Customer Service is Essential

This past Christmas season I made a phone call to purchase a product that had been advertised on television.  I wanted to get them for the kids.

When I called the sales process was all done using voice mail.  Totally automated.

The first thing they asked for was the credit card number.

Then came the upsells.  There must have been about 7 or 8 of them.  And the entire phone call took well over 12 minutes to get through.

But I couldn’t hang up because they had my credit card!

So, I toughed it out through the one sided conversation with their voice mail service and ended up paying well over 15.00 a piece for the products that were advertised at 10.00 each.  Multiplied by four that meant I spent $20.00 more than was advertised or expected.

Now these silly things are in the stores everywhere.

Customer Service should be about the customer.  While this particular company may have been a one shot wonder, your company won’t be.

Pay attention to the entire process your customer goes through when they purchase your product – from the sales page, to the shopping cart, merchant account and any refund or contact with the customer service department.

This process is incredibly important.  It’s just as important as product creation, quality and the manufacturing process.  Take great care because this a great reason that people will refer others to buy your product.  When your customer service is outstanding other people hear about it – AND when customer service stinks the information makes it to your potential customers even faster!

A couple of years ago my sister purchased a product from a well known marketer who did not fulfill his promise from the sales page and then had no good way of honoring refunds (even though there was a 100% without – question guarantee).   Forums were chockfull of people complaining for months.

When companies pay attention to their customer’s needs, even when the customer is dissatified, the company comes out on top.