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> How Good Customer Service Can Increase Revenue
How Good Customer Service Can Increase Revenue: Ten Online
Customer Service Tips
- by Andrea Wilson
Other than the current buzz words, customer service has changed
very little since commerce first began. If you want a customer
to buy from you again, and to recommend your product or service
to others, complaints or problems must be handled properly.
"A satisfied customer will
tell five people about their experience, a dissatisified customer
will tell twenty-five!"
Customer Service on the Internet
The Internet is an impersonal place to shop. Because of this,
the online customer feels little loyalty to you or your company.
Many online shoppers won't restrain their anger and upset
either. They feel safe behind their anonymous email address.
Therefore, in responding to a complaint, you must quickly
establish rapport with your customer. To do this, your phone
skills and email etiquette must be exceptional. You won't
likely get a second chance to make the right impression. But
that doesn't mean being a pushover either.
Here are some tips to put you on the right track:
- Don't give stock responses when customers are
not asking stock questions! Take care to answer
every question or concern that a customer poses in an email.
There's nothing worse than getting back an email from a
business owner or their customer service representative
that doesn't address the concerns you stated in your email,
gives canned responses to what you asked, or makes you feel
like a nuisance...or a dummy!
- End the call or email on a high note for the customer.
They'll remember your last words best. In other words, don't
end the conversation by saying, "And I'm really sorry you
didn't receive your widget when promised." Say, "Martha,
your widget is on my desk right now. I'll be packaging it
right after this call and I will take it to the post office
myself." Now stop talking! Don't be tempted to apologize
again and remind them of the problem. Leave customers with
the good taste of a resolution in their mouths.
- In emails, use "exaggerated courtesy."
Since the person can't see your expression or hear your
tone of voice, your words must do everything for you. Read
emails at least three times before hitting the send
button.
Remove or reword phrases in your email that could be considered
rude, such as, "As I said on the phone,...." (Ouch, that's
a reprimand! We expect the sentence to end like this, "As
I said on the phone, Stupid!")
Tip: If English is your second language, you may
not notice these nuances of the language. Get someone whose
native tongue is English to read every customer service
email! You can't see the face of the person when they receive
an email that starts, "As I said on the phone...," but trust
me, it won't be a happy one.
- Consider outsourcing your customer service. I
was a customer service professional for fifteen years in
the high-tech industry. As a hiring manager I looked for
two customer service "virtues" in candidates: patience beyond
measure and a genuine liking for people. If you do your
own customer service for your small business, you need to
determine if you have those qualities. If not, you might
want to outsource your customer service to someone who does!
- Ask customers what they want! Often their request
will be more reasonable than whatever it was you were going
to do to make it right. And it will be the solution they
want, not the solution you think they want!
- Acknowledge their pain and make it right! In
my experience, customers rarely demand something more than
what they originally expected. So don't start offering all
kinds of freebies to try and make them feel better. What
they really want is for you to acknowledge their pain and
make it right. Making it right usually means getting what
they expected in the first place. And it doesn't have to
be accompanied by a free gift. Don't substitute "bribing"
the customer for genuinely caring about their pain. You
can't buy their loyalty, but you can earn it.
- Avoid over compensating for your company's mistake.
Gushing with apologetic words and offering them the
sky because of a small shipping error can leave your customer
doubting your professionalism. And if you've given them
the sky for such a small mistake, what the heck will you
do when you really mess up?
- If possible, give customers a choice as to the
solution to their problem. They'll view their experience
with less pain that way. If they couldn't download your
ebook because of some technical difficulty, they might want
a full refund, they might want the chance to download the
ebook again, or they might prefer that you email them the
ebook.
- If you do it carefully, you can use some
customer service situations to upsell customers.
"Martha, did you notice on our Web site that you can get
a second widget at half price? If I ship them today, both
widgets will arrive in plenty of time for Christmas. Gift-wrapping
is included, by the way." Now stop talking and let Martha
sell herself on your offer. This is not the time
for a hard sales pitch!
How does good customer service increase your revenue?
Every customer service encounter gives you another chance
to:
- improve customer loyalty
- correct problems in your buying cycle
- upsell customers.
By retaining customer loyalty you now have the chance to
sell this customer something else, and you can rest assured
they'll say positive things about your company. Remember,
a satisfied customer will tell five people, but a dissatisified
customer will tell twenty-five people!
Speaking of satisfied customers,
that's the only kind of customer we have at Able Webs! Why?
Because we guarantee our work. Get your free
consultation today and find out just how well we treat
our customers...
Request
a Free Web Design Consultation Today
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