Customer Service in Online Marketing - Keep Your Clients Content

| Saturday, June 16, 2012
By Anna Wilcher


Many people will try out Internet Marketing for a variety of reasons. Financial freedom, schedule flexibility and control over your own future are just a few. As you strive for your goals, realize that doing customer service is something that you shouldn't try to get away from. If you really want to have a business in Internet Marketing, you really have to have 'great customer service skills' to compete. This is a little more difficult in that it can be tricky to deal with people that you cannot physically see. People who buy your products and services will more than likely need customer service. This article will show you several tips on how to do this the right way.|Your last customer service interaction is a good gauge as to how well your Internet Marketing business is going. It is actually false to believe every successful entrepreneur online simply has to set up a webpage and sales letter and they're good to go. If you have a bad customer service experience, that customer may tell people to not buy from you. They may also tell people to buy from your competitors which can cut into your bottom line. 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. Is your customer service up to par? Only you can answer that question.|Customer service is something that doesn't seem to feature on the priority list of many businesses. If people have an issue, they have a tendency to communicate via email rather than calling in.

It's quite likely that most of the people reading this article don't even have a system set up to take calls from clients anyway. That doesn't mean, however, that there aren't things you can do to make sure that your customer management is up to snuff. This article will delve into some of the things you will need to do to make sure that every time you are interacting with a buyer, you are providing great customer service.|Customer service is a ubiquitous skill. Regardless of the type of business - online or offline - it's what keeps the world of business rotating. 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. It can be tricky to offer good customer service online. 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 important everywhere. It is even more essential in online marketing because you don't have the advantage of working with your clients personally and ensuring all their interactions with your company are good. Proper online customer service skills can be learned, just like with traditional customer service. At first, it might seem overwhelmingly difficult, but it really isn't - even if you are a novice. The goal of this article is to help you improve your online customer service skills.

Your goal as a business owner is to always put your customers first, keeping their wants and needs in mind at all times. Can anyone easily maneuver through your website? Is the purchase process simple? Your return policy - 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.|You should never lie to your customers for any reason. Let's say that you are dealing with a cranky customer. They simply want to hang up on them, or get them to stop e-mailing. To do this, you might lie to them, telling them what they want to hear. Don't make this bad choice. Basically, customers know when you lie. If you lie one time, you'll probably do it again, catering to the whims of the customer. Customer demands are not easy to satisfy. You may find yourself trying to invent something just to satisfy them. It is important that you do not lie at any time. Never ever.|When you are talking to a customer through an instant messaging platform or via email, you need to be excessively polite. 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 method enables you to soften your tone, if necessary, to make sure that you are really solving your client's problem and that you find any mistakes and correct them. The result is worth it, even if it will take some time.|Offer your customer a few solutions to their problem, if possible. For example, if someone is having difficulty downloading your eBook via your shopping cart, ask them if they would prefer a shared file folder, direct email or to solve the problem with the shopping cart. By allowing people to make their own decisions, they will feel valued and appreciated. What's more important is that your customers will feel even more appreciative because you are involving them in the process. Thus, the original matter doesn't seem quite as stressful to them anymore.|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 a totally different matter to have the ability to resolve the matter they are facing. The only way to make sure that you can properly solve the issues they are facing is to ask them what kind of outcome they desire. This shows them that you are taking an active approach in offering them satisfaction. You will also get some guidelines and rules. If you are able to deliver exactly what they are looking for, excellent! If you aren't able to, then you need to work together to come up with a compromise everyone will be happy with.

When you decide to hire someone to handle your customer service issues, make sure they are well trained and have knowledge in this area. Any time a customer has a problem, they expect the customer service representative to be knowledgeable in some way. If for some reason you are not available to answer their questions, people want to at least talk to someone who can help them with the questions that they have. Having experts in both customer service and your offerings will put your customers at ease and, potentially, save you time while helping you make more money. It is time well spent training these individuals to handle these issues.|

If your customers are having problems, remember to always listen to them regardless of the issue that they have. Never give stock responses. Aren't you angry when someone gives you a stock reply? People that make these responses to you make you feel unappreciated. Since it makes you mad, why would you try to make your client angry as well? Repeat the customer's issue back to him, using your own words, to make sure that you understand. Your reply should always address the exact issue they are concerned about. Don't read a script.|

When you answer emails, remove any phrasing that seems rude, whether it's obvious or has the potential to come across as such. Say you have a phone based customer service system as well, never say "as we discussed on the call" when answering by email. The customer knows what you said on the phone.

This might seem like a perfectly innocent sentence but don't forget that people hate being patronized. Leave anything that can be misconstrued as patronizing out of your emails. Every extra phrase takes time to read, which is another reason you should do this. Saving your client some time is one of the results of removing superfluous phrasing. They'll appreciate that!|

You need to be careful but customer service also offers you the chance to convince your customers to buy a related product or service when you interact with them. This shouldn't be your main priority when a client calls in with a problem. As long as you are subtle about it, you can see a nice spike in your profit margin and sales with this approach. Be careful with this though. Offending your customer even further with a sales pitch is something you don't want to do. Remember that the goal is to keep them, not shoo them away!|Recognize the irritation and annoyance your customer is experiencing. Saying something like "You are completely right to feel annoyed" or "Your irritation is completely justified" could be enough. You will have some customers who simply want you to know they are upset, which is why they are complaining. When you acknowledge their feelings and give them legitimacy, they will feel a lot happier. 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. In many cases, just by recognizing that they are justified in their feelings will improve the chances of you retaining them as a customer.

Always over deliver on your customer service. Once the problem is solved, don't just hang up. Always make your customer feel great. Always convey to your customer that they are highly valued. Offer your customers help whenever they need it. 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. Anytime you over-deliver for a customer, they will feel as if you are acknowledging them through your efforts. Once you start doing this, they will continue to buy from you over and over.|If you have your Internet Marketing business set up to receive phone calls, do everything you can to end the call on a positive note with your customer. This goes beyond making sure that you actively solve the problem. The outcome of the conversation should be that they are happy. You need to ask them if they are. To maintain goodwill between you and the client, you need to give them a free gift for their troubles. This could be anything from a discount to a coupon code they can use for their next purchase. Happy customers are repeat customers. And if they keep coming back, you will make more money.|If you have a larger online marketing business, you should consider hiring someone to handle your customer service or outsourcing it. 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.

Your customer is likely to sense how unhappy you are and it will spark a similar reaction in them. Employing a customer service representative will likely increase the number of loyal customers as well as saving your time. It's a win-win for everyone involved.|Implement a return policy that is simple and generous to the customer. You don't want to make people jump through a bunch of hoops if they have a problem with your products. This will make them even angrier. This is where extended money back guarantees are a good option. Even if the warranty has expired, though, a good return policy that is in favor of your customers will keep the relationship with your customers healthy. A few refund requests won't ruin your business. You cannot handle lost business at the hands of someone who can further spread bad word of mouth about you.|Don't apologize excessively. Of course, you should apologize at least once. A simple "I'm sorry you are feeling that way," should suffice. Anything more than that and it becomes annoying. Gushing with apology often causes customers to feel patronized and that can make them feel even more angry about the problem they are having. They want you to let them know you feel bad and are sorry. More often than not they don't want you to flog yourself (the few that do won't be satisfied with any result, which is something you're just going to have to learn to deal with).

In conclusion, if you have never done customer service before, online customer service may feel difficult at first. Using the philosophy of the customer 'is always correct', you can use this as a foundation for what you have to offer. So if you're customers feel valued, they will continue to come back even if they run into problems with your products or services. 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?|When we have to deal with customer service, we usually take it for granted that the customers problems can easily be resolved. Specifically, online customer service is like an art form: you have to practice it to get good at it. It takes practice to learn how to satisfy customer complaints and help people be happy that they talked to you. What we have presented is just a place to start. As you keep working you will learn plenty of others.|

So many people go into Internet Marketing thinking that they won't ever have to deal with customer service issues. Since they aren't sure how to handle the customer service problems that inevitably crop up, most people are disappointed but also have a tendency to freak out. If you learn how to handle customer service properly, you have a much better chance of keeping your customers and turning them into repeat buyers. Offering customer service online doesn't have to be a complicated issue.

It just takes time to develop. It's something you can do!|

Customer service via online channels can be handled in many different ways. If you aren't certain how to proceed, just remember that the customer is always right. Don't let anybody tell you that Internet Marketing doesn't ever use customer service skills. Selling via the internet requires a lot more than just sticking up a decent sales page and a website. Customer service makes the difference between earning actively and passively. Take a proactive role!|

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 the added "benefit" of not having face to face interaction to give context to communications. The information in this article will help you grow your business while ensuring the happiness of your customers.




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