The chances are that your customer is coming to your online business in the first place to save time as well as money. Customer service is one area in which small or sole proprietor outshine giant stores and even well establish online competitors. It does not matter whether you are competing in the areas of e-trading, e-music or e-tail sales of any sort. Tools such as e-mail and forms as well as an online commerce site that can provide information on a 24 hours by 7 days basis, give you a powerful advantage when it comes to retaining customers and building customer loyalty.
The satisfaction customer is always informed customer that how we manage our customers expectation. So here are some of the ways or tools your e-commerce sites must have in order to be competitive in internet world.
1. FAQ page - It may not be the most elegant of concepts, but it h as worked for an infinite number of online business people and it will work for you. A set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) is a familiar feature on many online business sites - so familiar, in fact, that Web surfers expect to find a FAQ page on every business site.
2. Newsletter - You may define yourself as an online businessperson, not a newsletter editor. But sharing information with customers and potential customers through an e-mail newsletter is a great way to build credibility for yourself and your business.
3. Contact Us page - But being anonymous is not the way to go when you are running an online business. Of course, you do not have to promise to be available 24 hours by 7 days to your customers in the flesh. But they need to believe that they will get attention no matter what time of day or night. When you are online, contact information can take several forms.
4. Advance e-mail Features - An autoresponder is a computer program that automatically answers e-mail sent to it, can be setup to send automatic replies to requests for information about a product or service, or to respond to people subscribing to an e-mail publication or service. Beside, Setup a signature file is a good way to keep in touch with customer. A signature file or block is a block of text automatically appended at the bottom of an e-mail message, usenet article or forum post. You want your signature file to tell the readers of your message something about you and your business; you can include information such as your company name and how to contact you.
5. Personalize Attention to Customer - How often does an employee personally greet you as you walk through the door of a store? On the Web as well as in real life, people like a prompt and personal response. Your challenge is to provide someone on your web site who is available to provide live customer support. By providing online support to customer is definitely added edge to your online business.
In short, what constitutes good online customer service are being responsive and available as well as other essential components such as providing information, communicating effectively, and enabling your clientele to interact with you online become the must have tools in today online business.