PlusOne – Marketing Musings

This Business Tip is all about customer service. It is about an odd demarcation that has evolved between customer enquiries that are received by phone and those that are received by email. Which is more important? Which gets the best response?

This question has always been at the back of my mind, but today’s tip was prompted by this interesting point that appeared in:

Your website’s hidden treasure – SmartCompany
2. Reduce query-to-order turnaround time
How often are sales or production processes delayed because you haven’t been able to “touch base” with your prospect or customer? And how many sales have been lost because a competitor beat you to the punch?

A well planned website can drastically alter your success rate with these issues. In fact, this is one of the lesser publicised benefits of a comprehensive website as prospects and customers help themselves to the information they are after rather than wait for you to get back to them – increasing the chances of a costly delay or lost sale.

To my mind this idea of the website doing it all is wrong. A website should not be regarded as a self-serve environment only.

In fact a website should be the start of a conversation with your customers.

To assume that a website can answer even the majority of a customer’s questions implies that the business is not in the business of meeting customer needs.

If your business provides any product or service that is based on meeting a customer’s needs, then a website can only go so far before the time comes when the customer is going to want to contact you.

In fact a good website should be all about leading a customer to making contact unless the site is merely selling an item that is so commonplace, that the customer is most likely price shopping.

However, for many businesses with an online presence, the outcome of the benefit of the website: having customers contacting them, is something few have made allowance for.

How often have you filled in a form on a business website only to have a thank you screen that says your email will be responded to in two or three DAYS. Not hours, but days.

Clearly the web is not completely integrated in their sales/marketing strategy.

Does a web enquiry really mean so little that these businesses are prepared to give competitors a 2-3 day head start on winning the business?

My advice is that every business should have at least one dedicated staff member whoese responsibility it is to respond and follow through on every email enquiry received. In addition, a second staff member needs to be assigned who handles enquiries when the frontline person is away or cannot respond to emails for any reason. Emails should be checked and responded to at least twice per day.

To be slow in responding to emails is like letting all phone calls go through to an answering machine that has the recorded message:

“Please leave your name and number. We will return your call within three business days.”

Have an opinion? Share it via comments.

No comments »