A lot of businesses make one extremely common mistake which can really cost them in the long-term, and this is not putting enough resources into customer services. So you have a website? Great. How does it look? It looks awesome, right? And you appear the top of Google for all the keywords you needed, so why is the upturn in business not as drastic as expected?
Well, with your new level of business and custom coming in on a regular basis, it’s important that you also match up your new level of customers with an equal standard of customer support. A lot of businesses forget that now they are dealing with five times the volume of clients, they now need five times the volume of support.
You will have a lot more e-mails coming through about any potential problems, questions, complaints, requests, job opportunities, everything. And if your website promises an answer within 48 hours, you had better make sure you answer within 48 hours!
Making sure that you have a dedicated and professional support team to provide you with the right answers when the customers come calling is extremely important to a business. The main idea behind online marketing is that after one purchase, your service will have been so professional that the client will come back – well, is that happening to you? If not, you need to look at your customer support funnel.
How many people do you employ? How can your customers get in touch with you? A good website will provide you with a Contact page, allowing you e-mail in, several e-mail addresses to contact directly, and also a link to any phone numbers that your business is contactable through. If you’re really serious about customer support consider buying an indepedent domain just for the purpose of supporting people – but link it to your main site. To see what I mean here in action click the link for www.wonga.co.za and look where their ‘help section’ at the top redirects you to – a special wonga section just for help! You can’t provide much better in terms of online customer care than that.
Making sure you hire the right staff is key here. You do not want to hire people who can provide only half answers and are not passionate about the subject. In customer service, I would hire somebody who is an expert on the subject over somebody who is extremely friendly, but cannot handle difficult questions and deal with business issues.
If you are looking into expanding your support team, but need to look into alternative financing methods, it’s something we highly recommend. This allows you to bring in the support staff you need in the short-term, to improve the long-term success of your company. Remember – every company, without the support of the client, is nothing, so keep your clients happy and the door open to all of them, and you will be successful.