The only way a business in our current century will ever last is if they put the customer as their number one goal. Each year there are so manyy new business popping up and most people wonder why over 95% of them will not make it past their first year. Originally I was just going to write a one page summary of what a business needs in order to survive but there is no way I can sum all of this up in only one page.
The ultimate online experience would be if you order a product and as soon as you've made payment you will get either one comprehensive email or possibly two. The first part would be a transaction receit. The second part would be just a simple thank you. In the famous book by Dale Carnegie he states that by just using the simple phrase "Thank You" you can go so much further in life. If we look at books by people like Napolean Hill it tells us to alway thank the man upstairs for all of lifes gifts.
Now if you bought hardgoods then it would be ideal if the item was shipped using a service that provides tracking and the company should email you that tracking number. If you signed up for an online membership the ideal situation would be if the company had a routine that would automatically generate a username and password for you and email this information to you. Otherwise, you can always have a person that performs this job function and sends of the information to you. The person should do this probably at least twice per day.
If the company has a website then a forum where customers can interact would be a great addition. I have seen so many companies that fail to have a forum and a lot more that if my job were to give them ratings on their customer service their ratings would most likely be a low numeral like 0.
Now I am not being a sour puss regarding this subject because I have seen some companies that would get an A from me. Tigerdirect has almost perfect customer service plus they have an automated system in place that sends the customer a receipt, a thank you letter, and updates for the customer. I hear Fed-Ex has some great customer service and I will give credit to places like Starbuck's.
In the online world there is still a lot of room for improvement. I am not saying that customer service is good in the online world but I have seen several marketers who are exceptional in the way they treat their customers. People like Willie Crawford, Ed Thorpe, James Maduk, and so on but these guys are not the 20 year old marketers you so often hear about. The young marketers have a whole lot to learn regarding the part of taking care of customers. Mark Joyner came up with the theme many years ago telling people they could make money in their underwear and only have to check their emails once a day on the computer to see how many new orders they have.
Corey Rudl, may he rest in peace, is one of the only young marketers that had a great customer service. If you ordered a product from him a year ago and all of a sudden he has come out with a new product that replaces the product you bought you could just call him on the phone and get a low cost upgrade. Plus when you did call you gave him your email address and he had a file on you that he would pull up.
In the computer wholesale industry, I was known as a person who had a lot of information about who his customers were. I used to save this information in a CRM application called Goldmine. I remember once knowing about a concertt that was happening in south Florida and calling my customers in south Florida because I had arranged back stage tickets for each of them. One customer, David, called me after the concert and said "Solochek, I wasn't even a fan of this guy until I went to that concert, I owe you big time".
Recently I did some back end work plus customer service for one of these young marketers Jason Cox. The product he was selling, a product that was supposed to build perfect sites, had 25% of paying customers seeking a refund. Whatever you sell, if your returns are over 5% then you need to look at the product more closely and either get rid of it completely or greatly improve it. Another thing that should also be done with these types of products is sending all the current customers an email letting them know about you either eliminating the product or improving it.
Jason had so many part time employees with no collaboration whatsover that I am surprised he has been in business as long as he has. I always start out trusting somebody new until I am burned by them then I run the opposite direction and warn others. I am not the perfect businessman either but whatever business I am in I will always put the customer as number one which is the only way a business can expect to be around for the long haul.
if anybody agrees or disagress with anything I have said so far then I would love to hear from you. On my blog, everybody is welcome to post their feedback
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