Every business no matter what format depends on sales; the first sale for a new business is the first opportunity to put your customer service plan to work. That one sale is the beginning of a cycle that is often ignored. Now that you made a sale, make a customer.
Over time as your business grows your customers or clients become an asset. To insure that you have a loyal or committed customer base you have to satisfy their needs at every point of the customer journey. There are many differences between traditional and e-commerce however a customer is a customer and they come first. Every business should take a careful look at how they are addressing their customers. As shoppers and buyers adapt to new technologies sellers have to adjust their methods. Successful sales professionals have to adapt their techniques to accommodate a more information rich environment; now more than ever product knowledge is essential in making a buyer decision. Knowledgeable sales counselors can clarify information overload and knowledgeable consumers can create new challenges.
Your Customer Service Policy… should include each step of your particular customer journey; it should be actionable, and fair to all. Your products, method of sale, environment, delivery method, guarantees and return policy should be tailored to your particular business type. Using generic policies that are not carefully reviewed may be easy however; careful review will produce a more realistic policy.
Just like your business your customer service policy is a living breathing thing that can be updated and modified. As your customer base grows it can provide the best demographics money can buy; I will speak more about this in future posts.
Advertising’s job is to deliver sales opportunities, marketing’s to convert sales opportunities to customers …don’t advertise, without a “Customer Service Policy”.
In my opinion… many of today’s major retailers are allowing the internet to serve as their information resource and have reduced their staff to order takers. There are less and less product savvy sales people available. This practice lowers consumer expectations and reduces the store to a pick up point. Eventually this practice I believe will hurt potential sales and customer choice of where to buy. On the other side smaller and niche operations both retail and e-tail are working hard on customer service and building dedicated customer groups. We are in a whirlpool of change of how we buy and sell our goods and services. Keeping on top of trends is even more important today than in years gone by…
alan b. meschkow “Speaking from Experience”
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