So how do you know if your customer service needs attention? If you are not really serving your customers; If you are not putting their needs ahead of your plans; If you are not providing them with the necessary paths to make purchasing your products or services easier — then your Website needs some customer service ‘tender loving care’.
I am personally tired of wasting my time and spending what little expendable income I have at places that don’t really care about me. Call me selfish, old fashioned, or judgmental if you’d like, but I know I am not the only one who feels this way. It doesn’t take a poor economy or falling sales to put a spotlight on customer service. When it comes to the Web it only takes a few differentiators to increase the likelihood for conversion.
I have 5 specific options that could help you improve your customer service online. Let’s get started:
Tip #1 – Increase the visibility of your Contact Information
Believe it or not this is often the first major turn-off for visitors. Where the heck is the phone number? If a prospect can’t easily find the ways to contact you, they will leave. People are too busy to spend needless time looking for something as important as a phone number or a contact form. Do not hide any of these contact methods from them. So present this information frequently and make it highly visible on the site. The worse thing that could happen is that they pick up the phone and call, which wouldn’t be bad at all.
Tip #2 – Track all leads with a CRM
So the phone is ringing and people are now contacting you, what’s next? Having these contact requests automatically imported into a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is often overlooked. Yet this could be the simplest way to make sure your leads are followed up on. There’s nothing worse than a prospect filling out a contact form and no one following up on it. What does this say about your business? Many CRM’s will not let leads be deleted, they will only allow a status change. Making it much easier to make sure they are followed up with, contacted, and acquired as a client. As an added bonus these leads, which will include an email address, will certainly come in handy for future email campaigns.
Tip #3 – Live Chat
Now that you have your contact information front & center and you are tracking these leads, it’s time to take it up a notch. Offer live chat on your site. What if someone wants to ask a quick question without actually calling, or taking the time to fill out a contact form? Live chat is quickly becoming a standard customer service tool on Websites in all industries. It offers a quick and painless method of staying anonymous while getting the information you need. Anonymous is a no-pressure incentive for these prospects to interact with you when they otherwise might not be willing to use the traditional methods. Don’t be afraid, these services are very affordable and quite easy to setup on your Website.
Tip #4 – Answer common questions/objections in advance
“You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers” was a slogan made popular by Radio Shack. They had the right attitude and you want to translate that same attitude on the Web. By providing the answers to frequently asked questions, you can position yourself anywhere from an industry expert to a reputable business. No one knows your business like you do, so don’t you think others should know this fact as well? Don’t stop there though; overcome your prospects objectives before they even have them. You already do it as part of your sales process anyway, so integrate it on your Website as well. Then you can answer their questions, when they arise with, “No Problem!”
Tip #5 – Offer Resources
Lastly, have you ever needed some additional information or needed to fill out a form before you could proceed? If that’s happened to you, why not provide this to your visitors? You can offer a technical specifications .PDF, a whitepaper, or even a client portal for increased communication. These are just a few simple resources that provide added value and position you as someone who cares.
True customer service is more than just providing a product or service; it’s about making it easy to deal with you. Trust me, if you don’t do it, your competitor will and if you were the client where would you go?
I like tip #5. Offering a potential customer something in exchange for their contact information is a great way of generating a new lead. I’ve also found that people like personalized contact information. For example: if you work in a sales department use the email matt@yourdomain.com rather than sales@yourdomain.com.