I've written about customer service before but I would like to touch on the subject again because this is such an important issue. In fact, getting the client service aspect of your online (or offline) business perfect could mean the change between success and inability.... I don't care what you may are selling, who that you're selling it to, what service you present or who your audience is, if you don't make the effort to provide top quality customer service, you will definitely come to be losing sales somewhere along side the line. This subject is new in my mind at the present time because I have had cause to make several online purchases over the past week or so and then the levels of service Concerning received have varied appreciably. At one end within the scale I have obtained some excellent service and on the contrary, some companies have definitely ignored my requests just for assistance! This is to be expected I guess (though there isn't any excuse for ignoring paying customers) nonetheless businesses that really get noticed for me are the ones that made the effort to communicate for a 'personal' level. By that I mean taking a few minutes to reply to my emails in place of just ignoring them in the hope that their typical automatically generated emails would have the desired effect. These businesses that went any additional mile to make me feel like a valued customer are people who will reap the rewards later on because I will return to them to purchase once more. It really is so simple that going barefoot amazes me when companies/individuals don't bother to make the effort. So what can you do making sure that your online business offers the right level of customer service? Well here are a small number of ideas to get you actually started.... 1. Ensure that the website has a 'Frequently Wanted to know Questions' (FAQ) page. This will help your customers to choose the answers to their own questions immediately without the need to send an email/make a phone call. As many of you realize, I set up a Support Centre earlier this year with a Knowledgebase of commonly enquired questions. Not only does this help customers collectively reduced my inbound emails considerably. 2. Make sure that your contact details can be located. Online businesses can generally escape with not publishing some sort of telephone number (though if you'd like to do so, even better) but it's critical that a working email address contact info is available for shoppers. Note that I say 'working' email address - if your ISP is filtering your emails regarding spam and junk, then this doesn't really count as it's easy for a genuine email to find sent to the waste bin in error. 3. It's best to set your sales site up to ensure that when a purchase created from, a confirmation email is automatically transport to the buyer. This lets them realize that their order has ended up received and confirms to be being processed. I can't stand it when I spend cash online and don't even get a message confirmation! 4. Answer all emails/enquiries within round the clock. That said, I actually think that twenty four hours is too long to attend for a reply from a business online. I have always stated on my sites which i will respond within twenty four hours but most emails are answered within 8 a lot of time absolute maximum. If a business online can't/won't respond to me within day, then I won't cope with them.
I am afraid which i have little time for anyone in operation that says that they can't answer emails within day. Even when I had a full-time job, I checked my emails first thing each and every morning and then again at night so that customers wasn't left waiting. I even check my emails daily lake am on holiday so basically can do this, why can't some people? Ok, you might desire time off over typically the weekend - that's fair enough but make sure your website tells your prospects that your office is only manned Monday to Comes to an end. Mind you, any ecommerce business owner that doesn't check their emails in the weekend is missing your trick. I make a rational few sales on Saturday/Sunday and I've met that sometimes the reason is , I bothered to reply to an email sent on one of these simple days within a small amount of hours. If I possessed left it until Saturday, chances are that one of my competitors would own the sale. I have come across some decision makers that have gone on holiday for few weeks and just kept their emails to assemble. I find it hard to think that anyone that requires their business seriously would accomplish this but I have looked at it happen. If you want to take a holiday , nor want to check a person's emails, fine but you must get someone else to do it as long as you're away. Sending an autoresponder meaning that says 'We is going to answer your email in a couple of weeks time... ' just isn't up to scratch. If you want so that you can clear off for an opportunity and forget about your job, then you need their employment not your own business. 5. Finally, deal with complaints quickly and quite. Whatever type of internet business you run, you will get complaints now and again - it just is not possible to please everyone constantly. A lot of the time probably you'll feel that the complaint isn't justified and in some cases, it won't be - people is a really strange breed! However, just handle it and switch - it isn't worth getting hung up on. Spending time on support services is time very most certainly spent - it gets sales and even more importantly, it brings customers back time and time again. To quote an classic saying, it is much easier/cheaper to retain a pre-existing customer than it is to look through new one. <! -- google_ad_section_end --><! -- google_ad_section_end -->
