Small group workshops to help you learn, optimize, and grow.
.svg){kind=logo}
One of the eternal truths of retail is that things will inevitably go wrong. It’s simply a question of numbers - if you’re lucky enough to be offloading large amounts of stock, eventually some of those units will somehow malfunction, or the deliveries will run into trouble, or some other common problem will rear its head.
The common denominator here is that something will happen that will make the customer unhappy, and you’ll need to make it right. A common mistake many sellers make is thinking the customer journey is over once they click “Buy”.
Post-purchase communication with customers is one of the most important factors separating a well-regarded brand from one with a bad reputation. Good support means the difference between loyal customers that keep coming back and customers that leave at the first sign of a slightly better deal somewhere else.
Amazon’s Product Support Program (PLS) helps brands establish their product support, allowing them to have direct communication with customers on everything from troubleshooting and technical support to parts replacement and other functions, helping buyers fix any issues they may have. The main objective of the program is to reduce the likelihood of returns and let the customer maximize the value they get from their purchase throughout the entire product lifecycle.
Where support is absent, chances are that customers will resort to returning their purchase. This is an area that sellers don’t pay enough attention to - it may seem counterintuitive, but just because you get revenue from sales doesn’t mean you always get to keep it all. Refunds from returns can have an outsized effect on your profits - a return rate of just 5% can result in between 30% and 40% of your margin being cut on any given product, and can bleed out to your wider business.
Diagnosing the issues that are leading to returns, and by extension refunds, is not something that brands are always good at, making good communication even more vital.
Even more distressing - it takes three new sales to compensate for each returned order. The good news is that as of last year, brands that are enrolled in PLS have seen reductions of 68% through Amazon. While refunds may still happen directly with the brand, they cost far less and avoid many of the fees tied to Amazon returns.
This is especially important during new product launches, where customers don’t necessarily know what the product is, how it works, or if it works. At this stage, positive reviews are the lifeblood of your business, and if you start racking up negative reviews at that early phase, you might as well close that product line right then and there. Just 5-10 negative reviews can be enough to render your new venture useless.
Customers will always bring their business back to brands that they’ve had positive experiences with in the past. Here’s the important thing to keep in mind: a good customer experience doesn’t always mean perfect - if something goes wrong, the way that a business deals with it, the way they help the customer overcome their hurdles, can itself be a positive experience.
“I bought the thing and it worked” is good. “I bought the thing, had a problem with it, but the company sorted everything out quickly and took care of me” can be even better. An effective approach to PLS lets you turn a potentially negative experience into something that reinforces brand loyalty - don’t miss out on that chance!
For customers, having a destination you can go to answer your questions as easily as possible will go a long way to making that feeling go away, as the chances of it being resolved improve dramatically. Sellers on PLS are not limited to any single market, either - it’s available in 7 of Amazon’s largest country markets and 6 languages.
Enrolling in PLS is one thing, but taking full advantage of it is another. You need to have a centralized product support hub - enter Onsite Support, which delivers a complete, customized solution support solution based on the needs of your business.
Onsite helps brands set up a more personalized customer support experience with a suite of tools designed to alleviate common problems like returns and negative reviews. Onsite creates custom landing pages for brands, where they can centralize all their customer support through one portal. For customers, it means a convenient place where they can sort out their problems as quickly as possible and, hopefully, without the need to return anything.
Onsite lets you add a “Get Product Support” button directly on your Amazon orders page, opening up a more direct link straight to your branded helpdesk, where you have more control. This gives you a huge amount of latitude when it comes to helping buyers with any frustration they may have.
Is the product not working the way they expected? Direct them to a tutorial video that shows them how to use it properly. Are they having technical issues? Have how-to guides and other references ready for them to look at. The name of the game is giving them everything they need to be convinced that they’re better off keeping the item than sending it back.
Even with a great collection of detailed resources, it might not be enough for people to find everything themselves. Make sure you include ways for them to contact you directly - give them the ability to fill out forms where they can include as much detail as they can. You can even build functionality for chatbots that can help point them in the right direction before a human has to intervene (which you can also build in with live chats). Anything you can think of that makes the post-purchase experience as smooth and hassle-free as possible for them should be included.
Ultimately what it all comes to is customer satisfaction, and by extension, loyalty. You want the people who buy from you to stay with you, and enrolling in PLS will go a long way to help you do that. Visit Onsite Support today to see how your brand can maximize the use customers get from your products.
Threecolts is a comprehensive suite of advanced ecommerce software solutions. We're designed to empower retail vendors and marketplace sellers on Amazon, Walmart, and beyond. Our tools optimize every aspect of ecommerce operations to ensure maximum profitability.
For sellers aiming to earn through reselling, Tactical Arbitrage helps you find hidden deals 5X faster. ScoutIQ provides instant insights for scoring in stores. DataSpark helps you get your next bestseller on Walmart Marketplace across over 14 million products in its database.
If you want to sell globally without storing, shipping, or risking money on inventory, SellerRunning simplifies cross-border dropshipping. We let you manage and expand your ecommerce business across multiple Amazon marketplaces seamlessly.
Managing products across leading ecommerce channels has never been easier either. ExportYourStore ensures hassle-free cross-listing and product syncing. Meanwhile, Hemi integrates over 100 ecommerce platforms, handling everything from inventory to logistics.
For efficient financial operations, FeedbackWhiz Profits offers a robust ecommerce accounting solution. We give you total control over your finances. You can track earnings and spending and visualize financial data without much effort.
You can also enhance your customer service with ChannelReply. Centralize marketplace communications through order data alongside support tickets from major marketplaces. Meanwhile, Onsite Support combines AI tools and custom-built help centers to amp up your support capacity. With these two, you can ensure that your customer service team can do more with less work.
Simplify Amazon operations with InventoryLab. It's an all-in-one solution that enhances everything from sourcing to logistics to accounting. We make inventory management and business workflows as streamlined as possible, so you won’t have to think about it.
Protect your profits with our advanced recovery solutions. DimeTyd Amazon helps 1P vendors recover lost revenues from overbilling and inventory discrepancies. DimeTyd Walmart simplifies the process of disputing unacknowledged shipments and organizing deductions. DimeTyd Sellers offers comprehensive monitoring and dispute resolution for Amazon FBA.
Automate your pricing strategies with SmartRepricer. We'll help you stay competitive by adjusting prices automatically based on custom rules. You can make sure that you always win the Buy Box with just a few clicks.
Finally, safeguard your online reputation with our reviews and alerts solutions. FeedbackWhiz Emails lets you handle Amazon review requests with personalized feedback campaigns. CR Feedback offers cost-effective feedback gathering for eBay and Amazon review requests. FeedbackWhiz Alerts keeps you informed with timely notifications on reviews, threats to your listings, and other important events.
