Online customer service
One of our main priorities is to perfect the online marketing strategies of SMEs, but as more and more people turn to the internet to conduct their business, online customer service is fast becoming an important part of any business’s online plans.
According to research conducted by eGain last year, 44% of major UK companies are ignoring emails from their customers.
67% of the companies surveyed failed to respond to customer queries within 24 hours, which is widely regarded as the minimum required service level, and 6% did not even offer email contact options on their websites.
Without going into the obvious benefits of good customer service, you can understand why the lack of face-to-face contact puts an immense amount of pressure on online businesses.
How do you know that your customers are happy? What strategies do you have in place to gauge customers’ expectations and experiences?
There are many steps you can take to improve your services; customer-friendly designed websites with easy navigation, clear ordering instructions, security guarantees, order tracking, phone support, a FAQ page to name but a few.
The number one priority though, has to be ensuring customers know where to find you and that you respond to any queries. As Andrew Mennie, Vice President of eGain said in response to the customer service research, “Given the increasing popularity of electronic channels with customers, this trend in email customer service responsiveness and quality is shocking.”
Don’t forget that having an online business has certain advantages when it comes to customer services. Aside from lower costs, customers can not only find out what they need to know 24/7, they can also shop day or night, from the comfort of their own homes, work or even on the move.
All in all, it’s definitely worth taking steps to improve your customer service, if only to get the repeat business. The risk of not doing so is clear; with the increase of reviews, blogs, comments pages, message boards, forums (the list is endless), unhappy customers will have no hesitation in broadcasting your failures. And unlike word-of-mouth, these posts are there for all to see and could make-or-break your business.
