Is Customer Service A Very Important Aspect In Business?

Customer Service: How Important Is It Anyway?
By Shonda Kellams

Is customer service that important anyway? The answer to that would be a resounding yes. A quality product or service does not matter if you have no satisfied customers. A customer who receives a good product or service and excellent customer support will recommend you to their friends and family. Word of mouth is still a top marketing strategy.

For those of you who believe word of mouth advertising is out of date, look at it this way. Product review sites have become very popular. They are a source of a lot of business for those companies and sites that receive the best reviews. 50 years ago if you had poor customer service, only a handful of people would know and your business would not suffer that much. Today however, that handful of people gets on the internet and if your customer service is bad, the entire world knows within a few minutes. If your customer service is outstanding, you will reap the benefits of the social web.

Offering instant customer service may be difficult for small businesses or personal websites, especially if you are running one yourself. However, there are many things you can do to assist when you are unavailable.

1. Replying to an email instantly makes customers and clients feel as though they are important to you and your company. Do this with auto responders. An auto responder is a short message acknowledging the receipt of a person's email. Usually it says something like, "We have received your comment or question and will reply shortly". You may wish to make your message more personal.

If your web-hosting provider uses CPanel, auto responders are simple to set up. Simply log in to your CPanel, scroll down until you see Mail. Under Mail, you will find Auto Responders. Follow the easy on screen instructions to set up an auto responder for each of your email boxes. If your hosting provider uses a different type of control panel, and you do not see "auto responders" anywhere, contact your provider for help.

2. Your website's contact information should be extremely easy to find. A website email address and phone number (if you have one) are essential. Always include an email form so that visitor's may email you directly from your site without their email client opening. Not everyone uses an email client, and this can be confusing.

If you can afford to add a second phone line, or use an extra cell phone for business purposes, it is always a plus to have a phone number for potential clients to reach you. Beware of the 3 am caller if you do this, since the entire world does not run on the same schedule.

3. Create a FAQ. Make sure that visitors can find your site's FAQ and that it is easy to read and understand. If you have a lot of content to add to your FAQ, consider dividing it into easy to follow sections. Again, take care that the FAQ's are found quickly in your navigation menu.

An unsatisfied customer can literally mean disaster for your website and/or business. Do your best to maintain quality customer care and your business will thrive.

Shonda Kellams is a freelance writer and the owner of http://designersite.org/ a web hosting company.

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