Building Confidence Through Customer Service

Building a customer's confidence in you and your product is probably more difficult and more important in a web based business than in a bricks and mortar one.

All you have in which to gain that confidence are your site and your service. Let's take the site first. Obviously it needs to be smart, attractive, eye-catching, well laid out and easy to navigate - everything you will have considered under Web Site Design - but what else will it need in order to build your visitors' confidence?

First, it should have an "About Us" page. The absolute minimum this should have is your address and contact details. Next, some personal details about you and your staff - ideally with a photo of you - it reminds visitors that they are dealing with a real person not just an abstract being from cyberspace!

The biographical information you give must relate to the theme of your site. A resume of your career is not relevant if you are running a site about dressmaking - unless of course you had a degree in fashion design and were a senior clothing buyer for a major chain of dress shops! Conversely, details of your family pets are not relevant on a site about marketing.

This page could also include any testimonials you have received about your site or brief details of articles you have published. Many large companies include an archive of press cuttings and a history of the company. It all goes to build a visitors confidence in you.

Whatever you put though, make it genuine. If you are a one man/woman business, operating out of your spare bedroom, you don't necessarily have to disclose that. But DON'T state that you are a large company operating out of plush offices - you WILL be found out and when you are, all confidence and credibility will disappear overnight.

One other pet hate of mine, is the practice of owners of small, one man companies calling themselves C.E.O.'s (Chief Executive Officers). There is nothing wrong with being an owner or partner or proprietor of a business. What would you think if the owner of your local hardware store called herself a C.E.O.? At best you would probably think that she was being somewhat foolish. Don't give others the opportunity to think that you are foolish.

If you take credit cards on site (and you really should if you are selling off the site), you should explain to your visitors, before you ask them to enter their credit card details, that you are operating a secure site and that they should only give their details when they see the locked padlock at the bottom of their screen and the "https" in their browser bar.

Next, you should make it easy for visitors to contact you. As well as simply putting your e-mail address on your "About Us" page, invite visitors to contact you with their comments or queries from your home page. Not only will this help with your future marketing, by gathering e-mail addresses, it will again build confidence in your site by letting visitors know that you welcome their comments.

Likewise, producing a newsletter gives you an opportunity to develop a long-term relationship with your visitors and give you a greater chance of converting those visitors into customers.

Once your site is up and running, and you are obtaining customers, you need to ensure that your customer service is up top class. When a visitor emails you, answer as soon as possible. I have an auto responder on my site e-mail address, which states that I will contact the sender as soon as possible. This shows that I have received their message. I then endeavor to reply personally, within 24 hours at the most. If they have raised a query, which can not be answered immediately, tell them that you are investigating the problem and give them some idea as to when you will get back to them again. Then ensure that you DO, even if it is only to update them on the situation.

If you are selling goods on your site, make it clear when and how they will be delivered and what your returns policy is. Implement a good order tracking process so that if customers contact you wanting to know when they may expect delivery, you will be in a position to tell them.

It is good practice to e-mail your customers to confirm that the goods have been dispatched. You can include a message about how to use them or how best to look after them, or who to contact if they do not receive them. You can also take the opportunity to include a short message advertising another product, perhaps with a special offer for new or existing customers.

If, after receiving the goods, the customer complains for any reason, do not get into an argument with them - there can only be one loser, YOU! Ideally deal with the complaint and help them resolve their problem. (It may be as simple as getting them to read the instructions properly. The old adage "if all else fails read the manual" can be very true).

Remember, if you help them solve their problem you have gained a friend who may buy off you again or even recommend you to their friends. If you are totally offhand and unhelpful, they will certainly NOT buy off you again, and more importantly, will probably tell all their friends not to buy off you. It can take years to build a good reputation, but only five minutes to destroy one.

As a last resort, it is usually better to accept return of faulty or unwanted goods gracefully, than to argue. If it ever gets as far as litigation the courts usually find in favor of the customer and the lost goodwill, never mind the legal fees, will rarely be worth it. Just remember, "the customer is always right - even when he is wrong!"

Courtesy of Tony Murtagh