Why You Should Do Customer Service on WeChat

One side of China’s biggest app, WeChat that is often overlooked is the element of customer service. “In the west” customer service often means sending an e-mail and hoping for the best. Sitting in a queue on a call to a customer service centre that doesn’t really want to talk to you is also common.
Occasionally, you might get a live chat option on a website (Apple actually do a really good job of this) but generally, customer service is badly undercooked.

Selling In China, Selling On WeChat

If you’re selling to China, then you have to sell on WeChat – no argument there. So great! We’ve got our WeChat shop up and running and we’re learning how to promote our products direct to the palms of the hordes of Chinese consumers tapping away madly on their smartphones. We’re getting our payments inside the app, and we’re happy. So far….

Customer Service On WeChat

One thing that is often missed is the power of WeChat as a customer service platform. Makes total sense, right? Of course it does. They found you there, they bought from you there, and now they can feedback to you there.

Did you know that you can send a feedback form or customer research form inside WeChat? Most people don’t , and they’re missing out.

These days developing products and service is all about data (believe us, we build websites for big data companies among others). It’s an easy thing to acknowledge, but a lot of smaller businesses aren’t maximising in this area.
Larger brands and smaller Chinese companies are already well – accomplished in getting to the heart of their consumers problems inside WeChat, so if you’re selling to China, you should really be doing this, too!

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Happy customers in China are active advocates of your brand, so make the most of it

Don’t take our word for it, though. The data from Epilson in a Spring 2016 report shows that two thirds of adults (that’s the 18 to 64 category for this survey) indicated that they likely to pass on reports of a good consumer experience to family and friends.

In addition a whopping 60% reported that sharing on social media is something they would regularly do.

That’s not all! The highest factors highest in influencing a brand’s reputation:

• Realtime interaction between brand and consumer (e.g. a pre-sales enquiry)
• Realtime assistance in solving a problem (e.g. an after sales issue)

This is solid proof of what your customers really want from you in China as of Q2 in 2016.

Why So High On Social Media Referrals?

Culturally a Chinese consumer is more used to making  decisions based on a group consensus than the average westerner. Seeking approval from others and being more “inter-dependent” rather than independent in deciding, plays a much heavier part in the way things are done.

As a result, the way that Chinese consumers are influenced places more emphasis on peer- approval and consequently, word of mouth. Because of this it feels like more of a duty to tell your friends about positive choices you have made, in order to assist them with theirs. I turn, they naturally do this for you. In short, China is the place to focus on networking marketing.

What Next?

If you’re stuck on where to start with Chinese customer service or customer service on WeChat, then drop us a line. We really want to know what problems you are facing with your Chinese customers, especially online, so we can answer your questions and help you navigate the world of Chinese e-commerce. We’re friendly, and we love making time to talk about how you can perform better online in China!!