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 Website Savvy - Customer Service through
Your Website - Part 2By Joan Pasay of Jampact Media Inc. As we learned last month, most of the talk about websites is centered around getting more clients. But what about the clients we already have? Your website can help you retain those customers by offering customer service online. Last month we talked about: a) Offering a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section; b) Offering online PDFs available for download (Product catalogues and service manuals) and; c) Starting an e-newsletter. Here are some more suggestions for using your website to help service your customers: 1) Use online surveys to find out critical information about your customers and about you. Online surveys are great. Your customers can complete a survey and remain unidentified if desired, and you still get the information you are looking for. Surveys can be used for rating your customer service levels at periodic steps in a project, or at the end of a project, survey your customers. I know of a web hosting company that sends out a quick survey after a help-ticket is raised by the customer and solved by the web hosting company. The survey consists of five questions that rate the service received regarding the help-ticket issue. What a great way to measure customer service! Online surveys are quite easy to setup. There are a number of free survey software programs that don’t require you to put code on your website. For example, http://www.zoomerang.com is FREE for the Basic Membership or there is a more sophisticated version for a $599/year fee. You can also set up a survey that is really no more than an online form that a visitor completes. The form can be sent to an email address or to a database if you are more advanced. Either way, you get the information you need to run your business better. 2) Highlighting case studies about your customers and what you did for them. I guess in each of us there is a desire to be a movie star or something. You will discover this when you write a case study about your customer. Your customer will be thrilled! Not only do you get to help your customer by highlighting their business, your customer will tell everyone that they have been highlighted on your website and send all their associates to your website to see it. For those of you new to the case study approach, it is simply a brief summary of the opportunity your client faced and how you helped them. After you have highlighted these case studies on your website be sure to submit these specific pages to the search engines. Persons searching for your client will find your case study. These case studies will not only help your client, they will also help your business. Don’t forget to tell your customer that they have been highlighted on your website! 3) Offer online coupons and specials for your customers. Have you recently come up with an idea of something you can offer to your existing clients? Communicate it to your customer group via a link in your e-newsletter, or send the link in your next mail out. I know of a water park operator who sends out about 5000 letters in the off-season to patrons who had bought a seasons pass the previous summer. In his letter he gives a link to an online seasons pass purchase form as well as an online coupon for a day pass. His response rate is very high. He also uses the online links to measure how many persons visit his website because of the mail out. In closing, we have talked about three more approaches you can incorporate into your website to help service your existing customers: online surveys, case studies, and online coupons or specials. You will find that taking the time and effort to invest a small portion of your website to your existing customers will pay off in repeat sales. In the upcoming Nov/Dec issue, we will look at more tips on servicing your customers with your website. Joan Pasay is an Internet Marketing Coach with Jampact Media Inc. a Calgary-based Internet Marketing & Web Development Firm. You may contact Joan at 403.547.5436 or joan@jampactmedia.com or visit their website at www.jampactmedia.com |