E-commerce customer service best practices

As traditional retailers, direct mail companies and the rest of the business world rush their "storefronts" to the Web in hopes of capturing additional revenues from surfers ready and willing to buy online, recent attempts by the editors of this magazine to buy online highlighted some glaring problems on the road to e-commerce success. Why harp on such problems? Because the companies that tackle these problems early during this initial e-commerce learning period will end up with the lion's share of business from the online world.

One of the most important issues surrounding e-commerce today is the necessity of providing high-quality customer service. Many new e-commerce entrants come to the game unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with the reality of doing business in general - let alone doing it online. Just because e-commerce employs "virtual" - and not brick and mortar or paper-based storefronts and customer contact is purely electronic in nature, it doesn't mean that customer service can be conducted as an afterthought. It must be an intrinsic part of the venture from the moment the Web server goes live, with procedures and processes designed to provide the highest quality of service possible.

After a series of attempts to use the Web for holiday shopping, a number of suggested e-commerce "Best Practices" emerged:

1) Think Like Your Customer. When you are in the process of designing your shiny new Web storefront, start thinking like your typical customer who is visiting the site for the first time. Design the site's navigation with convenience and ease-of-use in mind: Does it take one or two mouse clicks to find information on products or twelve? Is the order form and transaction process customer-friendly or will it scare away serious buyers? Does the content and presentation show the products in the best possible light or does the site create perceptions of bad taste and poor quality? Do you provide an easy and effective way for visitors to reach your company and receive a prompt reply to email or speak to a live person, or are you just smoke and mirrors?

2) Plan For 5 To 10 Times The Average Volume Of Visitors. It's the online analogy to a busy signal at the end of a phone line: Nothing is more frustrating to a Web-surfing customer than not being able to access a Web site due to server overload, server resets, inadequate testing or lack of redundancy. Several attempts to log onto the Web sites of companies that will remain nameless generated standard 403.9 error browser messages, error messages caused by SQL errors resulting from null data sets, and a host of other problems. Some of the sites that exhibited these problems were from companies that had recently completed IPOs and are worth billions of dollars. There is no excuse for poor planning! When building your online storefront's Web-based infrastructure, build under the assumption of high volumes - at least 5 to 10 times the average number of "hits," or visits, from customers. This way, your site will never be swamped by the deluge of customers you dream of.

3) Test, Retest And Test Again. In others words, instill quality assurance procedures with your software engineers and your entire Web site staff. Test and retest every link on every page. And when nifty features are added to the Web site, test the page offline before any code is posted to the live Web server. Access the site remotely while it is still "offline" to ferret out bugs and server errors. This way you'll avoid downtime and the bugs that might prevent a serious buyer from completing a transaction, and generate confidence in your online brand to boot!

4) Provide Flawless Customer Service. If your current customer service operation provides various tiers of service, such as standard and premium, add yet another tier - Platinum Service - to the top for the precious customer who has decided to do business with you on the Web. Treat all complaints as if they were from your most important customer - provide immediate credit on returns, and put the customer first at all times. This course of action will do more to instill deep and abiding customer loyalty than any price discount ever could.

5) Your Call Center Takes Center Stage. Your existing call center, in light of the above, takes on an added importance. Rather than being relegated to the back stage, your call center agents and operation are essential factors in the e-commerce equation. New technology is available that allows you to Web-enable your existing call center to allow online customers to perform a live "chat" via text with customer service reps. Software that enables "Callback Buttons" allows surfers to request a return phone call from an agent. Internet telephony functions are being perfected that will allow an online customer to initiate a live, two-way voice conversation with your call center staff.

6) People Buy From People. The moral of the story? After all the technology, the glitz surrounding bleeding edge Web-based applications, the initial rush from conducting an online purchase, in the end, people buy from people. Never, ever forget it!

Copyright Technology Marketing Corporation Jan 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved