 So thanks so much to the organizers for having me here and thanks to Robin for that good introduction very nice to be introduced by somebody of your caliber and Thank you to organizers for including this topic in the set of talks for the event because Customer service is something that is often left as a backbone and something that you'll think that you'll get you later But I want to try and convince you that this is a key element of your sales and of your business that will help you to grow your business so I guess If you look at what we did like in the seminar yesterday you guys Focused on building your your WordPress sites and stalling with commerce then you got your SEO up and running Then you did some Facebook ads and all of that Everything that you're doing there is with the intention of getting people to your site and getting sales your return and investment from all that Your return and investment from your activity and your investment of time and money is The return and investments of the sale that you get from the customer that comes to your site Which we know But if you do all of that activity and the customer comes to your site once and Bars that's great, and that's your return and investment But if that customer comes back a second time and bars with you again You've put in the same effort, but your return and investment doubled so this is kind of like where I'm going where customer service becomes really important because if that person can come back a third or fourth the fifth time then that's when your company starts to grow and I've seen a lot of growth on the back of using that as Using it as a tactic. That's not a good word But to use it as part of your luck sales arsenal to use it as part of your company as a strength Then it can really help you a lot to grow your business and to grow your sales So Robinson a really cool job at introducing me so a bit of background about myself is I Cut my teeth and e-commerce in London in 2008. I joined a small startup company was just exploded and I was one of the first guys in and helped a lot with the the growth of the company and I think I was reward. I was recognized because in 2009. I was I got the HSBC award for London's Young Business Person of the Year But 2009 seems like a long time ago a little bit too long But in 2010 I started action gear and 2015 as Robin said we took home the award for the best e-commerce customer service in South Africa and That was a critical kind of recognition like I was super proud of that but it was a critical recognition from our team for the Emphasis that we always placed on customer service and it helped us to grow our business and helped us to grow our sales year on year to the point where last year we were doing pretty much well over 20 million bucks in a year and it's the real interesting thing and You know numbers on just numbers You don't know what that really means but the real interesting part about that kind of turnover and why I wanted to mention it Is that 37% of our sales from last year was returning customers? That's seven and a half million earned with the sales that I might not have had if we weren't offering the best customer service, right? So this is kind of like why I emphasize customer service is being a real key part of your business Because when customers come back and shop with you again, not only is it cheaper for you to bring them back to shop again It delivers like long-term return to you and those people become long-standing customers And that's really what I want you to do so I want to encourage you to do that So now I've started the Ensocate e-commerce Academy where I'm taking my experience knowledge and trying to share with people who want to get into E-commerce so that they can learn how to start and grow their own online store And one of the topics that I love to teach about is customer service. So hopefully today. I will show you how to start Or how to offer good customer service not really good customer service or actually award-winning customer service So that's what we're going to do the five steps that I can offer for you to be able to do this So step number one is to hire the staff that already have the right genes What I mean by that is For quotes. I did these slides last week. Forgive me. So offering great cost great service is built into somebody's personality So this is where a lot of people get it wrong when you when you're hiring your customer service staff People take in somebody and try and train them to be a person that can offer good customer service But there's a certain personality that lends itself to offering good customer service And if you just keep your eyes open, you'll spot them the the waiter at the restaurant That gives you exceptional service that just blows you away And you want to give the guy double tip because he's just so good or the petrol attendant that like really makes your day by being Friendly and like spontaneous and like does everything extra to help you out or when you go to another shop and The customer service person there is really good. Perhaps you go to a competitor and somebody there's really good So if you just keep your eyes open, you'll see them Like for instance a guy who's maintaining the cappuccino machine outside He's such a nice guy. It's such a good conversation with him. And if I was looking for somebody out, maybe go hunt him So one thing I used to do is we would go out and look for great talent So I wouldn't wait for them to come through CV applications I would go out and look for people who are the right type of person My company was in the art or sales section and we used to go to Cape Union Mart to go shopping for customer service people and We did a lot of our team came from Cape Union Mart Which I don't know how ethical it is, but it worked So that's step number one which you can do step two is to share your team's personality through the site because The more customers feel that they know you and your brand and your team the more likely they are to bar with you So don't hesitate to don't think that your company culture is the blanket face that you show to the customers What you want to do is let your your staff and your team members show their own personality so that they can feel free to engage with the Customers and have a laugh and tell a joke and to really let them feel that they're building a one-on-one connection and that helps to go a long way To help the customer to feel they know you they know your company and next on their phone They want to speak to that guy again because I had such a good interaction with them so One of the challenges with e-commerce is that when somebody goes shopping in a bricks and mortar Environment they can have that face-to-face relationship They can go to the back to the same shop and speak to the same guy and they know that and that's why people like to do that So it's very difficult to replicate that into an online situation but through showing your team's personality and allowing the people in your team to be themselves and to tell jokes and Even if it's terrible jokes, let the guy be himself but it really helps to build that relationship and So sharing your personalities through the website brings back that interpersonal connection you'll meet the team page should really have a picture of every single team member on your team and Pictures of them in their natural environments not standing against a brick wall with like a white collar shirt because that's what you told them to wear that day It should really be like if the guys in mountain biker take a photo of him on a mountain bike The guys in motorbiker do the same whatever somebody's personality is let them show that through the site and The thing is that if you've done this correctly and you've gone and found the right people and you're allowing them to be Themselves and if you just let them be themselves and you don't kind of hold them back in any way shape or form Then they'll do what they do best which as we know from step one is that they love to serve people And now you're allowing them to do that for your customers and it's going to show what's returning customers and increasing sales Step three that you guys can do is empower your team to be able to go above and beyond. This is a section where Going above and beyond is what is the game changer? In fact, you don't even have to go above and beyond because us as South Africans are so used to offering or receiving Super average service that as soon as you get like decent service people have blown away They're like, hey, did you see that that was pretty good Or when your parcel arrives like a day before that I was supposed to then people actually like comment about that How bad is that we so used to like average service that as soon as you get a little bit of better service You blown away, but what if you let your team go above and beyond? That's where the real game changer is and Your staff should never need permission from you to be able to do this to be able to help your customers They should be able to do what they want whatever they feel because they are the right people who want to offer the help to the customers And now you're allowing them to do that So they should never need your permission to be able to drive out to go and help a customer or to be able to Stay late so that the customer can come and collect or do something because if you've got the right people They'll want to do that What I've always done which I feel I want to do because I show gratitude to all the people who go above and beyond is I always offer spot bonuses and then I also make a lot of noise about The the good positive stuff that they've done, you know, so if somebody has done something even if it's so little that It seems in significance then we'll still like around the team What I'm no longer in the business But we used to have a Monday morning scrum meeting and every more every Monday morning would begin with positive reinforcing Mentions of people that did cool stuff So if we received an email from somebody who did a customer sent in a positive email We would forward that to the whole team and then in Monday We would talk about that and talk about that situation and you know What was what was it that happened that resulted in a customer actually taking the time out of their day to come And send us an email and then to make a lot of noise about that So you positively reinforce the behavior praise the person who did that give them a bonus give them a spot bonus Or a weekend away because that then like really reinforces the culture within your business and as we know That is what will help to grow your business We saw massive returns on this kind of behavior and it really it was never about getting good returns It's just what we wanted to do. It was what our team was about They're going pretty quickly yeah, but step number four is to over promise and under the wait under promise and over deliver Not the other way around that's where people get it wrong What you want to be doing is Sorry, this okay, so here's what I wanted to mention here is that shipping is really where you make and break your customer service And if you guys have ever been on the receiving end of a late shipment or an incorrect shipment or a dead on dead on a rival product Then you'll know that like that is the experience that you kind of that really resonates with you And it can also be the other way around if the parcel arrives early So take a lot does a super well, they'll always say, you know The shipping will be four or five days, but then you get the next day You know that was quite nice, you know and they do that on purpose because it does several things that always impresses the customer But it also in terms of the strain on the internal team There's no promise to say that this parcel has to be out tomorrow and any business owner here It's probably shouted at somebody to say this parcel has to go out tomorrow and then you phone the courier saying the customer needs it I promised them and that's just putting strain on your internal resources and it's causing a lot of havoc in your team and You can get away from that but by taking the take a lot approach to say, you know Let's under promise and over deliver so tell them it will take two days and take one day or Include something extra give them a little gift with purchase Especially on Christmas time now that we're approaching gift time If you can get a little flash drive or a chocolate or something and put it in the box with them that little bit of extra User experience just kind of like puts a smile on their face and they'll go and tell their friends about it And that brings us more sales So delivering on time. It's what they expect. That's like average service That's you told them it's going to be there tomorrow and they get it tomorrow. Great. Okay, cool But what if you deliver a head of schedule? So you told them three days and they get it tomorrow anyway now that's a wow experience and this is what take a lot seems to have done super well and you just got to keep in mind that the information on your website about your shipping is one of the most read pages when somebody's going through the checkout because When you're placing an order the question that's resonating in the back of your mind is when am I going to get this? So your shipping information has to be super easy to find You know generally will be in the footer or there'll be a link somewhere in the checkout with a spotlight window And you want to answer that question So you never leave that that question unanswered because that's can cause a lot of drop-offs when somebody's like going through the checkout But they still don't know like how long is it going to get this like I ordered a pair of shoes at Shorts or for a really cool website that I like called African made only and After I checked out I got an email to say we're gonna we're not gonna start making your shorts and you'll get them in 10 days Which is okay because I was in no rush But I didn't see that anywhere in the checkout process now if I wasn't a rash I could be upset about that so Having all the shipping information very clearly available Helps because I said that shipping is where you make and break your customer service So firstly you want to tell them what your guidelines are if it's one day tell them one day If it's three days, tell them three days make them not make it very easy to find That's one of the biggest questions that they have and then try and Over-deliver on your promise So you want to kind of use that as a tool because shipping is really the place where you can do everything right in your customer service in your Web page copy and your checkout process can be super smooth and then on the delivery you're a day late and the customer hates you so Yes question cool The last step that I've got for you today is to shout about positive feedback So I mentioned this already Because it is 10 times harder to get a positive positive review than a negative one That's super easy to get a negative one and people love to tell those stories So you got to try your utmost to make people happy When you get positive feedback talk about it like talk about it in your internal meetings ask the customer if you can post about it on social media and We at action gear my last business. We had what we called the raving fan wall, which was a giant wall with like little Frames and we used to print them out and whichever staff member got that positive feedback They had like the ceremony where they go and hang a thing like and it was like I was just for Chris and it was a lot of fun But it really was something proud when we walk past that and you go and you read all the nice feedback That we got from customers because you get you'll get nice feedback Everybody here gets nice feedback and you can either archive that email and forget about it We can go and save it somewhere or print it and frame it and stick it on a wall And that is also a nice talking point where more customers or more clients arrive at your office And they stop and they look at this thing and are wow, geez these guys offer really good customer service It's like because now it's referrals like it's almost word of mouth Even though they're just reading it off a wall, so we used to do that and it all kind of came together to Create a culture where our entire team was truly truly passionate about offering great customer service and and we were very grateful that's In the 2015 you Africa Awards for e-commerce We took home that that top or take beating take lots and but all by and yuppie chef and all of the big names and And it was just off the base of doing kind of what I've spoken about today Encouraging your customers or firstly getting the right stuff into a team the people that actually Inherently want to offer good customer service and then empowering them to do so and then talking about it Making a lot of noise when you get that good customer service or good feedback back from them So really it's an easy process for me it gave a massive amount of additional sales and Getting somebody to shop with you again is far cheaper and far easier than it is to go and find a new customer And this is how you do it So I hope that this has been of interest e-commerce as everybody in this room knows This is the future of business and this is where it's all going and this is why you guys are here and I hope that you've learned lots of the weekend because there's lots of good value that's coming out of this room and If e-commerce is on a hockey stir growth curve or hockey stick growth curve Like we're right at that point where it's now kicking off and you guys in this room are right or getting in at the right time If you came to next year's WordCamp, you might just be too late So don't kind of dwell on this don't hop on it Don't take too long to kind of get your sights up and running like really take this and I'll make this into your life Make this into your business because it really can be a big operation and you can make a success But you can make money that that funds the lifestyle that you want as A very successful business owner with lots of people or as a nomad that lives on a beach in Miami working online Whatever you want you can make it happen through this industry. So good luck