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E-COMMERCE 101

E-COMMERCE STRATEGY

E-GOVERNMENT

GLOBAL ISSUES

INTERNET MARKETING

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SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

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SYSTEM DESIGN

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WEB DESIGN

WIRELESS

Basis for Partnership What is a Customer? The most important person ever in this office . . . in person or by mail. Not dependent on us . . . we are dependent on him. Not an interruption of our work . . . he is the purpose of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him . . . he is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so. A person who brings us his wants. It is our job to handle them profitably to him and to ourselves. L.L. Bean

Those same words ring true in today’s e-commerce world. Keeping with the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) here are a few time proven tips to help businesses improve that all important on-line customer service.

• Respond immediately or no more than twenty-four (24) hours or less. Brick and mortar carries over into this new frontier. E-mail responsiveness determines the perception of how committed a business is to customer service. Remember, perception is everything. And if the answer isn’t available immediately, the customer needs to at least know the e-mail has been received and included in that e-mail is the time frame (one to two days) when the query will be answered.
• Bad and out of date information on your website will kill your business. As my Dad said, “Do it right or not at all.” If your business can’t keep your pages up-to-date, don’t have them.
• Make sure your site is easy to navigate and has all the basics:
  • Business name
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • E-mail
  • Fax
  • Actual names of people to talk to
  • Site map
  • FAQ
  • Privacy policy
  • Shipping, pricing and returns details
  • Product information
  • Warranty information
  • Other customer support information
  For example, I recently did a search on a large web site. All I was looking for was their address so I could MapQuest it. After searching the home page and the site map for over ten minutes for words such as location, directions, and address, I gave up on the website and found it by other conventional means. For complex searches, most people will stop searching after twelve minutes (based on the commonly cited 12 minutes to search rage analysis, but a recent study by Vivisimo suggests that 9 minutes is more likely to lead to goodwill and thus, more potential revenue), but I’ve always been one to not give up. I’ve even been back to the site and still can’t find it! (See this white paper (PDF) for more information.)
• Don’t let your customers wander around your website without offering a way to get assistance whether it is available in a chat format and/or a toll free number listed. And when that customer does call, have a real live person answer the phone. Don’t further frustrate them! Costly, yes . . . but can your business not afford it when your competition does this? Do the math – providing multiple channels will benefit you in the long run.
• Respect your customers’ privacy. Once you lose their trust, it is gone FOREVER!
• Don’t just use e-mail in your business. Talk to your customers! Customer service is all about relationship building. You just can’t build that warm fuzzy relationships with words on a page!
• And last but not least, if you’re ever at a loss as what to do, follow this age old rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Trust me, it works every time.

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