Improving Online Customer Service

Date: February 9, 2008 | Author: Edward Clarke | Category: Business

Customer service traditionally is a bolt-on feature of a business or even just a reaction to complaints as and when they arrive. With commerce so competitive online, being keenly priced is not enough these days, you need to deliver a great service too. Below, we take a look at some of the more productive online customer service features every business should consider.

Accessibility

Your website provides a service to your customers. Website accessibility is the most fundamental aspect of your website and preceeds everything. Rather than go into detail about the technicalities of website accessibility, know that if people have trouble accessing the information on your site, they won’t complain, far worse, they will take their business elsewhere. Hardly good customer service is it? You’re also legally liable to ensure your services are accessible and you’re not discriminating against people with disabilities. Putting it simply, if your website is accessible, more people, scratch that, everyone can access your website which means more paying customers.

If you have a website and don’t know about website accessibility, print off the full Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and take it to your Web designer to see how near your website is to the recommended standards. Beyond that, if you’re still not satisfied, try to locate a specialist web accessibility company in your area for a full audit. If you find your site is accessible then you’ve got the peace of mind you’re maximising your potential. If your website is poorly constructed and has major accessibility issues, then you know you’ve got huge scope for growth.

Usability

Now your website is accessible, we can talk usability. Usability is a subset of accessibility. If somebody can’t access your website, they can’t use it. Simple. The problem with usability is how subjective it is. There are best practice methods for improving usability but the best way to find out how easy your website is to use is to ask your customers.

The Web is mainly consumed as a visual medium via a computer screen, mostly desktop but often mobile and portable too. Being visual there are some obvious usability factors we can employ to ensure people can make the most of the site.

Contrast

When you’re reading text on the screen it doesn’t matter how good or bad your eyesight is, assuming you have some sight, contrast makes a world of difference to ease of use. We all like colours as design and branding breeds familiarity, confidence and professionalism but if it comes at the expense of accessibilty and/or usability then it’s a flaw that needs addressing.

Structure

When it comes to novels, we put our feet, pour some wine and give ourselves some time to read. Unfortunately, the Web isn’t like a novel, it’s an information tool. Time is precious and we need this information quickly. Think about high street department stores. Walk in and when you don’t know where you’re going to find shoes you either look for signs or ask for help. This aids usability. We need to create a similar helpful signposting service to the information people are looking to consume. Good use of headers are highly recommended as it helps create a scannable page. This very article uses headers to break down the content into sections. Go on, admit it, you’ve scanned the headings before reading the information within haven’t you?

Navigation is a principle component of a website and needs to be both intuitive and consistent. Within the structure of a website it should follow the main document title and preceed the content. This keeps it consistent and means your visitors don’t have to ‘learn’ your website.

If your website needs a search facility due to the amount of information it contains then it needs to be alongside the navigation as thats essentially what it is, a tool for navigation.

Keeping typical Web components in their place means visitors don’t waste time working things out and struggling to locate the information they’ve generously visited your website to receive.

Search Engine Optimisation

“What has search engine optimisation have to do with customer service?”, you may ask. You’d be surprised. This is one of the areas where there are significant differences between commerce and ecommerce. In a supermarket you travel, park up, walk in and you load up. If you spend ages looking for something and not one assistant helps you out then you either carry on looking or do without that specific product. You don’t abandon your shopping trolley and travel to another supermarket. Well, if you’re online, you may do just that because it’s so easy to do so. This is a danger we need to factor in.

The idea behind optimisation is to uniquely tune each category, product and service page to be found in the search engines. Successfully achieving this means visitors get to the exact point in your website they set out to look for. This is your way of suggesting to a customer where the bread aisle is. You’re signposting people efficiently and that creates a sense of productivity and ultimately, a better service.

Effective ‘Business Hours’ Communication

When customers have a query about your products or services, they need to be answered clearly, concisely and immediately. This isn’t always practical when out of hours but we’ll assume we’re in hours for now and look at the two main communications methods.

Phone

The phone creates and solves problems in abundance. It costs money, it costs time. While you’re on the phone you’re not doing other things like dealing with customers that are right in front of you for example. However, without it you create a distance with your customers that is ultimately detrimental to the service you provide. The phone allows you to win friends and convert enquiries to sales. You also have the option to build a rapport with your clients, personalise the service and acknowledge that you’ve exceeded expectations by the way the client responds to you. Short of being face to face this is by far the best way to communicate with your clients.

Problems can occur with routing, menu systems that serve no advantage to the customer and out of hours messaging and you’ll need to ensure you deliver the most informative, responsive information you can when you’re not around to deal with customers directly.

Email

Emails mean you create a time allowance for yourself as they don’t tie you up like the phone does and you don’t need to respond straight away. Well, actually, you do. Although the assumption is that emails aren’t responded to for several hours, sometimes days, answering an email within minutes creates a huge impression with a potential customer, so much so you’ll find it far easier to convert them to sale.

Treat your emails like your phone and you’ll be fine.

Another aspect of answering emails is the way in which the information you reply with is conveyed. People can sniff a cut-and-paste response a mile away. A tailored email, greeting the user directly by their name will make a world of difference.

Effective ‘Out Of Hours’ Communication

So, you’re not there, you need a social life right? Well business never sleeps so we need to ensure that information and communication are switched on and doing the best possible job.

Phone

A common feature of a good telephony service is to record a message and not have the phone just ringing away. The message should also contain information why they’re hearing it in the first place such as business hours etc. Depending on the level of investment you’re looking at a great tool is voicemail to email. When someone leaves a message, it records it to mp3 or similar format then emails you the message. It’s another way of keeping in touch, can be picked up on your mobile phone and dealth with appropriately.

Email

Email autoresponders are a feature of your websites hosting provider. A response to an email can be generic such as “Thank you for your email. Our business hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday and a representative will contact you promptly.”

Now, expectations are set and the recipient knows that a representative will answer the email the next day. What a surprise the recipient will have when they receive their email at 9:05am! Not always practical but the sooner to the stated start of business the email is received the better the service will be perceived.

FAQ’s

Frequently asked questions when done badly can fustrate the visitor. The point is to create a knowledge base of answers to questions actually being asked, not what you think people want to know. The problem is a good FAQ is an evolving service and needs frequent attention. When done correctly, most service issues can be answered effectively which can lead to less phone calls and a better service.

I personally find most FAQ’s useful but I find one that will not answer or even go near the question I am asking. The first reaction to this is to blame the FAQ for not being comprehensive enough or easy to navigate. Then, after a while, I start to question myself. Whatever happens, my question isn’t answered and I’m becoming more fustrated. My only option is email or phone and I’m not in the best of moods either.

One way to stem the temper of fustrated visitors is to include support contact information such as phone or email as part of the FAQ, not a separate page or process. This gives a sense of helpfulness just when people need it and is less frustrating.

Forum

An online forum is a fantastic tool but does have drawbacks. A forum creates a community and when knowledge is shared, problems are halved. It’s quite a frequent occurence when a customer posts a question for another customer to already provide the answer. What better way to deal with customer queries than let other customers deal with it!

The problems come in the form of administration. Administration with registrations, spam, moderation and web management can all add up and take a great deal of time, particularly if the forum is popular.

In Summary

Setting expectations you know you can beat is the first step. Often, it’s the communication when help is needed that makes or breaks the deal and the best form of service is a prompt one. By investing in the quality of your website and communications you’ll be a cut above the rest and will be sure to prosper. With online advertising and spending spiralling ever upwards you’ll need to be ahead of the game to compete and the message of your good customer service will reverberate throughout your virtual high street.

Happy trading!

Thanks for reading.