Care and Feeding of Your Customers

Your Web site is an excellent medium for customer service. Don't neglect this very important side of your business by inadvertently leaving it off of your Web site. You can easily provide your customers with a good chunk of the information they would normally have to call you for. Things like product support documents can be put into searchable databases so they can be found and printed easily. Assembly instructions and part replacement guides can make life much easier for those do-it-yourselfers you sell to. The old standby, FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), is invaluable for saving your live customer service staff (or person -- or you) from high therapy bills for that repetitive speech issue.

Here are some other tips for the Customer Service section of your site:

• I know I've mentioned it before, but send out a customer newsletter that also addresses customer service issues and reiterates all necessary contact information.

• Create a simple to use form for customer feedback, complaints, comments, whatever they want to tell you. Then... make sure you reply to those e-mails quickly. Check your e-mail frequently each day and respond to problems and questions as soon as you can. Make it your policy to fix any problem that is within your power. (Well... at least those related to your Web site, your products, your systems, or your staff!) Turn any contact with your customers into a relationship-building experience. (You might want to visit our sales articles too!) Excellent customer service is key to success regardless of the medium.

• You might even look into having a live person responding to direct questions via "instant messaging" technology. At least then the customer will have a little more assurance of being responded to. Check out sites that offer this and test them out. Technical problems, as well as slow connections can be issues, so be prepared.

• Have a good return policy. Look at the return policies of company's like L.L.Bean and Land's End. If it's the wrong size, style or color, or if you just don't like it you can return it with no hassles whatsoever. Even return postage is sometimes paid. This type of policy will give your site's visitors more courage to order that imitation leopard-skin skirt if they know they can return it easily. And... by easily I mean include all of the return paperwork in the box with the order and set it up so all they have to do it put the return mailing label over their mailing label and put it in the mail. Remember, people don't like to have to work hard when they're spending money -- they do that when they're earning it!

• Other aspects of customer service fit in with the whole order taking process. Make your order form easy to fill out, and give them some options for shipping methods. If you can (and this might be dependent on your shopping cart software), include live links to the major shippers you use so your customers can calculate and compare shipping costs. Or, as I mentioned in the promotion article make shipping and handling free. Your customers can't complain about that! You can also make ground shipping free and let them pay the additional costs for overnight deliveries.

• Pack your orders with care. There's nothing more irritating than to anxiously wait at the mail box each day for a package to arrive only to find that when you open it you have a pile of broken glass or melted candies. THINK before you pack. It pays in many ways. Does your product hold up well in high temperatures? Check out Harry and David's packaging and shipping methods if you're also shipping foods. Is your product fragile? Even just a little bit? Check out Lillian Vernon's packaging and shipping methods if you're also shipping knick knacks and such. And, if there is a problem with the order when it arrives, don't ask the customer ship the product back to you unless it really can be salvaged. And then... pay the return postage yourself.

• Keep customers updated on back-orders. There's nothing worse than needing something NOW and going the Web BECAUSE you need it NOW and then having the item be on back-order without realizing it. If you can, build inventory levels into your database system so your customers know when they pull up the product description whether the item is in stock or not. For questionable items you can have them directed to call and check if they need it shipped immediately. Regardless of how you do it, make sure the customer has a good idea when the product will ship.

• Product guarantees and warranties. So what is the difference between a guarantee and a warranty? Well, according to Merriam Webster, a guarantee (as it applies to a product) is an assurance of the quality of or of the length of use to be expected from a product with the promise of reimbursement. A warranty is usually a written guarantee of the integrity of a product and of the maker's responsibility for the repair or replacement of defective parts. So, there you have it. One is written and one isn't. Now let's move on to how you should handle them in your business.

  If you distribute products for someone else then you're kind of off the hook as far as guarantees go... except... remember that people may still call you when problems arise with products they've ordered from your site. While directing them to the manufacturer may be a simple way to take care of the problem, you won't be winning any brownie points with your customers who are, by the way, already unhappy. By offering to step in and help them with warranty issues, you'll not only win big brownie points with that customer, but you'll probably get some good word-of-mouth advertising because they're going to be so amazed that you stepped in to help them they're going to tell everyone! Now if you're selling "personal" products that may not be quite the case, but it can't hurt. Think about it.

  If you sell products that you yourself have developed, manufactured or even just assembled, then you should take the responsibility of standing behind your products. Investigate standard warranties for products like yours and establish your policies to be just a little bit better. Remember, you're competing against the world, not just the guy down the street!

• Make use of the information you collect. When you do get product returns due to problems or even just because the customer didn't like it, ask the customer a few questions (in a friendly way) just to help you make sure you want to continue carrying the product (or making it yourself). Customer feedback is gold when you're trying to stay on top of changing trends and likes and dislikes. Your product line has to reflect the needs and opinions of your target market. Stay on top of it or perish!