Customer Service in the Information Age

Image by: Freethinker.co.uk

You don't need an evangelist to tell you thatcustomer service is important online.

Put the web to work for you with these powerful online tools

My friend Michel Falcon, a customer service evangelist, has a great quote he likes to use: "There is always room in any market, no matter how competitive, for a company with the best customer service."

It's almost clichéd now to talk about the importance of customer service – it's like remarking that "less is more." But the fact is, your online customer service experience is at least as important as the design or SEO of your site. It impacts your reputation, referrals, and word-of-mouth – and these factors, more than search results, are the real drivers of new and recurring business.

The good news is there are lots of good, affordable, and easy-to-use online tools that can improve the online customer service experience on your website literally overnight.

Keep a blog

Without a blog or some other space online to publish fresh content, you're a customer service dinosaur. You can set one up without a budget using WordPress, Tumblr or Blogger, and link it with your social media outlets in no time. By publishing regular, relevant content on your site, you become a resource to your customers, which is inarguably an important service to provide.

Monitor your mentions

Set up Google Alerts and Twitter Alerts for your company name, as well as any other relevant keywords, so that you know what's being said about you online (good or bad), and so you can respond if necessary. The bigger your company, the more mentions you will have to deal with, so make sure somebody at your organization is paying attention.

Get feedback

Tools like Get Satisfaction (the little "Feedback" tab you see on so many sites) and KISSInsights give service-oriented companies a leg up. They automate the process of getting feedback from your online visitors, offering you insight and market research while at the same time giving the impression that you take customer service seriously.

Live Chat

Live online chat with sales and support agents is a growing trend. Companies like LiveChatInc, ProvideSupport, and WebsiteAlive all facilitate implementing this service on your site. Installation is usually straightforward, but remember: you still have to staff this position. Perhaps this is a role for an outsourced personal assistant, which I've written about in the past).

Empower your (mid-level) employees

The organization of the future doesn't wait for bureaucratic approval to make a customer happy. Enable employees (to a reasonable extent) to resolve problems and provide incentives without having to go to senior management, and watch as sales rise and administrative costs fall.

The key to running a successful business online isn't in the products, it's in the service. Your website is often a customer's first impression of your organization as a whole, and their first interaction with it. So what are you doing to make your online experience more service-oriented?

• Tags
  • michel falcon, 
  • tommy humphreys, 
  • Digital, 
  • Marketing Research, 
  • Social Media