Customer Service

When youve got your site ready to go, it is important to consider how you will be handling your customer service for your on-line business. It is a bit different than customer service for your regular physical business and it you may need to assign specific employees to help handle the load. Here are a few options that will help you keep your customer service top-notch.

1. A toll-free number. This is an option that most large companies already have, but smaller companies should consider adding this for online sales. Simply putting a toll free number on your site does a lot to boost customer confidence. You may get very few calls, but your customers will know that they have that option if they need to contact you. You can try a test run for three months to see how much your new toll free line costs and how much use it gets to see if you want to keep offering this feature.

2. Email service. This is the most common form of customer service for online businesses. However, you will need to make sure that you can answer your customers inquiries in a very short time period. It is best to respond within 24 hours, during the week, to make sure that your customers feel secure about doing business with you. Always remember to keep your emails professional and to go above and beyond.

3. Live chat. This is an increasingly popular option for many companies, especially if they do not want to offer a toll free number. It gives customers the option of speaking with a live person and you dont have to worry about phone charges. Live chats give customers that instant gratification when they have a question and once again, youre instilling that confidence that you customers need. It is a good idea to have a custom live chat application built for you that can be branded with your company information.

4. Help Desk. This is an option that works well for companies that deal with online services or informational products. Customers can leave a message and you can have someone on your staff respond to the inquiries as they come in. Once again, you may need to have a special application built for you, but it will reward your company with better relations with your customers.

Online businesses have to work twice as hard to make sales and interact with their customers. These tools can help level the playing field, especially if you are trying to compete against another large online company that offers a similar product or service. Your visitors will appreciate the fact that you are willing to go the extra mile for them and the reward will be their business and loyalty.

Founded in April 2004, royalatlantisgroup.com is a privately held established ecommerce firm specializing in online website design, website development, website branding, graphic design, web programming and custom application development.

http://www.royalatlantisgroup.com