Copyright 2006 Bonnie Kotch

This happened to me recently and I don't doubt that it's happened to you. You tell me if this sounds familiar . . .

I send an email to customer service of XYZ Company. I need an answer to my question and I think it's rather urgent. I get an automated response in return, telling me basically to wait until they get to me.

So I go back to the website and after twenty-five minutes of searching, I FINALLY find a contact phone number. I call the number.

After punching numbers into the phone and going through quite a lengthy menu, I'm told to follow another menu where I have to punch in my first name, last name, account number and phone number. This sends me strait to a voice mail where I have to leave my message and WAIT for someone to contact me concerning my problem.

Those of you who know me, have an idea of just how far off my head my hair was standing. After purchasing something, receiving something else and trying to get it rectified I went from slightly irritated, to impatient, to ANGRY, to livid. Oh yes! The color of my skin changed all kinds of color that day. My time is money and between the email, reply, the search for the contact number and phone labyrinth I went through, I wasted 38 minutes. It was RUDE! I was irate and what came to mind were all the "automated" internet web sites and businesses online. (Yes, this was a purchase made online.)

Whatever happened to customer service??? Did doing business on the internet suddenly negate the necessity of customer satisfaction, common courtesy, people skills? Can I reason with an answering machine? No!

Can I explain the urgency of my situation to an auto responder? I can try, but I doubt I'll get a response, other than the one that was written into it three months ago.

I am in business, but I don't work for myself and I never catered to the illusion that I worked for myself, because I don't.

I work for my customers! I have three ways for them to contact me on my web site. I give them a phone number, a contact form that sends DIRECTLY to my email (no support tickets), and I have a forum I can monitor while I'm working online. I also have a cell phone if it's urgent.

Automation, believe it or not, was a concept originally conceived for the convenience of the CUSTOMER, not the business. At least that has always been my understanding.

Just as I was calming down, the Rolling Stones song, "Satisfaction" comes on the radio. I go back to work at my computer as the experience put things into perspective for me. I consult and train affiliate marketers on web site promotion. If there is one thing I see a lot of, it's the web sites promoting things like "...Let me teach you how to get paid for doing nothing", or "Rake in Cash Working only 15 Minutes a Day" . . . or "Build an Internet Business . . . No taking Orders, No Phone Calls, No Emails . . . Everything Automated".

People, I see the trend squelching human contact getting worse before it gets better. Don't be a "Grab Your Profit and Run" site. Be automated on the front end only. By this, I mean attract your customers with the convenience of online ordering, receipt delivery and instant access (if you are a membership site) or download. However, when it comes to customer support and service . . . keep it personal. This is how your business is going to stand out. This is why your customers will send more people to you and this how you will retain those customers.

I cannot express with the right words, how important your relationship to your customer is. Don't treat them like they were yesterday's purchase and they are no longer important. Yes, they are STILL a customer even after they made the purchase.

I have an auto responder . . . I use it for my newsletter only. Not to send automated "We'll get to you when we get to you" responses to questions.

I have voice mail. It answers calls when I'm on the other line. That person gets called back immediately after I am done with the previous call.

When someone posts a question or a request to review their site on the forum, I'm responding whether I'm in the middle of editing an article or not. Those people are important to me!

And they should be important to you to. You are not going to impress them by being too busy for them. My training for affiliates does not end at accomplishing the sale. That would be incomplete business development and it would be irresponsible.

You would not think in today's instant gratification society, that individual attention would even be noticed let alone appreciated. But the letters I get back from the affiliates I've trained tell me otherwise. Here are some tips to keeping your customers and keeping them happy:

1. Place some text in a relevant place on your sales pages, letting them know that your company responds to each question and request for assistance individually and that there may be a wait, but it's because they are getting individual attention.

2. Let people see your physical business address on all the pages of your web site. I usually have mine on the bottom. I have our phone number and the hours of business on our contact page.

3. Don't just invite people to sign up for your newsletter. Let them know how often it's published, which day the issues are delivered (and how: email, web published or both) and what your newsletter covers. You might even include a table of contents on the sign up page.

4. Affiliates, if you are selling products or services for another company, be an advocate for your customer. If they come to you with problems, send it along to the merchant and send the customer a personal note letting them know that you are working with the company. You won't believe how many charge-backs this avoids.

5. Do something special for your regular customers, like running a contest in your newsletter or ezine. The prize doesn't have to be big and it doesn't have to be cash. Add a sense of community.

6. Develop a way to follow up with your customer immediately after the purchase. Ask them if they received their product without any problems (if it's a download or through a membership site) and invite feedback with a form on the sale confirmation page.

You can probably think of some other ideas to support your customers, depending on what it is you sell. But keep in mind that even though you are in business, you are "self-employed" . . . you are not "working for yourself" but working for your customers and clients. Your business depends on them. Let them know you appreciate them.

About the author:

Bonnie is an Internet Marketing Consultant, ebook author and publisher of her newsletter "The Trinity Affiliate Marketing Review" She is offering her new e-book free, "$20,000 With 2 Hours Work" to all new subscribers to her newsletter. http://www.trinityonlinemarketingschool.com