| |
| |
|
Customer Service Information |
|
|
|
Get Customers to Stop Calling You--12 Easy Ways to Save Money with Online Customer Support
Despite rumors to the contrary, the Web is not dead. More people are using it, they have faster bandwidth, and in many cases Net-time is taking over TV-time. It's no wonder more users are turning to the Net for help, rather than the telephone. So why not take advantage by offering your customers help online after the sale? Given that the average customer care call is $33, it's a great way to please customers that prefer the Web over a phone queue and save money too. Not that you ever want to drive customers away. After all, keeping a good customer is a whole lot cheaper than acquiring a new one. The idea is to move the majority of calls to self-help and reserve quality time for those customers that need to speak to a real person. If you guide certain customers towards answering questions themselves, make it a good experience, and offer incentives for usage, self-help will be their first choice. The type of online support required for each customer and for each problem may be different, so it's best to provide a range of self-help options and let customers choose what works for them. Online support comes in many forms, but for now we'll focus on the least expensive FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), Enhanced FAQs, discussion boards, and email. It's better to start with a few options first, and do them well, rather than trying to do everything at once. Offering a good help experience to people who use the Web regularly makes them more likely to turn to the Web for assistance again and again. 1. Determine Your Online Support StrategyFigure out what's going to give you the biggest bang for the buck, then add on. Having a plan will help ensure that each support component works within a cohesive whole. Generic information can be easily handled with FAQs or Enhanced FAQs. More complex or customer-specific information requires advanced technologies. If you don't have the expertise or time to build the functionality yourself, look into Web service providers who can create and host applications for you. 2. Focus and TargetDon't try to create online support to cover every subject. Consider customer demographics to determine who will use the service, why they would use it, what they would need, and what would get them to use it. Customers ordinarily will use a combination of both online and offline support options, so build use cases for each target customer segment to gain an understanding of their behavior and how to improve their overall experience. 3. Tell Customers Where to GoMake sure links to the help section are clearly communicated at every touch point, such as on printed material and through IVR systems. Familiarize your sales and phone reps with the site and its benefits, as in, "Did you know that we have a website that shows you how to do that?" Offer customers incentives to encourage first time usage and let them get in the short phone queue if they try self-help before calling. 4. Make Help Easy to Find at Your SiteIf you don't provide a direct link to help, make it an obvious click away from your home page and other appropriate pages. 5. Give them OptionsEven if a customer visited the site only in search of contact information, there's no reason why you can't try to resolve their problem while they're there, saving both of you a phone call. Briefly describe what is offered through self-help, how it works, and what they can expect. You don't want customers to waste their time looking for information that isn't there. 6. Should I Give Them My Number?You should always make contact information available, but the extent to which you delay publishing it will depend on your target customers and your support strategy. For example, if you can respond to the majority of visitor questions with generic information and your goal is to maximize self-help use, then delay, driving visitors to use self-help first. On the other hand, if many of your customers require custom treatment and you want the opportunity for personal contact, as with brokerage services, you may want to make phone numbers readily available. 7. Start with Simple FAQsAnswer the questions customers ask most often. Don't worry about trying to answer every possible question. Build your list from customer questions received via your customer reps, email, and keywords searched at your site. Organize the information into a standardized format, write clearly, and don't try to sell your customers anything. This is not the place and time. You can always provide navigation links to sales information. If the FAQs are long, add an easy to use index or search function. 8. Give It to Them StraightMake sure the information you provide avoids jargon and terms they would need to search elsewhere to find. Leverage the technologies available with HTML to provide definitions via rollovers to help customers get the information they need faster. 9. More than Just the FAQsExpand on your FAQs by providing images and interactivity. Imagine how much easier it would be to show pictures detailing a car battery installation or a bicycle assembly, rather than explaining it with words alone. Involving the user through interactivity improves learning and results in a more positive experience, which means they'll use self-help again. 10. Get Them TalkingGet customers to search and answer questions themselves via a discussion board. Harvest information from the boards for your FAQs. 11. e-Mail with Caution Use e-mail, but be sure you have the resources to respond in a timely and effective manner. If you set up the expectation that it takes too long to get a response, customers are going to lose confidence in the service and not use it again. Be careful about using automated email responders as well. If customers have to wait and still don't get the specific help they need, the best you can hope for is frustrated customers. More likely you'll end up paying for this lapse in customer service in the form of phone support and lost future sales. 12. Survey Says Let customers tell you what they need. It's the best way to make improvements to your online customer support. Ask a few simple follow-up questions through an online survey, but keep it short and simple. Respect your customers' time. ### Publishing Guidelines:You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated. About the Author: Robbin Block is President of PictureSez, Inc., which gives companies an easy way to enrich their websites with picture-based, online customer support. Whether for how-to instructions or FAQ's, our browser-based authoring tool allows you to 'show' your customers what to do-- without any programming. Visit http://www.picturesez.com or mailto:rblock@picturesez.com.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The Great American Customer Service Unawareness Campaign Q: I'm so sick of you so-called business experts always saying the customer is always right. This is my business, not the customer's, so I'm the one who's always right. Debt Elimination Scam May people these days have a problem with mounting debt. The average person is well below the bad credit limit and is in desperate need to fix it. CEM Can Improve Customer Loyalty 'A 5 percent increase in customer retention increases profits by 25 to 95 percent.''The greater the loyalty of customers, employees, suppliers, and shareholders, the greater the profits reaped . Customer Service and Marketing that Works Go into many businesses today and try and get service, its sometimes impossible! The customer service officer is on the phone talking about personal issues, there is not enough staff, and they are disinterested and distracted.The old days of customer service is where you the customer were viewed as valuable and important and you received service from a person and not a machine. Your Number One Asset Customers put you in business, keep you in business, and they can put you out of business. Therefore, your overriding feelings at all times should be: customer love, customer satisfaction, and customer convenience. Customer Service Consultants When all else fails in your company to meet the needs of your customer consider a customer service consultant. If you find that agents in your company are constantly having misunderstanding that result in loss of customers bring in a consultant. Have You Hugged a Customer Today? It all started a couple of weeks ago when a friend asked me if I could scan and print some of her slides. No problem, I said. Develop Loyal Customers for a Lifetime - part 1 (1 - 10) Traditional marketing strategies encourage business owners to continually grow their businesses by adding new customers. In today's competitive world of business, it is more important than ever to aim for more transactions with existing customers by using the power of customer follow-up and attention to good service. 10 Customer Service Quality Statements to Measure up Against It might sound quick and simple, to say how well your business does in satisfying it's customers. Hearing such as:-"We're increasing our turnover by 14% year to date""Our customer complaints are now less than 4% or our transactions". Customer Service Tips - Is Your Business A Leaky Bucket? Customer service and customer service training are vital for any business.But, is your business a leaky bucket?This is a question I always ask small business owners who attend my marketing seminars. 8 Critical Steps to Establish a Customer Service Culture "Every company's greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there is no company,"--Erwin FrandDuring our recent weakened economy, many businesses have seen declining revenues and declining budgets. Declining budgets often lead to reduced staff levels and diminished services. Customer Service - How Good Are YOU? At 8.30 am a wealthy client (on his way to make a presentation to the local council at 9 am) walked into a store that sells photocopiers. Attitude of Service When conducting a training session about customer service, I always spend a fair amount of time talking about attitudes. After all, to be of service, you must develop an attitude of service. All of the World of Business Is a Stage One of the basics of acting taught to me in grade school was the important principle of "staying in character." Staying in character means holding the image and personality of the character you are assigned to portray without letting your own personality leak through. Restaurant Scheduling for Success - Excerpt from Richard Saporito's latest e-book "How to Improve Dining Room Service"This Tip will Help Maintain the Staff Schedule Keeping the Dining Room Service Staff Tight and Content which is Essential for Pleasing Paying Guests.Staff scheduling is closely tied to dining room customer service and crucial for keeping your staff tight, happy and well connected. Putting The Serve Back Into Customer Service Good service is easy to spot and hard-to-find. Mediocre serviceoccasionally stands out but only because it's the cream-of-the-crap. How to Retain Your Customers the Dish Network Way Customer retention is vital to a business. If you cannot retain your customers you will be continually losing current customers and always on the search for new ones. How To Handle Customer Billing Snafus Q: I just discovered that for the past six months I have been billing a client half of what I should have been. Should I just include the total of the past due balance on his next bill or contact him first to let him know that it's coming? This client has been difficult in the past, so I'd rather not deal with him until I absolutely have to. Service Equals Performance Equals Service Service can be described as a "performance" of some kind involving two parties whereby one party is the benefactor and the other party is the performing party receiving some type of monetary payment. The value of the Service depends on the personal experience of the benefactor. Loyalty Programs May Keep Customers Coming Back - But First You've Got to Earn their Trust Remember trading stamps? If you're over 40, chances are you will. Every time you shopped at a participating grocery store or gas station they gave you stamps to paste into a book.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2007 |
