When you provide a service or sell products to the general public, gaining your customers’ trust is incredibly important. This can be even more integral to your business’ brand identity and reputation when you generally sell to your customers online, because they have not had the personal interaction with a representative of your business when ordering from you that they would if you won their business in a physical shop or through face to face marketing. This means that you need to make sure your customers feel like there is always the facility to talk to a real person from your company should they have any issues. It makes them less nervous about buying, and gives a sense that they are dealing with a business comprised of helpful people rather than a faceless website.
Not all of your customers will ever need to contact you, but showing clearly that they can and giving great service if they choose to goes a long way towards giving your company credibility in their minds. There are lots of ways people can contact businesses these days, and as a small company, chances are you won’t want to have to support them all, so here are three methods of communication you should prioritise:
1. Phone
You may not have the budget or demand to set up a proper contact centre complete with Code Software call logging systems and highly trained agents, but that shouldn’t stop you giving people a number they can call. Many customers use the phone as their first line for getting in touch with businesses as they perceive it to lead to a fast answer and the opportunity to talk person to person. So if you don’t give out a number to customers this can often seem like a red flag.
2. Twitter
A well managed Twitter account that customers can use to get fast answers to basic questions is a great thing to have, because it is not only a popular way for customers to contact businesses but also means your interactions with them are visible to other people. When you respond quickly and give good service, this is great for your wider reputation as well as your reputation with the individual customer who got in touch.
3. Web Chat
Some people feel like making a phone call is too time consuming and would rather raise customer service issues or queries online. However, submitting such a thing through a contact form or via email can feel like sending it off into a void, with no idea of when or even if an answer will be forthcoming. Web chat gives them the same responsiveness as a phone call but can feel more convenient, and is becoming a more and more widely used way to offer support.
These are the three most important ways to offer service, but of course, you can also supplement them with other methods should you want to, like email, SMS, and other social media channels.
