If you are going to be starting an online business, do not make the mistake of focusing so much on the competition that you neglect your customers. If you do not treat your customers right, the competition is not going to matter in the long run. Many new online businesses devote countless hours to deciding on what inventory they will carry and the price points of the various items. While these things are important considerations for any business to make, they should not be your only focus. Basically, you must put yourself in the position of your customers. If you were visiting a website for the first time, what are the things you would like to see? What features would you expect? One of the most important issues for any business is how easily it communicates with its customers. Here are tips that illustrate the importance of customer communication.
1. Phone
If you plan on doing any type of business on a national scale, you must get a nationwide toll free number. This is something standard that all national businesses are expected to have nowadays. If you force your customers to make a long distance call just to ask you a question about your products or policies, you will be turning them off. Also, it just looks unprofessional not to have a toll free number.
2. Live chat
Live chat services have become an increasingly popular form of customer service in recent years. This is mainly because people do not like waiting on hold endlessly. Also, if you are chatting with a customer service representative online, there will not be any problem understanding what the representative is telling you. Some people have difficulty understanding phone representatives with thick accents. While not every company offers this service, it is showing up more and more in a wide range of industries. Live chat is becoming something that most people want online businesses to offer. You should consider this as you are putting your website together.
3. Email
When people have a question, they generally want it answered right away. This is why email is not as popular as a form of customer communication. However, there are people who still like to use it, so you will need to cater to them. When you receive customer email, do your best to reply to it in 24 hours. Otherwise, you will risk losing that customer.