Online customer care for your web siteIntroducing the wonderful world of customer care
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From Stevesdomain.net
I subscribe to many
e-mail discussion lists, all centered around web development and Internet
computer programming. Often, participants will e-mail a question regarding a
hosting company, an ISP or another site providing some type of Internet
service. Responses from other members give helpful feedback, but the driving
force behind all good testimonials is in the customer care they receive.
Customer care includes
tech support, billing inquiries, shipping statuses to good old-fashioned
feedback methods. Web users, especially those who pay money for a service
online, often require tech support, and they want it fast. Customers who order
products need to be able to track their goodies through their route and some
just like to provide feedback to the company or service they ordered from.
Customer care can literally make or break your online capitalistic endeavors.
Take a careful look
around the Internet and be cognizant of businesses emphasizing customer service
as a major selling point. Providing after-sale support not only helps the
customer, but it creates good and often lucrative relationships with their
customers. Amazon.com certainly did that for me.The type of customer care your
web site must deliver depends entirely on your respective product or service.
whatever customer care you offer,make special note on your web site of how your
company
exceeds in the after-sale relationship. As witnessed on e-mail discussion
lists, your reputation will follow you to other potential customers and
clients.
Types of customer care
We have looked at the importance of providing customer care to each and
every visitor, now let's take a look at what exactly you can provide.
The
world of customer care is endless and a creative imagination is great, but a
few methods of customer care should always, at the least, be provided.
WEB SITE INSTRUCTIONS
Customer care is not only intended for after-sale relationships. Give your
potential customer specific and direct instructions on how to use your web
site. Show them how to add items to their shopping cart, how to place an order
and browse your products. Then show them how to checkout and the tasks
involved. For example, what credit cards do you accept? Shipping methods?
Shipping company? Also tell them how to track their packages after shipment.
If your web site does not
provide an actual product, show them how to use your service. If you provide
service demos, tell them how to use them and where to locate them. Give them a
place to report script errors and other web site or support issues. Give them
every opportunity, and all instructions they need, to contact you.
· FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
FAQ pages are both easy to design and extremely effective in answering customer
questions quickly. With new sites, the web developer should come up with a set
of questions he/she expects the user will have. After some time and when other
questions are asked through e-mail or on the phone, the developer should add to
the FAQ page newer questions. If the number of questions becomes large,
consider creating a search utility for them.
· DISCUSSION BOARDS
Discussion boards are wonderful and can save tech support a lot of work.
Because discussion boards are public, any customer of your company can answer
any other questions other customers have, which frees up you and your employees
to perform other work. Many web hosting companies have implemented such a
system, and also use it to post announcements regarding the service.
· E-MAIL SUPPORT
E-mail support is cheap, takes little resources and is extremely effective.
When utilizing e-mail support, however, special attention needs to be placed on
turn-around time, that is, the amount of time for an answer to be provided for
the customer. If you have a team of tech support technicians working in varying
areas, provide different e-mail addresses and guide them through the quickest
route to the support representative.
· TELEPHONE SUPPORT
If your business is large enough and generates sufficient revenue, also
consider telephone support through a 1-800 number. The very mention of a 1-800
number produces credibility towards your business and lets the customer know
you are available toll-free.
· PRODUCT TRACKING
If you are selling physical products, giving the customer a way to track the
order should go without saying. After the package has shipped, provide the
customer a tracking number and provide a link to the shipping company's
tracking system. UPS's tracking system is located here, while FedEx's tracking
system is here and the U.S. Postal Service's system is located here.
The
aforementioned types of customer care are only a start to what is possible on
the Internet. Remember why you have a web site in the first place, to further
your company's products and services and provide easy and cost effective
customer interaction.
Customers
are in search of the exact same thing, especially when money is involved. If
the customer is not satisfied that after-sale support efforts are in place,
they simply will not whip out the plastic.
E-mail support scripts
E-mail support is the
most popular and possibly the most effective type of customer care available.
With just a little time searching script repositories, you can find much help
in implementing such a system to organize and manage all support requests.
Aside from programming a support ticket system yourself, you can download and
implement pre-made scripts from script databases. A few are:
http://www.mycgiscripts.com
http://www.hotscripts.com
http://www.resourceindex.com
Download a few of them,
test them out and decide what script, if any, works best for you. Of course, no
script is required, as an e-mail address can work fine, but some scripts help
to organize and manage support requests within high volume environments.
The bottom line
Customer care narrows
down to the bottom line, revenue. Satisfying and helping the customer before
and after the sale will bring in new customers to your web site and keep them
coming back for more. Give the customer what they want, and they will give you
what you want.
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