As the owner or administrator of an e-commerce website, you need to be able to get and give feedback from your existing and potential customers. You need to create a community support forum through which your target market and the public can raise questions and concerns and get a response from you.
Getting it right with Zendesk
Back in October 2015, Zendesk introduced a new version of Community for Zendesk Help Center. This new version gives administrators a lot more flexibility to post various types of content. There are several new features and this includes an API.
With this new Community, you can do so much more to offer your customers support. Previously, the focus was on Community as a tool of support. The way it worked was that users would ask questions and get answers for them, just like a ticket interaction. There is greater flexibility with new Zendesk Community where it's not just about questions and answers but also posts and comments.
The new Community goes beyond support interaction. The focus is now on interactions with a primary objective of getting end-users to engage with each other. It is also now possible to build the kind of community you want; a place to collect requests for features, a forum for offering support or a platform where people with similar interests can engage with one another.
The following tips will help you to engage your customers effectively on your Zendesk community;
1) Minimize the time spent searching
To begin with, keep the forums to four or even less if possible. You don't want users to have to look at so many forums to find what they are looking for. If you have too many forum subjects, put similar or related ones together to create fewer forums. You can then create different topic posts for each area.
This will work to create conversation starters which will attract members. As the different forums grow, you can create new ones to focus on specific areas of interests.
2) Keep it going
You have to spark conversion and keep it going. Members will tend to respond rather than initiate conversion so keep stoking the fire. Ask questions and invite comments for instance about your products and the experience a customer had on your website.
3) Keep things interesting on your website
Keep things interesting with content that answers the questions your customers may have. Make use of publishing sites like e-zine which have articles that you can publish on your site as long as you adhere to the given conditions. The main ones are to publish the articles without editing them and to retain links as they are.
4) Keep your finger on the pulse
It is also important to stay updated. One form of content you want to publish on your blog or website is news. You will attract and retain members if they know that they can find the latest news on what they are interested in on your website. Mix with opinion pieces from noted experts or popular personalities.
5) Keep going
It may be slow the first weeks or even months after you launch your website. Don't give up. Keep posting articles, promoting your community content and reminding friends and families to check it out and asking questions and making comments to spark a conversation.
Over time, your website or blog will grow to a point where you don't have to post fresh content every day. Most importantly, you will have built a client base that you can directly sell products and services to or indirectly as an affiliate.
