Customer Service Ideas for Website

Hi Everyone,
I am a newbie to ecommerce and in the process of designing my website, but the concern I have is finding customer service agents. Considering that I'm new to ecommerce and therefore, I do not have money to pay large fees for hiring agents, what is the best course of action?
My question is:
1. How did YOU find affordable customer service agents who are knowledgeable of your product for your website?
2. What software did you use?
Please Help and Thank you!
LadyC

 

For a low budget new ecommerce site you will probably need to handle customer service yourself until you generate enough cash flow to hire someone. By the time you get to that point you will probably have contacts to find a suitable service.

I have my own site (not strictly an ecommerce site) but due to the extreme variety and technical nature of my products I do all of the customer service myself. Further, I have never found a suitable ecommerce program, so I do all of the programming and maintenance myself.

 

Thank you so much Mmerlinn for your reply!
I am curious though, how do you time manage running your site with answering inquiries?
Is there a certain time of day that you only answer questions?
My site will be a large ecommerce store with many products. I don't know how I would handle answering numerous customers at a time because I am a solopreneur.
I have seen companies such as Zendesk etc. and chatbot software, but they will only be able to answer general questions. They won't be able to answer the technical questions of my products.
I'm trying to understand how other sites find agents through live chat software that are knowledgeable of their products?

 

Most of my inquiries are via phone with the rest via email. I handle them as I get them.

I have 50,000 part numbers assigned and adding more as time allows. Of those, I probably have 10,000 in stock.

My site is very niche oriented which limits the inquiries and sales, but allows for very large margins and allows me time to take care of my customers.

I get calls from established businesses, probably averaging once every year or so per business and calls from the public who seldom need me more than once every five to ten years.

In other words, I have a very low volume high profit business.

 

Thank you so much Mmerlinn and Sarahk,
I am still putting together the business model (low volume - high margin etc.) and yes, funding is needed. Doing research, I'm thinking I may need sales agents that specialize in my niche.
Still researching...

 

what products u are arranging to sell it?

 

Hi Sunny Sofia,
My products will vary.