The Importance of Good Customer Service in An Internet Marketing Business
The Importance of Good Customer Service in An Internet Marketing Business
Newbie internet marketers erroneously believe that just because their business is online, they don’t have to go to extremes when it comes to customer satisfaction. To the contrary, it is usually even more important for internet businesses to pay particular attention to their customer service.
The majority of sales within the Internet business arena are automated, so you never really think about what sort of customer service you should be offering, but this is a great opportunity to differentiate yourself from the competition. This can be the difference between having one time buyers and repeated business.
So here are some great tips for increasing the effectiveness of your online marketing customer service.
1 – As soon as you make a sale, be sure to get the person’s mailing address so you can send them a personal handwritten note that tells them how you appreciate their business. This is going to work better even for you if you don’t have a very large business as yet. It’ is always the seemingly little things like this that make you look great in the eyes of your customers.
A handwritten thank you note to your customers has the effect of endearing yourself to them and offering encouragement to buy from you if they need your service again. This is not time-consuming and it should take no more than a few minutes for you to create a decent note. The few minutes you invest in it could turn into a multitude of repeat sales and enhanced revenue.
2 – Reward loyalty by running a giveaway for past customers. People will take the incentive to contact you, but you don’t have to give something to each person who then responds to you. The choice of contest design is completely up to you and it could include offer of a free service to someone. The winner could be chosen randomly and you or your staff members can choose what kind of questions to ask. Remember to keep it simple i.e. ask basic trivia, or look for business feedback on an issue or product that still needs refinement. In either case, the responses could pleasantly surprise you by being totally overwhelming. You might even be delighted by email responses from people who are not on your mailing list who were referred by other customers.
3 – Make it a habit of sending to your customer list something for free. This does not mean to send a free newsletter every few weeks, as it could become time-consuming and remove the surprise element. You should rather tailor the offering to your business, and if you are an article writer you could offer a free article on a topic that the customer has requested before. Alternatively, if you work with affiliates selling their products, you can check their website for anything they may be giving away for free, and you could send these products to your customers. Without distinction, everyone loves something for free, and they will be more apt to buy from you again.
There is absolutely no reason to believe that quality customer service is difficult. It shouldn’t take you much time at all to include these little touches in your customer service offering. When you take the extra few minutes you have in a day and devote it to customer service, you are most certainly assuring success with your business. These twelve or fifteen minutes of customer engagement could result in thousands of repeat sales. When you just think about how easy it is to offer your customers a good buying experience, then this strategy should become integral to your overall online marketing plan.