Using the Internet to Improve Your Customer Service!
Most small businesses, when building their web site, focus on the information they want to deliver to prospective customers. They focus on the product/service they want to sell, or on putting fancy descriptions with matching pictures to merchandise that they expect people to buy as they surf the web. They spend a lot of time making sure they host a fancy grocery cart that enables customers to buy their product in an instant. When designing their website, many forget the internet is not just a one-way street; rather, it is a two-way superhighway.
Let's personalize this a little bit.
You have a small business that you would like to see grow. Unfortunately, growth can actually go in two directions. Positive growth indicates that you are acquiring new customers. Negative growth indicates that you are failing to retain existing customers. Your goal is probably to maximize your positive growth while minimizing your negative growth. If you achieve this, your business will probably be a success.
However, if you are losing existing customers as fast as you are acquiring new customers, eventually your company will be doomed to fail.
One of the most important factors in the retention of existing customers is to ensure that you maintain a high level of customer satisfaction. You can also use a high level of customer satisfaction to help you acquire new customers. Of course, the hardest part of all this is that you have to have a high level of customer satisfaction (we'll get into the acquiring and retaining customers at a later date).
So how can the web that you are designing improve your customer satisfaction? Is it as simple as having customers fill out a survey? Yes and no. Yes, surveys have a purpose in life, and having customers visit your web to fill out a survey can do you some good. But have you noticed that uncompensated surveys seem to lean more towards the negative than the positive?
Don't limit yourself to surveys or satisfaction forms. Though these can help you get information, it generally is not going to give you the information that you really wanted to know, but forgot to ask. Instead, look for a way customers can talk about their own opinions and desires. Start a blog or get a chat room going. If you like to write, then set up some forums. However, listen carefully. Implementing any one of these ideas will require work on your part.
Think about it. What is your existing customer worth? Is it worth an hour of your time each day? What is the value of acquiring a new customer? Would that be worth an hour of your time?
There will be a lot of work associated with creating a two-way, customer service oriented website. It does not replace where you sell your product or offer your services, but it may, over time, end up making you a lot more money by giving people a freeform place where they can complain about your product, and then praise you for how great your response to their issue was. Eventually, you can start providing metrics to your customers about your high customer satisfaction rate, and also provide them a place where they can see that service in action. That is when you will start to acquire new customers because of the glowing reviews from your existing clients.
Let's personalize this a little bit.
You have a small business that you would like to see grow. Unfortunately, growth can actually go in two directions. Positive growth indicates that you are acquiring new customers. Negative growth indicates that you are failing to retain existing customers. Your goal is probably to maximize your positive growth while minimizing your negative growth. If you achieve this, your business will probably be a success.
However, if you are losing existing customers as fast as you are acquiring new customers, eventually your company will be doomed to fail.
One of the most important factors in the retention of existing customers is to ensure that you maintain a high level of customer satisfaction. You can also use a high level of customer satisfaction to help you acquire new customers. Of course, the hardest part of all this is that you have to have a high level of customer satisfaction (we'll get into the acquiring and retaining customers at a later date).
So how can the web that you are designing improve your customer satisfaction? Is it as simple as having customers fill out a survey? Yes and no. Yes, surveys have a purpose in life, and having customers visit your web to fill out a survey can do you some good. But have you noticed that uncompensated surveys seem to lean more towards the negative than the positive?
Don't limit yourself to surveys or satisfaction forms. Though these can help you get information, it generally is not going to give you the information that you really wanted to know, but forgot to ask. Instead, look for a way customers can talk about their own opinions and desires. Start a blog or get a chat room going. If you like to write, then set up some forums. However, listen carefully. Implementing any one of these ideas will require work on your part.
Think about it. What is your existing customer worth? Is it worth an hour of your time each day? What is the value of acquiring a new customer? Would that be worth an hour of your time?
There will be a lot of work associated with creating a two-way, customer service oriented website. It does not replace where you sell your product or offer your services, but it may, over time, end up making you a lot more money by giving people a freeform place where they can complain about your product, and then praise you for how great your response to their issue was. Eventually, you can start providing metrics to your customers about your high customer satisfaction rate, and also provide them a place where they can see that service in action. That is when you will start to acquire new customers because of the glowing reviews from your existing clients.
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