You hear it all the time. "Draw more traffic! Get the hits! Make the sale! Sell, sell, sell!".
There are multiple books, web sites and articles providing detailed sales tactics for creating
outstanding pre-sale service programs to bring in sales dollars.

 In e-tailing, building customer relationships is even more important than it is in brick and  mortar businesses. Why? Because you don't have the face to face contact with your customers  you would in a brick and mortar business. Often you don't even speak directly to them. Your  only contact with your customers through your site. 

 So, in order to keep the interest and attention of the average web-shopper, you need to  personalize your contacts with them. Otherwise, you're unlikely create long-term relationships  with them...and they will go to your competitors who have taken the time to personalize their  customer's experience on their site. 

 The basic truth in any business - including e-commerce - is that it's repeat business from  loyal customers that keeps customers returning to your site, builds brand equity and thus your  bottom line. Statistically, it's much easier and more economical to keep a customer and  cross-sell other products and services to that customer than it is to gain new customers. 

 In fact, 20% of your regular customers will generate about 80% of your e-business. With over 4  million other web sites on the WWW competing with yours for your prospective customer's  attention, this concept is even more crucial to grasp. Once you understand and implement pre-  and post-sale support strategies into your web business management, you are destined for  e-business profits. 

 Here are five tips for infusing outstanding customer service throughout your web-based  business. By beginning with these tips, you will start to generate new and repeat traffic and  sales on your site: 

 1. Don't be a "fly by night, gone by day" e-business. Keep your site updated, available and  functional and sell an honest product or service that you believe in. Don't focus primarily on  profit. Your product or service should be high quality or you should consider another line of  business. 

 Keep in mind that e-customers are among the best-educated, most sophisticated segment of the  consumer marketplace. Your product should be high quality and your web site functional, user  friendly and secure. If you don't provide a quality product and a quality web site, that lack  of quality will be reflected in your bottom line. If your shopping cart is not on a secure  server, you customers will feel insecure paying for your services. 

 2. Guarantee your customer's satisfaction and stand by your guarantee. Make your guarantee "no  questions asked" and make it twice as long as your industry's average -- and your  competitors'. The longer your guarantee on your product or service, the less likely the  product will be returned or the customer will want a refund. On the other hand, don't  guarantee something you can't deliver. 

 Similarly, fulfillment on e-commerce sites is expected to be quicker than traditional catalog  businesses. Make certain your fulfillment capabilities meet or exceed your industry standards  and if you can't deliver when promised, inform your customer IMMEDIATELY. Then, offer to  compensate them (e.g., gift certificate, discount on that or the next product or service sale,  etc.) for any inconvenience your inability to deliver when promised. 

 3. Use all of the technology available today to make it easy for your customers to contact you  with questions or concerns. Having an email link on your site is simply not enough. Add a  toll-free number to your site. Get voicemail and make it available 24 hours a day. Make your  fax machine dedicated and keep it on 24 hours. Your site should offer an email address just  for customer comments, suggestions or complaints. 

 In some e-businesses, particularly those in which you offer web site engineering, development  or creation that technology is critical. If a site's server crashes or a client's site loses  functionality in some way, they want to be able to contact you immediately. A pager that  offers voicemail and numeric options and a cell phone with voicemail will be critical contact  devices. Don't make your customers have to wait too long to talk to you or have to hunt you  down. Their inability to reach you may be the reason why your customer becomes your  competitor's. 

 4. Take seriously your customer's comments, concerns or questions about your product or  service. There are fewer experiences more insulting to web shoppers than emailing a complaint  to an e-service provider and having their correspondence ignored. Respond to your customers'  comments and get them answers to their questions promptly! Don't simply send us an  autoresponder reply -- respond personally. 

 5. If there's a problem with your product or service, tell your customer you will solve the  problem right away and then do it. If you can't solve the problem right away or to the  customer's satisfaction, offer a replacement or a refund promptly and readily. Or, offer them  a discount on future products or services. But let the customer choose the option they want so  they feel in control of the process. 

 6. In addition to responding promptly to complaints or questions, actively solicit your  customers' opinions about your product or service. Encourage them to be honest. Provide forms  or surveys on your site for them to use to evaluate your product or service or ask them to  email with their comments. Let your customers know you value their time by offering some token  of your appreciation for their help. Give freebies, gift certificates, discounts or other  incentives or create contests for survey participants. 

 Then USE your customers' input to make changes to your product or service if necessary.  Whenever you use customer suggestions to improve your product or service, recognize the  customer(s) who submitted the suggestion on your site (get their permission first). Your  customer will be thrilled and others will be encouraged to make suggestions, too. 

 Like a brick and mortar business, your e-business must be a customer-driven business. Your  desire to build long-term relationships with your customers should be apparent throughout the  sales and service process with every customer. Many marketers understand that they need to  provide a quality product or service. But they need to remember, too, that customers care just  as much about service as quality. You must provide both to keep your customers coming back to  your site to buy. 

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 Dahna M. Chandler is the President & Chief Relationship Officer of E*pifany[TM] Communications  Group, Inc., an integrated marketing communications and marketing consulting firm based the  Washington DC area. Ms. Chandler is also a journalist whose stories have appeared in print and  online publications nationwide & in Canada. She is pursuing a graduate degree in International  Marketing Management focusing on eMarketing & eCommerce at the University of Maryland. Contact  her at Dahna_Chandler@alum.wellesley.edu about customized and profit-generating marketing  services for your online or brick & mortar business. 
 
 

 MORE FREE MARKETING ADVICE! MORE FREE MARKETING ADVICE! 

 Get my article, "It's the Service After the Sale that Builds Your Brick & Mortar Business"  which provides tips specifically for brick & mortar businesses or businesses with both an  online and brick & mortar presence. 
 

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