subject: Is Email Customer Service Good Enough [print this page] Is Customer Service through email good enough? In a word, NO! I realize I am going against the grain in the internet Marketing Community. It is a world where Help Desks, Support Tickets, Automating & Outsourcing are rampant. I realize that as business owners, we need to leverage our time and make the best use of it as possible. However, we should never sacrifice our customers experience to do either. Many times as a customer, it feels as if the business owner is using these techniques to avoid talking directly with me. I don't know about you, but this totally turns me off as a customer. Automating the problems your customer is having, does one thing; it alienates them.
Customer Service through email on the surface is fine and it can work for simple issues. The problem here is if your customer doesn't hear back from you within 24 hours, and sometimes even that seems like forever, they may assume you are ignoring them. Remember, it doesn't matter if you were or not, the important thing is what your customer thinks. They are the reason you are in business. Also consider, what happens if you never receive their email. You have lost that customer. In a world where spam blocking programs are more and more aggressive, do you want to take that chance?
Help Desks and Support Tickets are another good option. Once again, they have their limitations. Most Help Desks & Support Tickets have known issues pre-loaded much like an FAQ page. It is when a problem crops up that isn't listed that these options fail. They not only fail you, the business owner, most importantly they fail your upset customer. Worse yet, they add frustration to the original problem. Imagine having a problem after plunking down your hard earned money. You go to the help desk to open a support ticket. You search all the possible options, and this can take some time, yours isn't listed. What do you do now? By this time, your thinking brain has disengaged and you are not thinking rational. At this point, it would take the most seasoned customer service professional to turn this situation around. More than likely, you have lost your customer.
As for outsourcing, the main issue here is the person you hire doesn't know your product like you do. They don't have your passion and most of all, you don't have any control over what they say to your customer. Without quality control, how can you be sure your customers are really being taken care of. In this type of environment, it is all about the numbers and how quickly can they get the customer taken care of. For some this translates into less than stellar service. Whether it be on the phone or through email, how many customers are you losing, do you know?
The only way to really take care of your customers is to be available for them when a problem arises. It takes very little time to answer a question or solve a problem. Especially when balanced with the benefits you receive. You make a real connection with your customer. This builds their trust in you as a seller of a product or service. Most importantly, they remember how they felt when you treated them as more than a ticket number or another email by being available for them to talk to. What does this translate into? It translates into sales, loyalty, and a customer for life.
Becky Rhone-Nowlan is the VP & Co-Founder of Nowlan & Associates. Becky has spent the last 25 years taking care of customers. She has dealt with them in every arena; from Fast-Food, Retail to on the phone and in a call center. Her forte is her ability to understand her customer's needs through active listening and intelligent questioning. She understands that every person throughout an organization is a customer, whether they be internal or external. This ability has allowed her to build mini relationships with anyone who has had contact with her, if only during a two minute order call. She has represented such major corporations as: Viking Office Products, Office Depot, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Fibernetics, AppleOne, Sun Chlorella & Verizon Information Services. Because of her love of Internet Marketing and Customer Service, she has combined the two and created 'Customer Care Tips' an ezine filled with ideas on how you too can connect with your customers. Please visit http://www.fortuneinthefollowup.com and sign up today.
