Good customer service has become an important part of the customer experience in e-commerce. Customers expect fast responses, easy returns, and seamless communication across channels. For many online retailers, the challenge is not only to handle more inquiries, but to create a customer experience that builds trust and encourages customers to return.
The experience makes the difference
It has never been easier to start an online store. At the same time, it has never been harder to stand out. Products can be copied, prices compared in seconds, and delivery times are getting shorter. What often determines whether customers return is how they experience shopping with you.
Customer service plays an important role. It affects not only how a complaint is handled or how quickly a customer receives a response. Customer service also influences trust in the company, how the brand is perceived, and the likelihood that customers will shop with you again.
Zendesk highlights this development in its analyses of the retail and e-commerce industry. Customer service was once often viewed as a cost. Today, it is part of the competitive advantage.
Customers expect one continuous conversation
Customers do not think in terms of channels. They simply expect your business to know their history.
A conversation might begin in chat with a question about delivery times. Later, the customer sends an email to change the delivery address, and a few days later wants to return the product. From the customer's perspective, this is one conversation. For many businesses, however, it becomes three separate cases because customer interactions are spread across different systems.
This is why Zendesk identifies omnichannel support as an essential part of modern customer service. A contact centre solution can bring communication from multiple channels together in one place, giving the customer service team a better overview of the customer journey. This makes it easier to provide fast and relevant answers without asking customers to repeat themselves.
Zendesk can be integrated with your online store so that relevant customer and order information is available within the system. This gives the customer service team the information they need in the same workspace as the customer conversation. Below is an example of one of the pre-built integrations available in Zendesk Marketplace, where order information from Shopify is displayed directly in Zendesk.
Example of a pre-built Shopify integration from Zendesk Marketplace, where order information is displayed directly in Zendesk.
AI can resolve inquiries and give employees more time
A large share of customer inquiries in an online store revolves around the same questions. Where is my order? How do I return an item? When will the product be back in stock?
A good help center brings together answers to common customer questions. When this information is clear and kept up to date, customers can find answers on their own. Zendesk AI Agents can use the same information to automatically answer common questions.
AI Agents can also connect to the systems the online store already uses. If a customer asks where their package is, for example, the AI Agent can retrieve information about the order from the online store's order or delivery system and provide an answer in the chat. This allows more inquiries to be resolved automatically from start to finish, without an employee having to take over. Customers can get help around the clock, while the customer service team has more time for cases that require experience, judgement, or personal interaction.
The goal is not to remove personal contact, but to use it where it creates the most value.
When an employee needs to get involved, Zendesk Copilot can help by summarising conversations, suggesting responses, and finding relevant information. This makes it easier to handle complex cases efficiently and provide consistent answers across the team.
For online retailers with major seasonal fluctuations, such as Black Friday or the holiday shopping season, the combination of AI Agents and Copilot can make it easier to manage increased volumes. AI Agents can resolve more inquiries automatically, while Copilot supports employees with cases that require human involvement.
Learn more about Zendesk AI Agents and Zendesk Copilot.
AI Agents: Example of how Zendesk AI can help customers complete a return directly in chat.
Customer service provides valuable insights
Customer service provides insight into what customers actually need help with. When the same questions keep coming up, it can highlight areas that need attention. Frequent questions about delivery, products, or returns may, for example, indicate that information needs to be clearer or that the customer journey could be made easier.
When all inquiries are brought together on one platform, it becomes easier to see what customers frequently need help with and where challenges arise. Customer service therefore becomes more than a department that solves problems. It also becomes a valuable source of knowledge for the rest of the company.
Zendesk can also be used to make product data available within customer cases through custom objects. This gives employees relevant product information in the same workspace and better context when helping the customer. When product information is connected to customer cases in this way, it becomes easier to see which products the inquiries relate to and identify patterns over time.
The data can also be used for reporting and give the company a better overview of what customers are contacting them about.
Illustration of how custom objects can provide relevant product information directly within the customer case.
The image is intended as an example only.
A real-world example: Amundsen Sports
As Amundsen Sports experienced a growing volume of customer inquiries following strong growth, the need for a more structured approach to customer service also increased. More markets and more customer inquiries made it necessary to bring communication together on one platform and establish processes that could scale with the company.
Together with us at Kundelab, Amundsen Sports implemented Zendesk as a unified customer service solution. All inquiries are now brought together in one place, the help center makes it easier for customers to find answers themselves, and Zendesk Copilot supports employees in their day-to-day customer service work.
We also imported more than 500 products as custom objects in Zendesk. This gives the support team quick access to relevant product information directly within customer cases and makes it possible to link inquiries to specific products, production dates, and origin, among other information. It also makes it easier to see which issues occur repeatedly, so the company can follow them up and work more systematically with quality.
The result is not only a better overview, but also a stronger foundation for delivering the customer experience expected from an international brand.
Read the full Amundsen Sports customer story here.
Great customer service is about more than responding quickly
The best online retailers do not compete on price and delivery time alone. They compete on how easy it is to be a customer.
When customer service, the knowledge base, AI, and customer data work together, it becomes easier to provide fast and relevant responses throughout the customer journey. This creates a better experience for customers, a more efficient working day for employees, and a stronger foundation for future growth.
Technology is important, but it only creates value when it supports workflows and makes it easier to deliver good customer experiences. Choosing a customer service platform is therefore about more than functionality. It is about how the company wants to interact with its customers.
Learn more about Zendesk and ticketing systems here.
Wondering how Zendesk can help improve customer experience and customer service in your online store? Get in touch with one of our Zendesk experts for a no-obligation conversation.