When it comes to running a business, both online or off, much of our profits and time will be spent on our customers needs. It is in this area that a great deal of our time and profits are spent.
Personally answering the phone and replying to emails, will cost you valuable time that could be spent in more profitable ways. If you offer an 800 number, every minute spent on the phone decreases the profits you generated per sale regardless of whether you are talking to those who have made a purchase or not.
It goes without saying that if you have to pay someone else to provide customer service by phone or email, your profits are reduced even further.
So, the question is how do we utilize the technological advances available on the internet to decrease our time spent on customer support both on the phone and in email
The simple answer: By providing your customers with the solutions to their problems directly on your website.
Wait, perhaps your thinking, I do this already. Tell me something I dont know.
Okay, so you have a FAQ section, and you have all the information on your website that your customers could possible want. You have even included the most user friendly instructional manual with the products you sell. What more can you do
The first thing we need to understand is that most people have become rather lazy when it comes to reading. Although, the internet is full of information, the main way to absorb this information is by reading. Many people, if given the opportunity to do so, will take the easy route and call the 800 number, or email for help. These visitors and or paying customers will have no problem taking advantage of your valuable time. Time you could use to increase other areas of your business.
If the customer has actually paid for your product, they have the right to receive customer support by email or the phone.
Given a choice of reading instructions on a website verses, emailing or picking up the phone, many will chose to email or phone customer support over hunting for the answer in a manual or in the FAQs.
For these time-wasting, profit-eating problems, there are two solutions. 1. Audio 2. Video. By adding audio to your site, you can help the lazy browser gain a better understanding of your products without having to read. Many people skim read and miss important point. With the use of audio and video you can make sure that doesnt happen.
An introduction to your sales letter by use of audio can help to increase interest in your product, which could be missed by those lazy browsers who need more incentive than a good headline to read what your product is about.
Many webmasters are using audio testimonials to sell their products and it is very effective. Hearing a personal testimonial offers greater validation than reading about one.
You can use audio to answer the most common FAQs and prompt your readers to use your FAQs section before submitting an email to support.
Next, add the visual aids, either through images, power point demonstrations, or video. Video is now incredible easy to create. All you need is a headset with a microphone and PC video recording program to begin. The money and time saved easily out weigh the cost of purchasing a headset and PC video recorder software program.
With video, you can show your customers exactly what they are going to receive. If its software, you can provide a video demonstration of how the software works. For those who have purchased a product, you can provide video tutorials on both installation and use of your product. This will save you countless hours in customer support.
You can even offer a video tutorial of your ebook or membership site. For instance, you can use video to entice your readers by offering a walkthrough of the chapters in your ebook, or a video tour of your membership site, using audio to bring out the benefits and main points.
Basically, youre doing the same thing as you would in a sales letter, but by offering it visually, you are able to attract even the laziest customers to listen. Its far easier to listen and watch, then it is to read and think. (Video should be in addition to the written sales letters and manuals)
Use video and audio to show and tell your customers exactly what they want to know. This will decrease the time you spend in email and on the phone, thus greatly increasing your time, and profits as well as decreasing your expenses.
Copyright 2006 Christine Darrington
Article by Christine Darrington Published Childrens author and web designer. Visit: Get Step by Step coaching, Expert Interviews, Case Studies, and much more... take the free video tour - learn how to get full access for just one dollar.
I had a really wild experience the other day. I was on my banks Internet site, wildly trying to ascertain whether an important money wire had been deposited into my account. It hadnt. I thought perhaps it could be somewhere in the system, so I wanted a warm body to either calm my fears, or establish what my priority was going to be on that day.
One of my biggest frustrations with websites is trying to find contact information when I need it, and of course, even for those sites that have it, there are few standards for where it might be located. These are the instances where I feel alienated, drifting in an impersonal cyber world that for all I know may be populated with nothing but cyborgs. Many web sites have lost sales because they made themselves impossible to deal with except through their Internet shopping carts.
Anyway, back to the bank. Lo and behold, there on the page was a chunk of information where I had several choices to actually deal with a human being. One was to send an email, one was to engage in instant messaging, and the third was to click on a button to speak with someone on the phone. I opted to click and my phone immediately began ringing. Now this was service! I picked it up, and although a received a recording, it was just a few seconds later when a REAL person got on the line. Unfortunately, the competent and human representative on the other end determined that my wire was no where in the system, but at least now I had a game plan for what I needed to do that day as opposed to wallowing in ignorance.
This is called relationship, and it is the challenge for todays Internet. How do you personalize an otherwise vast universe where by its very nature people are relegated to alienation and anonymity
The first, though seemingly obvious thing you need to do is make it an objective for your site a priority objective. Once you do that, you can consider and employ specific strategies such as:
The key to successful search engine relationship marketing is to keep a dialog going with your site visitors. Give them valuable content, let them have access to you, and encourage them to participate in your site. Not all of these suggestions will work for every site know your customers and pick what works for them. When you have succeeded in building a relationship, they will keep coming back to your oasis in the cyber desert.
Mary Anne Donovan is both a scholar and a practitioner, a balance that gives me the best of both worlds: the theory behind digital communications and the hands-on experience to know what really works and what doesnt. She is in her tenth year as a professor of technical writing and business communications while at the same time serves as Vice President and Director of U.S. Operations for SEO Literacy Consultants, Inc., a search engine optimization consulting and training company. Mary Anne has worked with computers since they first came out of the closet and into more general application, starting with computerized quality control systems for Kodak photographic and printing processes and now with the fine points of SEO theory and application.
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