The Customer is number one!

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The title of this article seems like a cliché, "The Customer is ...
Who doesn't know this already? Many ... and business ...
this to be true but how many really practice this phi The title of this article seems like a cliché, "The Customer is numberone"! Who doesn't know this already? Many businesses and business peopleknow this to be true but how many really practice this philosophy? Moreimportantly, how many Internet companies really practice this?In the brick and mortar world, there are numerous examples of serviceexcellent. One of the most famous, is the customer who claimed he hadbought a tire from Nordstrom and insisted on returning it.
Nordstromdoesn't sell tires but they accepted the return anyway! This is a truestory, although a little extreme for most companies.Let's take a look at Internet businesses vs. traditional brick andmortar businesses.
How do they stack up in terms of customer service andputting the needs of the customer first? Ask yourself these twoquestions:How many Internet businesses do you highly recommend to your friendsbecause you received excellent customer service? How many traditional brick and mortar businesses do your recommend toyour friends because you received excellent customer service?If you are like most of us, the list of Internet businesses yourecommend is a lot shorter than the list of traditional retailers yourecommend. Why does this tend to be true? The main reason is, youreceive personalization when you shop at a traditional business, whichyou don't receive from most Internet businesses.
At a traditional business, the employees people greet you, they qualifyyour needs and they promptly close the sale. Is this possible to do withan Internet business? Listed below are a few ways to personalize theshopping experience at your web site, so you can practice "Making thecustomer number one"!1.
Make sure your phone number, address and office hours are posted in ahighly visible spot on your home page. Many Internet companies do not want to handle inbound phone messages.
Ifyou are one of those companies, change your philosophy NOW or get out ofbusiness. The phone number is there for your customers.
Do not createbarriers for your customers to do business with you! Make sure doingbusiness with you is as simple and easy as possible. List your address,even if you don't ship products from your physical address.
Customersare more comfortable knowing that you have one!2. Provide concise and relevant F.A.Q.'s (Frequently Asked Questions).If you have good F.A.Q.'s, you will reduce the amount of inbound phonecalls and you will be showing your customers you are concerned abouttheir questions.
If you don't have F.A.Q.'s, you really need to get themup on your site as quickly as possible.3. Post your response time to inquiries in your customer service sectionand stick to it.Most Internet consumers feel that their inquiries will go unanswered orthey will have to wait days to hear back from Internet businesses.
Poston your site that you will return e-mails within 24 hours. That meanshaving someone check the status of questions on weekends too! If you getin the habit of responding to inquiries within 24 hours, you will beexceeding your customers expectations 99% of the time.4.
Confirm receipt of all orders received.How many times have you ordered something from an Internet company andafter your transaction was completed, you DID NOT receive confirmationof your order? If you are like me, it has happened way too many times!Make sure your customers receive confirmation their order is beingprocessed. Send them confirmation through an automated system ormanually.5.
Follow up on important customer issues with a PHONE CALL!That's right! If a customer places an overnight order and you find outyou are out of stock of the item, do you e-mail the customer and waitfor their response? No you don't! You call the customer and offer asolution to their problem. Most people don't mind getting phone callsfrom companies when the company is addressing their concerns.
In fact,in most cases you will build a tremendous amount of goodwill and theywill provide you with more referrals than you can imagine.6. Provide a tracking number and the link to the tracking system of thecompany you use to ship your orders.
Many companies have automatedtracking systems tied into UPS and FEDEX. If you are a smallcompany without automated tracking, you can provide the URL for trackingthe shipment (example) http://www.fedex.com/us/ and the tracking number.This gives the customer piece of mind and reduces the likelihood thatyou will receive an inquiry from your customer regarding the status oftheir order.Follow these six steps and you will prove to your customers that theyare number one! Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .