Some Suggestions for Internet Marketers on Providing Online Customer Service

| Wednesday, June 20, 2012
By Anna Wilcher


There are all sorts of reasons to get involved in Internet Marketing. It is something that people try because of wanting flexibility in their day and control over their lives. One of your goals, however, should not be to avoid working in a customer service capacity. It is important that you have good 'online customer service skills' when you are doing anything in Internet Marketing. This is a little more difficult in that it can be tricky to deal with people that you cannot physically see. As you read the following paragraphs, you will be shown several unique ways to handle customer service for your online products.|As an Internet Marketer your business is only as successful as your last customer service interaction. We like to think that setting up our sites and writing good sales letters should be enough but it isn't. If people have bad experiences with you, not only will they avoid you, but they will tell their friends and family to do the same. They might even tell people to buy from your competitors which can be financially crippling. People that have a positive experience with you will stick with you, purchasing products that you offer, and telling everyone they know to follow their lead. You need to think about how good your customer service really is.|We seem to be losing the art of offering great customer service. Instead of calling, most customers resort to emailing in their problems or queries.

In all likelihood, the majority of you perusing this article haven't even considered setting up a system to take phone calls from your customers. On the other hand, that in no way entails that you can't take action to ensure you manage your customer relationships properly. In this article, we will be looking at a few of things you will need to implement to make sure every interaction you have with a customer is an excellent experience.|The universality of customer service as a skill should not be doubted. It's what makes the business world turn, whether it's internet marketing or a traditional offline company. It's unrealistic to expect that people will never need your help to sort out their problems and issues - even if the product you are selling is amazing. Giving good customer service, particularly over the internet, can be tricky. It's difficult to make sure you're helping someone when you cannot see his or her face. Use these tips to help yourself get a good head start on being able to offer proper customer service online.|Customer service is an essential component of any business. Because there is no way for you to determine whether or not all your clients' interactions with your company are positive since you don't deal with them face-to-face, it is even more critical in internet marketing. It's quite true the you can become skilled at online customer service, just as you can with traditional customer service. Even if you are inexperienced in this area, it's still not as difficult as you might first believe. This article will provide some essential information to ensure that your online customer service is excellent.

The first thing you should do is think from your customer's perspective, and try to provide for their needs and wants. Is it easy to navigate your website? Is the purchase process as simple as it can be? Does your return policy get confusing, or is it easy to understand? You can avoid a lot of problems with all of your customer service issues if you simply stopped and thought from the perspective of your customers. Instead of alienating your customers, take care of them, and they will stay with you for quite a while. Just taking this one simple initiative, to care for your customers, and think from the perspective, you can save so much time.|Lying to your customers is strictly forbidden. There are times when you will get a customer on the phone, or who is sending you e-mails, that are just annoying. You might want to tell them anything just to get rid of them, even if it is not true. Avoid this if at all possible. A customer will know when you're lying. You're just setting yourself up to fail later by lying to them. You might want to create something that could actually satisfy your customers needs if that is possible. Never lie because this is the worst thing you can do for your business. Never do it.|When you are conversing with a client via email or instant messaging, you should be extremely courteous. Don't forget that you can't show emotion when communicating through text which means the person on the other end doesn't know whether you are angry or not.

This means that you need to make sure that your responses are extra polite language and positive phrasing. Ensure you read all your messages a few times before hitting the send button. This approach will enable you to catch any errors, make your tone lighter if required and ensure that you are really trying to solve the problem your client has. It might take time, but the result is worth it.|If you are able, offer the customer a few choices about how to solve the problem they are facing. Say someone can't download your eBook from your shopping cart, you can ask them what option would work best for them, like sending them the book by email or through a shared file folder. You are basically telling people you have faith in them to make their own decisions, which will make them feel good. More importantly, the customers will feel involved in the process and more valued by you. This helps them feel less stressed out about the original issue.|Find out what your client needs. It's one matter to read emails or instant messages or listen via phone to your customers venting their anger. It's another to actually be able to solve the problem they are dealing with. Understanding what your customers want in terms of results is the only way to provide a satisfactory resolution for their issues. This proves that their satisfaction is of the utmost importance to you. It also gives you some guidelines. If you can fulfill their expectations exactly, that's wonderful. If you can't-work with them to come up with a common middle ground that you can both live with.

If you outsource your customer service or hire someone to take care of customer service and support, make sure that person is well trained. A customer is going to expect that the person that they are contacting understands the services and products that they have purchased. What they are looking for is someone that can answer their questions right away. They probably want to talk to you, but this works better than placing them on hold to ask you questions. To help you save time, and make more money, and also put your customers at ease, your customer service representative should be knowledgeable and efficient. The time spent in training is time well spent.|

Actively listen to your customers when they come to you with problems, issues and questions. Don't give pet responses. Aren't you angry when someone gives you a stock reply? People that make these responses to you make you feel unappreciated. Statements like these make almost everyone angry, so why would you do this to your customer? The best thing to do is repeat the customer's issue back to them in your own words. This way you know that you heard them right. Each response that you give customers the complaint should be tailored to their particular dilemma. Don't read a script.|

Take out any phrases that have the potential to cause trouble because they might seem a little brusque when you are writing an email response. When you write someone an email, if you've already spoken to them on the phone, never remind them of the phone call with a phrase like "as I said on the call." You can be sure your client hasn't forgotten what was mentioned on the call.

The phrase might seem perfectly innocuous to you, but try to remember that customers are extra sensitive to patronizing tones. Delete any phrases that could seem condescending from your messages. You also want to do this because every phrase requires time to read. By eliminating them, you will be saving your recipient time. That'll make them happy!|

If you are careful regarding your approach, you could even convince a customer to purchase another product or service you have on offer through your customer service interaction. When one of your customers gets in touch with an issue, this shouldn't be your primary focus. If it can be done with subtlety, it's an excellent approach to improving your bottom line and making more sales. Have great care when you do this, though. Trying to push a sales pitch on them could seriously alienate your customers. Keep in mind that you want to keep them and not run them off!|Recognize your customer's frustration. Saying something simple like "I feel your frustration" or "I know why you are upset and you are completely justified," could be enough. Often customers who complain just want to be able to tell you that they aren't happy. They will be a lot happier when you at least acknowledge what they are feeling and tell them they are justified. Asking them something along the lines of "can I do anything to make it better for you" or "what would your perfect outcome have been?" will go a long way towards improving their mood. Simply acknowledging that there is a legitimate problem is usually all these customers need to stick around.

Try to do your best job with customer service. After you have helped a customer, don't hang up on them! The customer needs to feel happy. Always convey to your customer that they are highly valued. It is important to help your customer if they are in need. We are not talking about upselling at all. This could be as simple as noticing a potential problem with an account and solving it them before it becomes an issue. Customers that feel that you are over delivering will certainly feel that they are valued and acknowledged by you. Once you start doing this, they will continue to buy from you over and over.|Every call that you respond to should end on a positive note. This is a very important thing to do, especially when doing an Internet Marketing business. We are not talking about merely solving the problem in moving on. The call should always end with you asking if you have taking care of all of their issues. Once the customer has stated that the issue is resolved, give them a coupon or a discount on one of your other products. This will build goodwill between you and the customer. Happy customers are repeat customers. And if they keep coming back, you will make more money.|Employing a dedicated customer service representative or outsourcing it completely might be a good idea if you have a decently sized online marketing business. If you have to deal with customer service as well as all your other projects and tasks, it can be quite easy to become irritated.

The problem is that the customer will feel your irritation and respond in kind. Getting someone on board to deal with these matters will likely lead to a better customer retention rate and save you time in the process as well. This is a win-win situation for every person|Your return policy should be as simple as possible and should side with the customer. You don't want to make people's lives even more difficult if they have a problem with your products. This will just alienate them further. This is why it's a good idea to offer a longer money-back warranty. Your customers are much more likely to see you in a positive light if your return policy is customer-friendly, even if the warranty period has expired. A couple of returns won't adversely affect you. A dissatisfied customer who spreads negative comments about you will be difficult to handle.|Keep the apologies to a minimum. It's good to apologize at least once. It should be more than sufficient for you to state "I'm sorry that you aren't happy." Anything more than that and it becomes annoying. Spouting excessive apologies will simple lead to your customers being even angrier with the problem they are experiencing because they will think you are trying to patronize them. They want you to let them know you feel bad and are sorry. Most people aren't look for you to flog yourself and those that want you to grovel will never be happy no matter what, so you simply need to get used to it.

When you start offering online customer service, it could be a bit challenging, especially if you have never done customer service in this way. Although you should still follow the philosophy that the 'customer is always right', this is a good place to begin. Customers that feel that you care about them will always come back, especially if they have problems with what you have to offer. It takes a while to learn how to do it well, but that is time that is well spent. After all, if your customers aren't happy, how can you expect to make any money?|In conclusion, customer service is often taken for granted is something that we can do without any training. Specifically, online customer service is like an art form: you have to practice it to get good at it. Handling customer complaints is only one aspect. You also need to make the customer happy once you are done. What we have presented is just a place to start. Just keep working at it, and you will learn how to become more proficient.|

When starting to work in online marketing, lots of people delude themselves into thinking that they'll never have to deal with customer service matters. Every single one of these people winds up disappointed and a little bit freaked out when a customer service issue inevitably comes up because they aren't sure how to handle it. Customer retention rates will go up while refunds will drop if you master the art of customer service. Offering customer service online doesn't have to be a complicated issue.

It just takes time to develop. You have the ability to achieve this!|

There are many ways you can handle customer service via online channels. The old adage of "the customer is always right" is a good starting point if you aren't certain about something. Don't let anyone tell you that you don't need to use customer service skills in online marketing. There is much more to online selling that simply putting up a good sales page and a site. Offering customer service is what sets the active earners apart from the passive earners. Be one of the active ones!|

You are going to be sorely disappointed if you started working in internet marketing, hoping you'd never have to deal with customer service. Customer service is as important in the world of online marketing as it is in the offline world. Online customer service has another drawback that makes life difficult, namely the inability to always determine context since you can't see your customers face to face. With the suggestions in this article, you will be able to make sure you have contented customers and still expand your business.




About the Author:



0 comments:

Post a Comment