The global wellness market was already booming before Covid-19 took over the world but since the beginning of the pandemic in spring of 2020, it’s like the wellness industry has been on steroids - pun intended. Specifically sporting goods and fitness equipment saw increases in sales during the pandemic, which have since evened out again but if you open any social media app, you’re bound to see an ad about some form of fitness or sports equipment. With predictions that the market will increase from $347B in 2022 to $578B in 2030, customer support and operations need to keep their reps up or be left at the starting line while the rest of the industry sprints. Read on below to get everything you need to know about customer support for online fitness businesses.
Managing Product Variations and Specifications
When it comes to understanding the difference between a cork yoga mat to a pilates mat to a microfiber towel mat, it’s important that your customer support can speak to your customers like they’re a Yogi themselves. There’s way too many product variations in the wellness world not to invest in the right people to ensure your customers trust your brand because of how informed your people are. Being able to manage all of your SKU’s and the variations that come with them is pivotal to building a healthy relationship with your customers.
Streamlining Shipping and Returns
Investing in the right people and team for your customer support will take the weight off of your shoulders when it comes to managing shipping and turns of your products. This process should be as streamlined as your favorite flow workout. But also your team should be able to go back and forth with your suppliers and distributors to ensure communication channels stay up to date and that what can be automated within the supply chain, actually is automated. If you can do a work out in an augmented reality mirror, you can automate your return processes.
Responding to Diverse Customer Inquiries
Responding to customers is par for the course. But being able to take on any questions that come your way will set apart a professional customer support team from an amateur one. A good customer support team should be able to run with the ball and never have to escalate anything to you. You should run your business with peace of mind knowing the customer support team is managing all customer inquiries. If this is not the case then you need to rethink your customer support playbook.
Building Customer Trust
Efficiency means everything to athletes so why not apply that same methodology to how you service your customers. If you want your customers to trust your brand, then they’re going to expect that you not only know what you’re talking about but also that you are actually available to talk to them. With the right support team in place, your response times to your customers could be as quick (if not quicker) than Usain Bolt.
The role players become the closers
Once you’re able to address customer inquiries in an efficient and timely manner, you now have a channel built out that will allow you to sell more products. In this case the supporting role player becomes the closer the same way MJ passed up the shot to Steve Kerr to clinch the ‘97 Finals. Enable your support team with the tools they need to effectively address your customers and watch your sales flourish.
Seamless Customer Support Management
We’ve been running the customer support race for a while. We learned the hard way on how not to drink water in a marathon so that you don’t choke. The name of the game for Dedication Agents is speed, efficiency, and seamless integrations. Through our dashboard, we set you up with everything you need to hit the ground running in as little as 48 hours. We’ll use the dashboard to track the health of your responses, your automations, and general communication between our team and yours so that you can focus on doing what you do best.
We Scale as you Scale
As your fitness influencers continue to use your products on TikTok, your orders naturally will scale. Our team stays ready to handle this scale, no matter how large or how small your store is. Our platform and service is designed by e-commerce experts for e-commerce sellers and so we know sales can fluctuate month to month. No matter if your brand is going through primetime or the off season, our team scales up and down, staying ready to provide your brand with support without breaking the bank
If you’re in the sporting goods and fitness industry, you know how competitive everyone is already. Everyone is looking for that edge that sets them apart from the competition - and we don’t mean what goes on with those Olympic scandals. You need a team that is going to support your business, from head to toe, from game 1 to game 7. The same way if you aren’t investing in your health, you’ll get nothing out of your body, if you aren’t investing in your business’ support and operations, your customers won’t get anything out of your business.
The Dedication Agents team is the one for you if you’re looking for teammates that will manage the complexities around your products and operations, manage your shipping and fulfillment supply chains, and ensure your customers are kept informed every step of the way. No business is too large or too small for our team - just give us the playbook on your business and we’ll run with the rest.
