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However, online - you are dealing with nameless and faceless customers - bits
and bytes.
How in the world can your Web site be a bastion of customer service and
interaction? There's several things you can do - some are free, some have fees;
some are easy to implement, while others are more difficult to do.
From personal experience in building my site, I've learned that email is
crucial to any aspect of customer service.
1. Respond to email right away.
Some people will tell you to respond in about
24 hours but that's way too long. If someone emails you during normal business hours you should reply in an
hour or less. If you are SELLING something and have thousands of customers,
spread across a lot of time zones, you'd better be prepared to respond to email
from those in Africa, Europe, Asia, South America and New York City!
If your Web site is information rich and designed well - you can cut down
on routine emails. Your audience / customers can find information on their own.
2. The other thing I've learned is the importance of a search
engine. You can
get a free one from Atomz (http://www.atomz.com) and search up to 500 pages or
so. For a fee, you can search an unlimited amount. A search engine makes it easy for your customers to find the information they
are looking for.
3. Let your customers/audience communicate with you via telephone as
appropriate. If you've got a content only Web site and are dispensing
information, there's no need for your "audience" to call you - email
is just fine. But if you are selling hair brushes or other "things" -
you'd better have a way for customers with problems to call you (or fax you, or
write you).
I like what Sketchers.com does - they have their telephone number on every
page of their Web site. Right up top!
4. I've visited the Web site of mobile e-retailer Igo (http://www.igo.com) to
buy items on a few occasions and the main thing I like about IGo is that i
f I
need help I can get a live person to help me - via their Web site. The costs for
this technology are much more expensive than simple email based customer
service. But if you are serious about selling products on line and want to give
your customers the best support then live support can't be beat!
You also have got to have the staff to operate the live support feature.
Don't have live support if it's always "unavailable".
5. Remembering who your customers
are
, is a very important aspect of
developing a customer service and relations component to your Web site. When you
visit Amazon.com and by various books or just browse through various selections
Amazon.com is able to build up a profile about what you like and do not like.
This is called CRM "customer relationship management" Amazon.com's
system probably cost them hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. But
there's other solutions that cost much less - or even let you pay a monthly fee.
These services will let you build a profile of your customers and make their
interaction with your Web site so much easier. If Jane keeps buying men's hats
at your online clothing store, your CRM software will stop advertising ladies
hats to her, but will give her the latest sales information on men's hats!
6. A discussion board (or bulletin board) can be a very good customer
relationship building tool.
Instead of your staff receiving emails, you can
encourage your customers to post their queries to your online bulletin board
system (BBS). Many companies use BBS' as a very effective means to help
customers - the successful ones.
About the Author:
Ramon Ray, ramon@smallbiztechnology.com,
Small biz tech editor & analyst http://www.smallbiztechnology.com
Small biz
tech news, information, analysis "Small Business Technology Report"
"Technology and Your Business"
