Archive for the ‘customer service’ Category

If you ran a retail business in a brick-and-mortar store, chances are you’d employ people who would interact well with your customers, providing superior service and attention that would set you apart from your competition. But in the world of Internet transactions, there’s no flesh-and-blood person waiting in the wings to answer questions, convince a prospect to buy, or respond whenever the company is met with a complaint. You have to know how to set up systems online that automatically cater to your customers needs in a way that – surprisingly – makes them feel as if they’ve gotten personal treatment.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly Side of Marketing Online

You wouldn’t have launched an online business if you didn’t see the positive side to making money online. There’s the unlimited amount of profits, the ability to become self-employed and work less while earning more, but there are also some drawbacks that hinder your goal of achieving brand recognition and customer devotion.

With a decent computer and an Internet connection, you have the ability to create a space where your customers can congregate. That may mean a static website where you convert a sale or a forum where members can interact with others and yourself.

You can contact them, provided you adhere to permission-based contact and don’t violate their trust by flooding their inbox with irrelevant offers just to seize the opportunity to beef up your bank account – which almost always backfires and results in complete loss of credibility and a depleted mailing list.

But you can’t smile and look them in the eye and shake their hands to make them realize you’re a trustworthy person. You can’t speak to them and instantly get their feedback and respond to their objections, questions, or complaints. What’s the solution?

Reaching Out to Deliver a Personalized Experience

What are the primary ways you want to build a connection to your customer? You know you want to build a brand and image. That’s the first course of business. Once you have recognition, it means you’ve positioned yourself as a leader among a sea of competitors.

You can achieve brand recognition through smart marketing tactics. Never abuse your customers’ email addresses, but do contact them whenever you feel you have a truly valuable product or service to give them. Do your best to research the offering, the reputation and/or experience of the person behind it, and study the product or service to be sure it’s worthy of your stamp of approval. Your reputation is at stake – be diligent!

Time your communications and launches so that they’re not back-to-back where they prevent people from buying, but they’re not spread so far apart that the customer forgets who you are in between offers. Better yet, intersperse these offers with emails containing helpful, valuable information pertinent to the reason they’re on your list to begin with. Even if you do a brief, monthly Top Five Tips, your offers will be more readily received and likely to be taken more seriously.

Remind your customers whenever you interact why you’re contacting them in the first place. Tell them what product they purchased in the past and never assume they’ll recall doing it. Some of these purchases or memberships are made in the wee morning hours on the spur of a moment when a friend made a quick recommendation.

The second thing you want to do is provide quality customer service. Whenever anyone accesses your site, they should be able to access you. That doesn’t mean they can call your cell phone at 2 o’clock in the morning. But if they can email you and get a response within 24 hours, you’re providing a doorway into your world that most online consumers will accept and appreciate. 

Every site you launch should have a troubleshooting/FAQ area where the person can find help instantly or contact someone for assistance. This is especially true if a purchase has just been made with the promise of an immediate download, and the customer then finds he or she can’t download the product as promised.

In each email you send out, make sure the recipient has a way to unsubscribe or respond to the communication if they wish. Intruding on someone’s email can be a bothersome thing to many people, even if they agreed to receive information.

The third and last thing you want to do to build a bridge of communication is set your contact system on autopilot. Email Autoresponders allow you to drip information and offers to your clients on a regular basis, setting up systems that go into place depending on which action the customer took.

If they bought one particular eBook from your site, then your system might encourage them to become a member of your other site that complements their original purchase. Or, if they’re members already, your system might promote an information product purchase.

Even your email settings should be set up so that, if you aren’t glued to your inbox all day (which you shouldn’t be), it automatically sends a note out to let the person who emailed you know that you received their communication and you’ll be reviewing it and get back to them at a later time.

There are many options to making the Internet a personal experience. If your customers need a face to the name, then add your photo or an audio or video file that lets them feel close to you in a friendlier environment. Always strive to find ways to humanize and personalize the online businessrelationship experience. Show your customers that you value their business and will work hard toward maintaining a long-term, trusting relationship. This will leave them with a positive impression of you as an entrepreneur and will increase your chances of leveraging the power of communication for your ultimate online success.