The secrets of customer care
If you're looking into starting an online business, it's important to take care of your customers.
Building a successful eBusiness is much the same as a traditional high street concern – you have to keep your customers happy. The old saying ‘the customer is always right’ has never been more important, even though you can be sure your new venture will attract more than its fair share of, shall we say, challenging consumers. There are certainly plenty of things that can go wrong when you’re first building up a business, and then there are additional problems that can occur as you go along. The best way around this is to make sure that you’re prepared and have a strategy in place to help you cope with everything that gets thrown your way.
Starting an online eCommerce venture is a little different to having a physical shop where people come and go during a regular set of opening hours. Your eBusiness is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to sit there permanently taking orders, and on a positive level it means you have a chance to make more money, thanks to the convenience factor.
Ready for action
People can order on a whim and that, needless to say, means you can boost turnover. The downside to this is that people can make impulse purchases and then regret it later on. In that respect, it’s important to have these sorts of scenarios well covered, so that you operate a clear way of working. You’ll need to have a crystal clear returns procedure and offer a sales guarantee to reassure the buyer. At the same time, you’ll need to cover your own back, so that troublesome customers don’t bankrupt you in the first few months of you opening your
fledgling business.
Do some research before you start out, by surfing the Net and seeing how other businesses do it. This is a great way to get information for free and an ideal way of finding the ideal compromise between good, solid customer service and protecting your interests. Check things like legal small print to see if there’s a basic pattern to the way you should go about things. You could even order a few things for yourself to see how the online ordering experience works.
There’s still quite a lot of negative feeling towards online ordering, due in the main to the publicised security issues that have blighted some areas of eCommerce. Things are better than they were, but it’s crucial you make your online ordering process and delivery system as secure as possible. A bullet-proof ordering page is a start, but it’s also important to gain a seal of approval, so try signing up to programs associated with this side of things. If consumers see you have a secure certificate from the likes of Thawte, www.thawte.com, they’ll feel more at ease.
Questions and answers
More obvious issues can also be promoted through a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page within your Web site, where visitors should be able to find peace of mind relating to any aspect of the online ordering process. They’ll also feel better if they can see a number they can call should they have any more pressing problems to solve. People will grow doubtful about the prowess of any company if they can’t get in touch with whoever works there.
How many times have you selected a ‘Contact Us’ link in a site to find that it doesn’t work, or take you where you want to go? Much of this is attributable to poor site maintenance, so spend time checking that all the links on your site work. The same principle applies to the items you’re selling. Make sure they haven’t been sold or that new stock is slightly different to old stock. Has a make or model been updated or changed? If so, then the site content should accurately reflect that aspect.
When you’ve got all of these bases covered, fix your sights on getting the goods to the customer safely. Decide whether or not to build delivery into the overall selling price or add it on at the end, and be sure to make the various options open crystal clear. If you’re going to stick with a basic postal service, it’s a good idea to ask if people want items sent registered or recorded delivery, to ensure both parties are covered.
You may want to enlist a courier firm, especially if you’re selling high value items or bulky goods. The better the service the higher the cost, but it is worth it in the long run to ensure that your company’s integrity remains intact. People will feel not only impressed but also reassured if you offer a tracking process. At the very least, send an email outlining what they have been charged and an approximate delivery time.
Try a customer survey to see if you’re covering all bases when it comes to your service. Ultimately, customers will know what they do and don’t want from your site better than anyone. Remember that word travels fast in today’s business world, so encourage people to give you positive feedback wherever they can. If they’re happy, get them to say so!
David Bradforth