Customer service can be more important than the product itself
02/24/09 05:18 AM
Customer service: a lot of companies talk the talk but very few actually invest in people and systems to provide an excellent customer service experience, especially online. Adding a well planned and executed help section to a website can save a company thousands and possibly millions of dollars in customer service calls yet for some reason it is often ignored. Customer service areas of websites can be confusing and it takes more than a few seconds to find the answer customers will pick up the phone and just call. Hopefully when we do call we don't get a phone tree with a thousand and one options or hear that our wait time is "45 minutes". Another recording that I don't like is the "we are experiencing high call volume, please call back later". Well if you are experiencing high call volume why don't you have the people to handle the calls? It tells customers that you would rather put them on hold than have the employees to help me.
For customer service help areas of websites to be effective they have to provide a good user experience. This means a well laid out page that's easy to navigate but more importantly it means that customers need to be able to find the information they are looking for quickly. Here are some customer service online best practices:
1. Have links to customer service/help on every page of your website so that it is not more than one click away at any given time.
2. Top 10-Work with your customer service people to develop a system of top 10 questions they are getting from customers who call in and add them to the website through a call-out box. Ensure that these questions are updated as needed on a regular basis.
3. Use drop down list for FAQ's and segment the questions as much as possible (i.e. operation, setting up, how to).
4. For registered users provide them with a customized help section based on the products they have purchased.
5. When new products are introduced anticipate and plan for increased call volume.
6. After someone uses online help or calls customer service ask them to fill out a quick survey to rate the experience and reward your customer service people who provide excellent service.
7. Empower customer service people: Give them the authority to send replacement products or free thank you gifts to customers who have had problems.
8. Follow-up: In a couple of days follow up with customers via a customized eMail program that both thanks them for being a customer and gives them links to your help area of the website.
9. Take-care of your best customer service people: spoil them with free lunches or other incentives to let them know that you care.
10. Remind your customer service people that they are the face of the brand. Invite them to key meetings so they can learn your strategic and tactical plans. Ask for their input as they are valuable members of your team.
Customer service needs to be excellent on every level today as it's about developing relationships not selling as many as we can to as many as we can. Increase the sales/profit per customer maybe the new model moving forward.
