Allow Customer Questions for Products
There are many pieces of valuable content at the product level that can ultimately help a customer decide to purchase. The obvious and most talked about ones are of course a competitive price, quality images, a thorough description, and positive customer reviews, among others (not including a sale or coupon). However, one element is often overlooked by merchants: the use of customer questions. Some products are more complex and raise more questions than others, but when done properly, allowing for customer questions can be both an informational and reassuring conversion tool.
For example, the description for a sophisticated electronics device might contain numerous lines of information and advantages over competing products, but the customer’s mind is already made up and he or she just wants to know if it comes with batteries, what the warranty is, or if it’s compatible with any other devices: topics that may or may not be addressed in the lengthy description itself. By enabling this customer to submit a question right at the product level, not only can you demonstrate excellent customer service by providing a timely response (which is emailed to the consumer), but you’re also ensuring that this likely common question and answer is posted on the product page for future reference by other customers with similar interests. Every merchant knows how valuable each visitor is to the success of their online business and the last thing anyone wants is for customers to go searching the web for answers to questions about a product they intended to buy from you in the first place. Before you know it, they’ve found what they were looking for on a competitor’s site and bought from them. On the flip side, by addressing common questions, you can earn a leg up on competition who have neglected to. It’s also not unusual for merchants themselves to ask questions and post responses about their own products on topics that they foresee, making that info that much more available for new products which contain no questions yet.
Nexternal clients can enable questions with a simple check box at the product level and can configure settings such as instructions for leaving questions, a thank you note, and a maximum number of allowable characters in the Questions section of their Order Management System.
Chris is a Senior Account Executive at Nexternal and has been with the company since 2005. Before joining Nexternal he worked in the cloud-based educational software industry. Chris enjoys establishing new relationships with online merchants and working closely with those clients as they grow.
