When working online, excellent customer service is even more important than it is in the offline world. Your perspective clients can’t see you face to face, hear the way you speak, or judge your body language. Those are all decisions that come into play when someone is deciding whether or not to do business with you. No matter how good your company’s reputation is, if you or your salespeople come across as arrogant or rude, you’ll lose a sale.
So how can you make a positive impression on the Internet? Well, there are a few ways that will keep people coming back to find out more about you and your business. You can add audio or video to your site. That way, customers begin to feel that they know you. At the very least, have a photo of you and some background information on an “About Me” page of your site.
Another important matter is making sure you respond to comments left on your site or emails sent to you as quickly as possible. A few weeks ago, I sent email to two different companies and neither of them has bothered to reply. As a result, my feelings about those companies have been affected.
One I will continue to buy from, because in the past they provided efficient customer service, so I’m willing to give them another chance.
The other business was one I wanted to know more about and there was the potential of a long association with them. But the fact that they didn’t respond at all, not even with an automated follow-up message (easily done with an autoresponder) has given me a negative opinion of the company. Which is too bad, because the service they provide is excellent. But without excellent customer relations as well, they’ve lost my interest!
Carol