Customer Service Tips

Customer Service Training:
Customer Service is Dead

Customer Service has become a forgotten art. Manners, that antiquated trait, went away along with respect for others and ones elders. Not meaning to get on a soapbox there, I digressed.

When you go into a restaurant, retail store or office or contact a company via the phone or the like you would like to have some customer service. Customer service is your one on one image with your client or potential customer. It affects whether or not you will gain their business for the first time or for repeat sales.

It is no different on the web, although the web is the most non-personal medium, consumers still want to have service, they want to feel important, they want to feel appreciated and they want to be treated as individuals.

Successful web applications and companies provide exemplary customer service!

Lets break down all areas of business where customer service comes into play with your web application and in your corporate communications via email.

1. Contact Us Form
2. Sales and Cart Functions
3. Info Request or Other Transaction Oriented Initiative
4. Customer Service Email and All Replies.

Let's tackle the simple contact form first as it impacts the sales process. I'll address other components in future articles.

Your contact form as a sales and customer service tool:
You may discount inquiries that come in via your contact form as insignificant when the main focus of your site is a cart and you want the person to buy stuff. You have relegated the task of answering these questions to the low person on the totem pole. We'll, you get back what you put into it and if you are not going to take any part of your site seriously, then DON'T bother putting it in there.

But wait, maybe the person has a tech issue or a question about a product and instead of calling with their question, supposing you do have a phone number that they can call, this is the FIRST time that this potential customer can interact with a person from your company.

If this person could call and talk to somebody, would they get a short, incomplete answer. Would they go into the black hole of voice mail with a call never to be returned? If you are running a successful business, this would not happen. So you cannot let this happen with your contact form.

Solutions
First. Make sure your contact form requests all the pertinent information from the potential customer. Get a phone number, make the user verify their email so you can get a valid one. Have some preset questions. Get their name. REQUIRE it. To treat them personally, you want disclosure from them.

I hear many people say all we get is crap from our contact form. We'll maybe your contact form and how you sell it is crap. It's a great tool. Use it properly. You may not have a 27/7 hotline, but your contact form is open 24/7/365. Make it friendly.

If your web programmers cannot do these simple tasks, it's time to get somebody else to help you.

I Want It Now
The internet is a perfect environment for people who have to satisfy their urge right now. So they are going to be impatient waiting for a response. So when the information on a request comes in, don't let it sit around for hours or days. Reply, Respond, Interact. If it is going to take a day or more to get back to them, tell them so. If you don't do some of these simple things, one of your competitors will and you will have lost.

You may have spent money getting this person to your website via advertising or by a referral and they want a reply. Give them one. And not just the simple "thank you" that appears on their screen when they submit their inquiry.

Deliver
Timing is everything. You should have a nice email that goes back to this person after they submitted their request. This can be automatically generated and programming logic can dictate what you send them.

Now when you reply to these queries, how do you reply?

I advocate coming up with some generic text that is approved for various questions, but PERSONALIZE IT! Don't reply without a salutation or even a generic sir or madam unless they have not given you their name. If they have given you their name USE IT! Your forms should include requesting a Name. Then give them some more info. Use this opportunity to sell to them!

Refer to their question in your answer. This is professional business writing and communication 101. Just because you can answer the question with a simple Yes, does not mean you have to do so. If you have a number of emails bouncing back and forth with somebody you might be able to become brief; but do you spend time with multiple emails on the same topic. I thought so. That is not productive. Answer their question the first time and anticipate any additional followup and include it the first time.

This may be the only opportunity to communicate directly with this person before they make a purchasing decision so you had better put your best foot forward, make it count!

Using your contact form properly is all about attitude. Show some.

I hear a lot of you out there changing your contact form right now and I have to go answer some contact form questions!