keeping) customers is not easy. There are so many different factors that must work together perfectly within a company to ensure that fans of your brand stay happy.
Whether its making sure that your ecommerce platform doesn't drive your users crazy or organizing your social media to build your community, forethought is key to a premium customer experience. These articles will give you comprehensive knowledge of many facets of digital customer service, with expert advice from community managers, CEOs and web designers.
Here's a roundup of all of our articles, brought together into this handy guide. To read more, click through to the full article, and you can access the entire series here.
1. 7 Ways to Lower Your Website's Bounce Rate
Businesses need to make sure their first impressions reel in the visitor to keep the person on your website and engaged with your brand. To help you combat pesky bounce rates, we've put together a list of usability considerations that can be used to lower your site's bounce rate and improve visitor retention. From optimized page layouts to faster loading, there are a number of ways to keep web surfers hooked.
2. 10 Essential Features of Every Good Business Website
So your business has a website — or you're in need of one for your brand new venture. Web design can be an overwhelming process, so we've spoken to a few web designers who told us what you need to have on your site … and what you can probably do without (like crazy Flash animation). We've gathered 10 website must-haves that will ensure your customers have a positive experience on the site, improve your company's digital footprint and increase engagement with your brand.
3. 8 Killer Web Form Builders for Your Site
So you have your website set up with all the necessary features, but what about customer feedback? You have to be prepared to field the questions and concerns of your users, and nothing really does that better than a form.
However, not all form builders are created equal. While they all seem to have some basic parts, there are special details and customizable options that make each builder unique. Here are eight great form-building options to choose from — find the one that fits you and your company's needs.
4. What You Need to Know About Building a Mobile App for Your Brand
In case you haven't noticed, most of your potential customers have gone mobile. Last June, consumers began spending more time on mobile apps than on the web, according to researcher Flurry.
While creating a mobile website seems like an easy, cheap way to maintain visibility in this environment, another option is to create your own app. A few years ago, that wouldn't have made any sense. But now prices have come down, the audience has grown and there's a good chance that if you don't have a mobile app, your competition will offer one.
5. 10 Ways to Optimize Your Ecommerce Site for Google Search
Ecommerce websites have several inherent qualities — shallow copy, duplicate content and a large product catalog — that make it challenging to achieve a high Google ranking. But there are some best practices you can employ, in addition to traditional SEO techniques, to help your ecommerce site gain traction on Google.
6. 4 Ways To Make Your Ecommerce Site More Visually Appealing
These days, every thriving retail business needs an ecommerce platform. While consumers flock to major online outlets like Amazon and eBay to get their share of products, smaller stores can benefit from the draw an online storefront can give them.
Ecommerce is definitely the future of sales, but there's one thing that could send your ecommerce storefront to an early demise: an ugly layout. It's plain and simple — no one wants to shop at an unattractive, dated or unintuitive online storefront. Just as a front window display encourages customers to come into your store and take a peek at your wares, the way that your ecommerce landing and merchandise pages look either will entice users to click the check-out button or drive them to other websites.
7. 12 Top Community Managers Share Their Tips for Better Engagement
Engagement is one of the most talked about metrics for ROI. Some argue that the raw number of Likes, comments and retweets don't mean anything. Instead, they point to a fans' level of investment, loyalty and engagement to determine whether social media is "paying off." Mashable gathered tips from a dozen top community managers to help you boost activity on your social platforms.
8. 14 Community-Driven Tips for Better Customer Relationships
Like any other relationship, the foundation you establish with your client or customer is crucial to how the business relationship will develop over time. It requires taking the time at the start, going the extra mile and paying attention to detail.
Customers are more likely to give you their loyalty when they experience consistency and transparency from the initial pitch. They appreciate you being genuine and upfront about your policies — no one likes a half-hearted response or to feel like they've been tricked.
The following are some tips and tricks on how to build relationships with your customers from leaders in communications, PR and social media.
9. 6 Ways to Acquire New Customers via Social Media
We all know social media is an important tool for brand awareness and customer acquisition — but how exactly are you supposed to convert random Twitter and Facebook users into real-life customers? Well, that depends.
Whether you're a clothing shop, a restaurant or a subscription service, you must tailor your strategy so that it makes sense for your brand. That said, there are a few universal ways to help your company attract new faces on the social web.
10. 2 Ways to Fix Customer Loyalty Programs
Consumers aren't as loyal to loyalty programs as they used to be.
Why the dissatisfaction? Let's call it the Groupon factor. Since 2008, there have been a flood of daily deal merchants, like Groupon and LivingSocial, that have filled customers inboxes with irrelevant offers. (Groupon itself has recently employed a Pandora-like "thumbs up, thumbs down" rating system to tackle this problem, which is best illustrated by the example of middle-aged men getting offers for bikini waxes.)
11. 7 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Ecommerce Site
We've all been there. You're all set to buy something, credit card in hand, but for one reason or another you never close the deal.
Maybe the third time you were asked to enter your credit card number you gave in. Perhaps it was the exorbitant shipping costs. Maybe the site crashed.
If you actually want people to stick around and buy stuff from your site, you may want to take note of and avoid these common pitfalls.
Do you have a great customer service story? Tell us in the comments.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ewg3D
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