Internet Marketers Can Keep Their Customers Happy, Too
Many internet marketers don’t realize how important customer service is, even to businesses that are web based. Customer service is at least as important to online businesses as it is to offline based businesses. Think of how much competition there is on the web, with thousands of sites fighting over the same potential customers. How can you stand out in this crowd? The answer, of course, is your superior customer service! If you are able to communicate well with your customers and make them feel appreciated, they are more likely to continue buying from you. If your business is set up to avoid any personal interaction with customers, it’s likely you won’t have many returning visitors or buyers. If you follow these suggestions, you will be able to start giving your visitors good customer service.
Never underestimate the importance of the “thank you” e-mail. This one gesture can change the way people see you, even if you do this by simply sending out an automated e-mail message to each customer thanking them for their order. Doing this is very easy, as almost every e-mail service gives you the ability to send out an automatic response to orders, where you can tell everyone, “thanks for being a customer,” or something similar. So set this up today! This one gesture that doesn’t even cost you anything can increase your business!
Run a giveaway for past customers. This will also remind people to contact you. This doesn’t mean you have to give every customer something for free. You design the contest. If they win, people get really excited. You could opt to pick a random name from those who reply to your email. Then, you could offer that person a free service or item. This question can be in the form of a simple trivia question or you can use it to get feedback on your business. Either way, the responses will be overwhelming. You could even get email from individuals who were not your original list.
It is a good idea to offer freebies to your customers periodically. Don’t be stingy here, though, as sending a mundane newsletter will probably not inspire much excitement. You should tailor the offering to your business, so if you are an article writer you could offer a free article on a topic that the customer has requested before. If your work by selling affiliate products, see if the affiliate company can offer anything free from their back office and then have them send out the products to the people that are on your list. Everyone loves something for free, and they will be more apt to buy from you again.
When you focus on it, you can provide good customer service to your website visitors and clients in many different ways. Remember that many people are still afraid to shop online out of fear of being ripped off. There is no better way to relieve such fears and get people to trust you than to offer good customer service that is also personal.