Step 10. Provide Excellent Service to Your Customers
Starting an E-Business on a Shoestring

The myth of the automatic online sales machine is alive and well on the Internet. But it is a lie. Unless an online business provides excellent customer service, it will bomb. Guaranteed.

I've heard a lot of bragging about site automation. But the fact is, there's just so much you can do to automate customer service. In the end, you need to allocate time to deal with real live customers who have problems. I have a pretty automated system, but I constantly have e-mails from customers who can't quite figure out how to do something, or have a special case that my system isn't programmed to deal with. Then I must fix it for them -- immediately -- or risk a dissatisfied customer.

The Importance of Happy Customers

Last week I got an e-mail from a friend who moderates an influential discussion list. He was concerned because a vendor I had recommended didn't answer either telephone calls or e-mail messages. This had gone on for two weeks and my friend was at his wits end. I e-mailed the vendor, with whom I had some good dealings previously, and told him the importance of taking care of my friend immediately. "I've been swamped," was the reply, "but I've already taken care of it." I passed the word onto my friend.

Whatever the vendor had taken care of, he didn't communicate it to my friend, who finally sacked the vendor and selected another costing hundreds of dollars more. He told his readers to be patient, that this feature he had promised would be delayed another week. He was gracious in his discussion list not to trash the first vendor publicly. But when people ask him personally what vendor he'd recommend for this service, I expect he'll not only tell them about the vendor he finally ended up with, but probably also pass along a horror story of inexcusable customer service from the original vendor. I, too, will be more hesitant to recommend this vendor again.

I've heard that a happy customer tells one person about his good experience compared to the eight persons a disgruntled person will spout off to. With the ease of e-mail, it doesn't take long for your reputation to be destroyed if you don't take care of your customers.

Every company has some problems, and all of us have had to fix something that went wrong for a customer. Of course, customers would like products or services to be problem-free. But they're realists. They understand occasional problems. But customers really find out about your company when something goes wrong. When you respond quickly to a customer complain and fix it generously and fully, you've made a friend for life. But if you leave a customer to twist in the wind or just reply with an irrelevant e-mail, they'll go out of their way NOT to do business with you a second or third time. That's what kills you.

The Importance of the Second and Third Sale

It's a fact, that with many online retail sales, you make little money on the first sale to a customer. The marketing costs to get that customer to your site in the first place may be considerable. But if new customers are happy with your service, they'll come back again and again. As your customer, you have a relationship with them that implies permission to e-mail them at very low cost about future products and sales.

You've heard the old joke, "I lose money on every sale, but make it up in volume." :-) Retailers often lose money on the first sale, but make it up on the second and third sale. If you have excellent customer service, you'll be able to retain and sell again to these first-time customers. If not, your customer base will dribble away and the online business will become unprofitable for you.

An Example of Excellent Customer Service

In 1998 I ordered two books from Amazon.com -- a commentary on Genesis for a Bible study I was teaching, and a pocket German-English dictionary. Soon I received a package from Amazon, and there was my Genesis commentary, but instead of the German-English dictionary I received a book entitled How to Make Love All Night (and Drive a Woman Wild) -- not exactly what I had ordered. I thought it was hilarious, and so did my wife. But I telephoned Amazon's customer service number to see what they would do. The customer service rep was apologetic, polite, and didn't even laugh when I told him the books that got mixed up. He offered to send me the dictionary by an upgraded delivery method, and to send a post-paid label with which to return the wrong book. Very professional, very well done. I was impressed. And this time all I received was a boring German-English dictionary! Will I shop at Amazon.com again? You bet. Not because they never make mistakes, but because I know that if they do they will fix it promptly. But I could name some companies that I have resolved never to deal with again because of their horrendous customer service.

Finding Ways to Automate Customer Service

I'm not against automating customer service. I strongly encourage you as part of your customer service strategy to automate customer service as much as is feasible. Here are some methods that will inspire confidence in your customers and save you a great deal of time answering e-mail and the telephone. Some cost only your time or employ lower cost services or software. Others are suited to better established small- and medium-sized businesses.

• State your guarantee and shipping policies clearly.
• E-mail customers when their orders ship. If there is any hold-up in shipping, e-mail immediately and ask whether your customer wishes to cancel the order or wait for a backorder. You may lose an order, but you'll gain a loyal customer who knows you are looking out for his or her interests.
• Prepare a detailed FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) webpage. See my article "The FAQ Answer to 80% of E-Mail Overload" (www.wilsonweb.com/articles/faq.htm). RightNow Technologies (www.rightnow.com) works with companies to develop FAQ systems that customers love. If your online FAQ answers 90% of the questions your customers commonly ask, you'll save lots of time and customers will be happy to find answers quickly.
• Prepare an online trouble-shooting that provides step-by-step instructions to diagnose and fix the most common problems with your product or service.
• Prepare a series of boilerplate e-mail messages that answer clearly and concisely most of the questions that your customers ask. Outlook 98/2000/2002 refers to these as "signatures". Eudora calls them stationery. Whatever they're called, prepare them carefully and you'll save lots of time. See my article, "Sample Boilerplate Responses to Common E-Mail Requests" (www.wilsonweb.com/wmt6/email_sigs.htm)
• Set up a facility that allows instant chat with your customers, or allows you to telephone them back immediately. ASP services include LivePerson.com (www.LivePerson.com), InstantService.com (www.InstantService.com) and LiveAssistance (www.liveassistance.com). Or for a lower cost you can put the chat software on your own web server with a program such as RealTimeAide (www.realtimeaide.com). See more in Yahoo! Directory's "Customer Service Software" category and the CGI Resource Index under "Customer Support" (cgi.resourceindex.com).
• Provide full contact information so customers can contact you by phone, fax, e-mail, postal service, etc.
• Subscribe to an online customer service system such as SalesForce.com (www.salesforce.com) that enables your virtual customer service reps to access information about previous calls or contacts with a customer. You can outsource part or all of your customer service to a call center. See the Yahoo! Directory "Call Centers" category.
• Set up a "contact us" forms-to-email function that uses a drop-down menu of subjects to route inquiries to the correct person in your company. See tips in my article "How I Keep Up with the Deluge of E-Mail" (www.wilsonweb.com/wmt6/email_deluge.htm)
• Set a maximum acceptable time in which to answer customer service e-mail inquiries and then require those doing your customer service to adhere to it.

Investing in Customer Service

Sometimes you need to spend more money to provide better customer service and, at the same time, provide customer service more cost-effectively.

The original system I built to manage subscribers, passwords, and access to subscriber-only sections of my website cost me very little out-of-pocket at a time when I couldn't afford much. It worked reasonably well for four years. But it had several shortcomings that required lots of e-mailing, as well as manual address changes. Last summer I invested several thousand dollars in ColdFusion programming and found that that this investment saves me perhaps ten hours each month. Subscribers are happier, too, since they are now empowered to make immediate changes themselves.

But I stay close to a computer or have my editorial assistant check when I'm away, so that customer service questions can be answered within a few hours at most. Customers are my company's lifeblood and keeping them happy is very important to me. Do I please them all? No. That's impossible. But I try hard to find a way to keep them happy.

When Not to Automate Customer Service

How do you like the telephone menu systems? Rather than a real person who answers, "How may I direct your call," too often you get a recording that says. "Please listen to the following menu of eight complex functions. And make sure you listen carefully since we change the menu every few weeks just to confuse you."

More and more smart desktop e-mail mailing programs such as Gammadyne Mailer (www.gammadyne.com) and Mailloop (http://marketingtips.com/mailloop/t.x/15267) are now available. These have the capability of scanning an e-mail for keywords, and then taking an action based on the keywords they find, such as sending an e-mail reply or unsubscribing a bounced e-mail address.

I recommend that you use these only for routine and highly predictable e-mail interactions. I can remember a series of customer service e-mails I had with a large domain name vendor who shall remain nameless. Every time I wrote an e-mail describing my problem I received a reply that showed no one had read my message at all. I was talking to a machine.

While these smart e-mail systems are much better than they used to be -- test, test, and test again before using one for customer service. You cannot afford to lose customers just to save some time.

Customer Service Is a Management Decision

Last summer one of my tires blew-out on the freeway 100 miles from home. I took it to a brand name Auto Service Center, arriving about 12:30 pm, planning to wait until the job was done. My need was simple: (1) replace the tire, (2) stow the spare in its correct location, and (2) realign the front wheels. How long will this take? I asked. About an hour and a half, I was told. The person I talked to went home shortly thereafter. I waited patiently (mostly) for an hour and a half, but my car was still sitting where I had left it. I asked the new clerk when it would be taken care of. Soon, I was told. I sat down again. I got up and asked again. Oh, we'll get to it soon, I was told. By now I wasn't so patient. I insisted in no uncertain terms that they get it done. We have to wait until that person gets back from his break, I was told. It went on and on, with me having to push at each step of the process, until at 5:30 pm they finally handed me the keys. However, the spare tire wasn't stowed where it was supposed to go. At my insistence, a disgruntled mechanic angrily threw it into its slot, but didn't secure it or replace the cover.

By this time I was fuming. Where's the manager? I demand. He's out of town, I am told. I want to talk to the assistant manager, I say. Oh, he had to leave early and won't be back until tomorrow.

The more I thought about it, I realized that complaining to the manager would not solve the problem -- because problem was with the manager, not the employees. If the manager had insisted on a "customer comes first" policy, enforced it, and rewarded excellent service the Auto Service Center would have an entirely different attitude. Customer service reflects management priorities.

The Golden Customer Service Policy

My dear Internet businessperson: What is your policy towards customers? Customer service will determine the success or failure of your online business. I recommend a simple, practical policy: "Treat your customer the same way you would like to be treated in a similar situation." Sound familiar? Of course! It's an adaptation of Jesus' Golden Rule (Luke 6:31).

Last week a customer requested a refund on one of my e-books. Why? "I didn't learn anything from your e-book that I couldn't find on the Internet for free. Please refund my $12." His request came two months after his order.

What should I do? I had made no promises or guarantees that the book would include information he couldn't find anywhere else. The Table of Contents is clearly displayed before ordering. There are no tricks or gimmicks. But here is a customer, a dissatisfied customer, perhaps a customer who had an unreasonable request. What should I do? Insist on the rightness of keeping his money? Tell him that he is an idiot to make a request like that? No. I made a $12 investment in customer happiness. Will I ever sell something to that customer again? Perhaps not. But I have done what I could to leave a good taste in his mouth. I hope to keep a friend even though I lost a sale.

Providing excellent service to your customers is the tenth, final, and crucial step in Starting an E-Business on a Shoestring. None of the ten steps can be bypassed, step 10 especially. Of course, one of the benefits of having a customer delight policy for your online business is that it enables you to develop your customers into lifelong friends -- people who find that your business cares about them and their interests. They will reciprocate and care about you, year after year, sale after sale. Ain't e-commerce great?