Posts tagged online customer service
4 More Principles of Customer Service in Internet Marketing
Mar 24th
We’ve been looking at how some non-SEO related factors can really suck up the true value of the SEO itself, and subvert its end goal … to make your business money. Inattentive or badly coordinated customer service is something that definitely needs to be sorted out before an SEO campaign starts – today we continue our look at the core principles of good customer service, minute by minute.
Laugh ... but have you heard someone at your organisation say this?
1. Got a complaint – deal with it
If you hear of any complaints from your customers, try your hardest to resolve them to the customer’s satisfaction, without overly compromising your business principles. In saying that, sometimes a measure of compromise will be necessary to keep people happy – you may have to give something away for free that people would usually pay for, for example. Take the angle that you are trying to ‘make up’ for the customer’s inconvenience, and know that this sort of attitude will help your business in the long run.
2. Always ask your customers if they need something else
If someone approached you in store and asked where the milk was, you’d probably take them there, then wait to make sure they found the brand they wanted. The equivalent in internet marketing is not just directing customers to ‘the Products section from the Home page’ … give them a link to exactly what they need. Then ask if they have any questions about it, or the ordering process.
3. Be positive, be genuine
Learn to be positive about your work, your business … and life in general! Greet people with “This rain will be helping the grass grow/farmers/health of the river” instead of saying “Horrible weather we’re having, isn’t it?”. Positivity from the start sets the tone for all your customer’s interactions with your company.
4. Make sure ALL your customer service staff know these principles!
Run customer service refresher courses every so often, preferably with the managers as mock customers so problems can be easily identified. Even if people tend to ‘act’ a little because they know they’re being tested, it will still help them keep the ideals at the front of their mind. And even in an internet marketing context, it is possible to use training tools like mystery shoppers.
It’s a crying shame to see a top Google ranking go to waste through a lack of understanding about customer service. These principles are very simple … but they make a real difference!
4 Principles of Customer Service in Internet Marketing
Mar 23rd
For some people, good customer service comes naturally. But in many companies (very understandably!), people who are really specialists in very diverse fields have to engage in the customer service. We talked yesterday about the impact that your customer service practices can have on your internet marketing and SEO. Today we look at how to make sure you aren’t a victim of the Anakin Skywalkers out there (!), by reviewing some of the core tenets of good customer service.
1. Answer phones, emails and instant messages
I certainly understand the reasons why some people don’t answer their business phones, emails or live help requests. You’re just too busy, and it can ‘waste’ big chunks of the day communicating with people. However, if you’re at the stage where you are too busy to answer calls and messages, perhaps it’s time to hire someone to do it … or risk never being busy again.
2. Keep your promises
If something isn’t firm, don’t make it into a promise. If you tell a customer that you will definitely have their order manufactured by Friday, make sure that you do. If you aren’t sure whether it will be ready by Friday, use vaguer language. There’s no harm in being uncertain, but there is in breaking promises.
3. Listen to what your customers are saying
In the old days, this simply meant ‘listening’. Funny, that! In the context of internet marketing, though, ‘listening’ means taking on a whole new set of tasks. Set up a Google alert for your business name as well as possible variations, regularly look for your company mentioned in Tweets and on Facebook Pages. If you find dissatisfied customers, try to resolve their concerns.
4. Be helpful for no reason
Apart from the fact that helping people for no reason fills you with the milk of human kindness and gives you a serious case of the fuzzies, it could also boost your business. There may be no immediate reward … but be helpful to enough people and you’ll reap the rewards in reputation and eventually, profits.
Why Customer Service and SEO Go Hand in Hand
Mar 22nd
We’ve often talked on the blog about how SEO and web design, for example, go hand in hand. We’ve talked about how SEO and conversion optimisation are two very complementary practices. Obviously, there’s no use in having lots of traffic if none of them spend anything on site. Today we’re looking at why customer service is another of the complementary activities to SEO and web marketing- because there’s no point being at the top of the rankings if your bad reputation precedes you, and people refuse to click no matter how high you show up.
Some customers don't get mad ... they get the Dark Side
The angry consumer
We’ve said it in jest before (not that long ago, when we were discussing ‘Why the Internet Sucks’), but it is true. Getting behind a keyboard and a screen allows people’s anger to rise to amazing levels. Someone that has a bad experience at your shop will vent in a much more vicious way if left to stew, and then explode online, than if you’d tried to resolve the issue immediately in-store.
What can the angry consumer do?
Some extreme examples of venting by frustrated consumers include the website BanTarget.org, set up in response to the Salvation Army being banned from collecting donations outside Target Stores a while back. Or how about iPodsDirtySecret.com, a site set up including an actual recorded conversation with an Apple customer service rep over the fact that when an iPod battery died, the only alternative was to replace the entire machine.
Other ways consumers get even
However, there are plenty of ways that consumers can vent about businesses they feel disappointed by, where someone doesn’t have to be annoyed enough to spend $25 on domain name registration and hosting. These include:
- Ranting on their own Facebook pages, and setting up Pages or Groups on Facebook that are anti-your business.
- Publishing negative tweets about your company
- Leaving negative reviews on review sites … including on Google Local’s feature, where if you rank highly, this will be one of the first things prospective customers see.
- File a report about your business with the Consumer Complaint Commission. US businesses can find complaints listed about them with the highly respected Better Business Bureau.
- Leave complaints on complaint sites, set up especially for the purpose.
- Write articles about your company online, create a hub page, Squidoo lens, etc
If you don’t treat your customers well, all that web marketing energy will go down the tube. The age of the internet is the age of accountability for customer service … both fortunately, and unfortunately 