Customer Service for Dropshipping: The Ultimate Guide of 2024

Your customer service needs to always be at the highest level in order for your dropshipping store to function at its best. Almost 89% of the customers are more likely to repeat the purchase from your store after a positive cutsomer service experience. (Salesforce Research)

The customer is the center of your business and if you don’t pay attention to them, then you will have lots of issues keeping your business running.

Here are a few tips on why customer service for dropshipping is very important. Something you don’t want to disregard from your daily business tasks.

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Important Tips for Having the Best Customer Service

Before I dive into the most important tips, we want you to see an example below of what happens when you have bad customer service.

Also, try typing on TikTok “bad customer service”, and see what you will get. Dozens of negative short videos with millions of views! Well, that’s no joke for any business reputation.👇

Poor customer service can actually break your dropshipping business into a million pieces. Thus, that’s why it is crucial to pay attention to delivering the best customer service.

Now, let’s get to the best tips for delivering good customer service for dropshipping.

➡ Create an Email Address for Dropshipping

Having a bunch of email options can accelerate your growth and maintain the relationships you’re building in your dropshipping store.

If you don’t, then most won’t know how to contact you and rate your services as bad. Customers want to feel connected to you, and this is one of the best ways to do so.

You can try separating your email addresses and segmenting them in what an email is responsible for.

For example, G Suite is always a good way to create emails, of course, you can also use Microsoft email, but Google is definitely easier to use.

Thus, the platform gives you::

• Gmail accounts for everyone at your company
• A suite of office software for your company

Also, avoid using individual personal emails. They are definitely not a good idea to use when you are dealing with customer service for dropshipping.

So, if you can afford it, I advise you to create an email with a domain of your business, like aleksandra@dropshipping.com

Plus, email marketing is crucial for dropshippers. And, thankfully there are numerous email marketing tools to help you run effective marketing campaigns.

For instance, Klaviyo serves as an email marketing and SMS application, helping you handle messages to customers and visitors with greater efficiency.

This app provides your dropshipping business with full control over customer data and interactions. It enables you to turn one-time transactions into lasting connections, while also allowing you to track what prompts a visitor to click, bounce, or make a purchase.

Additionally, Klaviyo’s email and SMS templates can be utilized to automate personalized notifications like price drop alerts, friendly cart reminders, and timely suggestions.

👉 Read about Dropshipping Email Marketing: 16 Best Email Marketing Tools For Shopify.

➡ Live Chats/Social Media Chats

Maybe some customers don’t want to use email. That is why you have to give them other options as well.

If customers aren’t able to reach you by email, allow them to do so by live chat or even by social media.

Being very responsive will always make you look better. Someone may not have time and want a fast reply.

Some great live chat tools you can use are:

• Intercom
• Acquire
• ZoConvert
• Live Chat Inc
• Click desk

As for social media, Facebook, Instagram & TikTok have great chatting options you can use. 

For example, I am personally using Tidio. This marketing tool really follows its motto, “Live Chat Boosted with Bots,” by offering a user-friendly experience.

With an easily accessible live chat widget, your business becomes available 24/7. AI-powered chatbots engage with clients in real time, helping you close more sales. Currently, over 300,000 websites are using Tidio.

Additionally, Tidio provides a straightforward interface and convenient chatbot features.

You can add custom fields and tags, apply conditions in your chatbot flows, and enjoy integrated live chat, and reliable AI & NLP – all at a reasonable price.

Not only that, their multichannel tool synchronizes all your live chat inboxes and messages onto a single dashboard, allowing you to respond to everyone efficiently on one screen. So, this covers your interactions with all of your users on different platforms.

This particular feature receives continuous praise in numerous Tidio reviews, making it one of the most appreciated aspects.

Also, another great tool to try using is Zipchat. I love it!

It is a specialized AI chatbot for e-commerce. It interacts with customers based on their behavior, initiating chats to address their questions and suggest suitable products.

Moreover, its AI can automate up to 92% of customer service interactions, providing order details and clarifying store policies.

The chatbot is available on your site around the clock, managing multiple conversations simultaneously on different topics. It supports over 95 languages and responds to inquiries in under 2 seconds, ensuring instant feedback for customers.

➡ 24/7 Service

Not all time zones are the same. Keeping this in mind, you always want to make sure you are there for all your customers across different regions of the world. 

Other than being on chat 24/7, you can also be available phone-wise. This is done by using a virtual phone system with features like:

• Call Forwarding
• Voicemail
• Text Messaging
• Automated calling

Virtual phone systems are just another way of connecting to your customers faster.

Not only that, but you can also leverage AI tools power to deliver 24/7 customer service.

For example, Tiipe includes a personalized messaging feature. Through analyzing customer behavior and interactions, Tiipe can generate tailored messages that connect with each user personally, resulting in more engagement and improved conversion rates.

➡ CRM

CRM is your virtual marketing buddy. By using CRM, you are able to handle all the customer data such as marketing, feedback, surveys, personal data collection, contact information, etc.

There are many different CRM’s you can use, all of them have their own unique features.

Here are a few I recommend you use when coming to customer service for dropshipping:

• Agile CRM – free software that lets you store up to 50,000 contacts. There are various unique features that enhance the customer service experience. Some of those features are ticketing, canned responses, groups, and much more.
• Freshdesk – contains built-in phone and email capabilities. The best thing about a fresh desk is unlimited contact storage. Some unique features are team inbox, parent-child ticketing, phone, native email, chat capabilities, etc.
• Hubspot – a free CRM solution, great for sales and leads. You can store over 1 million contacts and companies in this CRM! Hubspot will never charge you a penny for it. Unique features are email tracking and templates, reporting dashboards, social media leads, Gmail integration, etc.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 – offers different types of business applications for every industry. By using Microsoft Dynamics you can also create virtual agents without using any code graphic interface. They are great for providing a small amount of information and questions that are commonly asked.
• Zendesk Support – offers many business applications and software. Zendesk has great capabilities in calls, chats, and providing analytics. Some unique features of Zendesk are customer search history, web widgets, and preferred channels.

Here’s my suggestion.

For example, I use Zendesk for customer support, and I’m able to assist customers via phone, chat, social media, and email. This helps in maintain excellent relationships with my customers.

The tool is easy to set up, and it provides a high level of customization. Additionally, Zendesk keeps track of response times, which is a helpful feature.

Plus, it is really helpful for me because I can make targeted lead lists by considering the industry, company size, and job position.

Then, I can use the internal communication tools to automatically reach out to the potential customers on those lists.

➡ Feedback

Feedback is an important step for setting up your customer service plan. Allowing customers to leave feedback is one of the best things you can do for your dropshipping store.

For example, when I go to marketplaces like Amazon or AliExpress and have a particular product in mind that I want to buy, my initial move is typically to look at product pictures and read the descriptions.

So, the next important thing I do is check customer reviews. These reviews are valuable because they give honest feedback about whether previous buyers were satisfied or not. Yes, I go straight to this section! 👇

Your own customers follow a similar pattern. Therefore, it’s crucial to create convincing and interesting content that highlights the unique benefits of your products or services.

So, whatever feedback you receive, will help you know what to do next.

Thus, try asking your customer how the service was, or maybe even call them directly. In other words, stimulate them to leave comments.

Furthermore, you can try even setting up a questionnaire to ask them questions about your services. This is the real success of customer service for dropshipping!

Moreover, there are various ways to display customer testimonials, such as videos, social media testimonials, influencer testimonials, etc. Email is good, social media is more personalized, and calling them can also be a great option.

But, whatever you choose, it is great to use these customer testimonials for marketing purposes as well. For instance, see how Startup Institute gets use of that. 👇

Well, they make these customer testimonials look like “love letters”.

➡ FAQS

If you are a big dropshipping store and don’t have enough time to deal with millions of questions, try creating an FAQ on your website. To help you with, here’s our dedicated FAQ for dropshipping stores. 

When people are looking for questions to be answered, FAQS is the best option for it. You may be asking what kind of questions should I put up?

Here are a few examples:

• When will my order be delivered?
• What types of payment do you accept?
• Do I have to pay the shipping tax?
• Do I have a warranty policy?
• How can I return my product?

There are also many other questions you can ask, but these are just a few examples.

Also, if you don’t have any ideas on how to do it, you can ask ChatGPT for ideas. So, you can use prompts like “I need a well-structured FAQ page that addresses customer queries regarding shipping, returns, and product information. Could you assist me with that?”

Let’s try it out.👇

NOTE: How to Reduce AliExpress Shipping Times in 2024

➡ Have Detailed Descriptions 

When you put a product up for sale, the last thing you want to do is not describe it in depth. So, this is crucial when it comes to delivering the best customer service for dropshipping.

According to a study done, it was shown that lack of proper product description was in the top 3 reasons why people will return a product. This accounts for nearly 25% of the time someone orders something!

So, keeping this in mind, what can you do? Make sure your product description:

• It is simple and easy to read
• Deeply describes what the product is for, what it is built out of, what is the target audience.
• Include “we are not responsible for”, “you have to”, etc.
• Try including a live chat to further describe the product.

However, there are various automation tools that can help you with this matter. For example, Shopify Magic can assist you in writing SEO-friendly product descriptions, and in the voice expression you need.

Hence, you only need to give a few instructions. Thus, let’s try this out for the product I am just adding to my store.👇

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Benefits of Having Great Customer Service

Customer service is important to have in your dropshipping store, there are a number of benefits that lie behind it. Here are the most major ones:

• Loyal customers – when you have loyal customers, that also means you will have more purchases. Once customers think about you, they will know that you are the right online store to go with. According to a study done by Forbes, customer retention causes profits to increase from 25% to 95%. Also, existing customers are 50% more likely to buy more products compared to newer customers.
• Fewer refunds – refunds are normal but when you have bad services, they may get out of hand. When you are good at customer services, product descriptions, a refund will only be necessary if the customer changes their mind!
• Word of Mouth – Nobody can keep positive feedback about a business to themself. When you get good reviews from your greatest customers, they will tell others about it. It is the snowball effect. When one person is satisfied, it will just multiply one by one.

What to Never Do in Customer Service

There are a few things that you always want to avoid in order to have one of the best services out there. Here are a few things you want to always avoid:

• Being unresponsive – If you lack flexibility in communication options, potential customers will run away from your services faster than you can imagine. Don’t ever be unresponsive. Be there for your customers, always.
• No product descriptions – The top 3rd reason why customers return products. They may not fully understand the product and think it is something they want while it may not be that way!
• No return policies – A big reason you may fail in having a successful store. Make sure that you always have a return policy. Nothing can always go right, so be sure that you are ready for it. When you have a return policy, your buyers will also feel more comfortable.
• Bad shipping quality – Taking forever to ship a product or shipping un-quality things is a very bad thing to do. Nothing will make you go out of business faster than this.
• Fraud – You wouldn’t be surprised how often this happens. Many stolen credit or debit cards can be used to purchase an item. According to a survey done by NRF, it was shown that over 90% of retailers experience thief returned purchases! Stolen merchandise was one of the main frauds that occurred. You want to keep a huge eye on this.

NOTE: Join the best forums about Dropshipping and listen to Dropshipping Podcasts to stay updated and learn more about the industry.

What Channels To Choose for Your Dropshipping Store?

The real question is what kind of channels are best to use for your dropshipping store? Here is a step-by-step guide for choosing the right channels:

1. Email

As I mentioned before, you must have an email address somewhere on your website. Include a “Contact Us” tab on your website. You can try including your email address with an email icon, or social media icons, or directly have a template for it. Here is what we mean:

2. Live Chat 

Every time you visit a dropshipping store and see a live chat button on the bottom right corner, it means you can directly chat with customer support directly.

If you see the top bottom right, that is the live chat button. It pops up directly when some customer visits a website. It is a great way of always being there when the customers need it. Live Chats are great for speaking with your customer directly, so this is a great chance of being very responsive when they are in need of it. 

3. Phone Number

Include a phone number on your website. To let people reach you easier, it would be best to make it on Viber or Whatsapp. Include your number at the top of the website, the bottom, or even on the “Contact us” page that we mentioned above. If you operate in the USA, then customers outside of the USA can just contact you on WhatsApp or Viber to avoid additional costs. 

4. Social Media

Always make sure to include your social media profiles at the bottom of the page. Reaching out on social media can be one of the easiest forms of communication. Try using the most popular social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Here is an example of how it should be at the very bottom of a website.

A Few Customer Service Apps on Shopify 

If you built your dropshipping store on Shopify and are considering about customer service for dropshipping on Shopify, then here are some of the best-rated apps on the platform:

• Reconvert Upsell & Cross-Sell
• Whatsapp chat + Abandoned Cart
• Loox Product Reviews and Photos
• AfterShip Order Tracking, Emails & SMS
• Smile: Rewards & Loyalty
• Tidio – Live Chat & Chatbots (check our Tidio Chatbot Review)

Browse our Ecom Apps Directory to find more customer service apps.

There are many more options offered by Shopify but of course, we showed you one of the top-rated apps. Shopify also has its own customer service chatting app, which can be helpful but isn’t the best out there.

These apps can be installed like plugins and then will be installed on your dropshipping site.

Conclusion

This was our ultimate guide on how you can use customer service for dropshipping to your advantage. It is something you don’t want to disregard when you are dealing with dropshipping.

There have been many online stores that have failed immensely just because of their lack of customer service.

That is why we are here to help you and make sure it never happens to you!

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