Let’s be real, your Indie Beauty Brand is like your baby and you love spending time working on it. But you’re most likely doing it all, and wearing all the hats. You’re a one-woman show and you’re struggling to do everything and still have time to live your life. I get it! That’s why I want to share with you 5 easy ways to spend less time on customer service without sacrificing quality in your support.
If you’re finding yourself taking a few days or even a week to respond to emails from clients, it’s time to set systems in place.
Why is time important in customer service?
You’ve been on both sides of the inbox. You understand that it’s really upsetting when a company you’ve bought from or want to buy from takes forever and a day to get back to you.
But you also know first hand what it feels to have a flood of emails waiting for you in your inbox. Inbox zero feels like an impossible dream at this point.
What’s clear is that time is key and the longer you take to respond to your customers, the less likely they are to buy from you or recommend you to their friends.
In some instances poor customer service or really slow response times can drive a customer to request a refund or take other measures. Your beauty brand can take a big hit if this happens.
It’s much easier to sell to an existing customer than to get a brand new one. So if your customer service is costing you clients instead of boosting customer loyalty…? Well, it’s not good!
But how can you provide exceptional customer service without spending your entire day in the inbox? You built your beauty brand to work on the beauty side, not the admin side, right?
So it’s essential for you to be as efficient as possible with your customer service so that you can spend more time doing the tasks that will grow your business (and that are tons more fun!).
What is a good customer service response time?
Ideally as short as possible. But, again, one-woman show. So taking that into consideration, you’ll want to respond to emails from your customers within 24-48 hours.
That may feel like sooo little time and an impossible task. But it’s doable if you have the right systems and strategies in place.
If you’re exceptionally busy or you’re taking time off and you know you won’t be able to respond to emails within a 48 hour timeframe, use your ‘vacation mode or out of office’ email autoresponder.
Enabling this feature will send an email back to anyone who emails you letting them know that response times are higher than usual and to expect a response within X amount of days.
That way, people won’t follow up with you after a day, making your inbox an even bigger mess.
Now that we’re on the same page about why it’s important to save time on customer support and what customer service response time you should aim for, let’s talk details.
5 easy ways to spend less time on customer service (and boost customer satisfaction!)
1. Use Canned Responses For Frequently Asked Questions
As a beauty brand owner, you’re going to be responding to the same questions over and over again. That’s a fact.
Sometimes the questions will be a bit more nuanced, each person is different after all. But the main concept will be the same. Most customer service reps answer each question manually, even if it’s been asked a hundred times before.
But not you. Not anymore.
You’re going to create canned responses from your most commonly asked questions.
Choose the response (or write it from scratch) that addresses the question at its core and leave blank spaces where there’s customizations to be made.
Canned response template example:
“What’s the difference between X and Y products? I have ABC condition and I’m not sure which one would help me the most”
Hey [NAME],
Thank you for dropping by [BRAND NAME]! I’m so honoured that you’re interested in [BRAND PRODUCT COLLECTION].
That’s a good question! I designed both products to be the best solution to [PROBLEM PRODUCT SOLVES] but they’re not the same.
Product X is better suited to [TYPE OF PEOPLE/CONDITION/NEED] so that you can [DESIRED OUTCOME]. On the other hand, Product Y can help [TYPE OF PEOPLE/CONDITION/NEED] even if [OBJECTION OR HEALTH CONDITION].
Since you have ABC condition, I would recommend you go for Product Y. It’s going to help you [DESIRED OUTCOME] without causing a reaction or worsening your ABC condition.
I’ve heard from many people with that condition say Product Y really helped them with it!
Let me know if you have any questions!
With love,
Jane Doe
The canned response is shown in red colour. If you need to customise it with details specific to that client, you can add a paragraph with that information.
In the example above, the customised part is shown in teal.
Using canned responses will help you save tons of time writing the same responses so that you can use that time in adding custom notes for clients that make them feel like you’re taking the time to listen to their problem and help them.
2. Create a Frequently Asked Questions page on your website
While using canned responses in your inbox can help you quickly get back to anyone who emails you, this one is going to reduce the need to email you.
You want to make it as easy as possible for people to find the answer to their questions so that they can skip unnecessary steps and go straight to buying your amazing beauty products.
The best way to go about doing this is to have a Frequently Asked Questions section in your website.
Begin by making a list of the questions and concerns that come up regularly and list them in your FAQ page.
Include detailed responses for each question so there’s no room for confusion or feeling like you didn’t answer their query.
Your FAQ page can point them to your customer support email if they still have questions, which will make them feel like you’re there for them. They’ll think you’ve gone above and beyond to solve their questions and chat with them if they need further help.
Make sure your FAQ page is visible from anywhere on your website. It won’t be any help if people can’t find it (duh, right?). Include it on your menus and mention it on product descriptions.
3. Get clear on your policies and how you want to apply them to say in alignment with your core values
I bet you’ve spent more time thinking of how to handle a situation than writing the emails to the customer, haven’t you? It just happens.
And while there will always be exceptions, there’s something you can do to spend less time on this.
You want to get crystal clear on your policies and how you want to apply them. That way, the next time something comes up, you know what to do and you won’t waste hours marinating the decision.
Do you offer refunds on your beauty products? Cancellations? Exchanges?
If so, how long do they have to request one? What do they have to do to submit their request? What happens if they submit it out of the timeframe you set?
Will you have any unspoken ‘grace periods’ or exceptions you’re willing to make?
For example…
- Grant a refund if the customer submits the necessary info within 24 hours of the official “refund period” expiring.
- Process a cancellation if it’s requested within 24 hours of purchase.
- If you have a no-refunds policy in place but the customer writes in needing one because of dire circumstances (ie. suddenly lost her job and she’s the sole breadwinner of the family).
Understanding your policies and your exceptions makes it easy to address people’s needs without feeling like you’re being unfair to your other customers or like your decisions go against your core values.
It’ll also save you tons of time not needing to think about each case individually and acting one way or another randomly even when the cases are similar.
4. Create a library of your most important links and resources to save precious time
You’re going to be referencing your products and other valuable resources a lot in your emails. So whether it’s pointing people to specific products, or sending them to relevant how-to articles on using your products, you need to have easy access to these.
Sure, visiting your website, browsing until you find the product or blog post and then copy-pasting the link won’t take you longer than 30 seconds.
But multiply that by the hundreds of emails you could have in your inbox and that’s a LOT of time you’re wasting just fetching links every. single. day.
If there’s something more tedious than admin tasks, it’s unnecessary admin tasks. You don’t have time to spend fetching links, love.
Create a Google Sheet and include the name of the product or resource and the link.
The next time you’re responding to people’s emails, have this spreadsheet open in a separate window and you’ll be able to grab those links much faster!
You can use the search command within Google Sheets to find the item you’re looking for in 2 seconds flat.
Now your lovely customers will get the links to products, blog posts and legal pages they need without taking you extra time!
5. Batch Your Customer Service Tasks To Create A Better Customer Experience For Your Customers
I know for many Indie Beauty Brands it’s impossible not to keep an eye on your inbox and strive to respond as soon as a new email pops in. Even if you really dislike responding to emails, the urge to check and respond 24/7 is real.
But you have more important things to do to move the needle forward in your business, don’t you?
Here’s what I recommend. Batch your customer support tasks! Decide how many times a day you’re going to be checking your inbox and schedule it in your calendar.
I don’t recommend checking your inbox more than twice a day unless you have a high-volume of emails to take care of (due to a launch, for example). But if this is the case, you’d benefit from hiring a customer service representative.
Block this time in your calendar, preferably the same time every day so it becomes a habit. And do NOT check your inbox at all outside of these timeblocks.
This will free up your mind from worrying about incoming emails knowing you’ve got time booked to do this later in the day. You’ll be able to get your other tasks done with more ease and less distractions!
Answering your emails on specific times a day instead of at any time will also help you stay focused. No getting distracted by other tasks you need to do. Having your spreadsheet with resources nearby.
Just one goal: respond to your customers and boost customer satisfaction!
You’ll be an inbox zero hero in no time and your customers will LOVE you!
Are You Using Any Of These Customer Service Tips To Spend Less Time On Your Inbox?
To recap, here’s an overview of my top 5 tips to save time on customer support and keep your clients happy:
- Use canned responses for the most frequently asked questions, and leave room for customizations if you want to give it a personal touch.
- Create a Frequently Asked Questions page on your website and feature it in a visible place so your visitors can get the answers they need without having to email you.
- Get clear on your policies and the exceptions. You’ll cut your thinking time in half and you’ll always respond in a way that’s fair to all of your customers.
- Create a library of your most important links and resources to have every link you need at your fingertips.
- Batch your customer service tasks! If you’re not able to outsource it, block time in your calendar to manage your inbox once or twice a day and stick to it. You won’t have distractions while responding to emails and you won’t have to worry about unanswered emails while doing your other tasks!
Let me know how you get on with them if you try them! I know they can totally transform your brand and leave you more time to work on the tasks you actually love doing!
