E- Service (how to treat your online customers)
06/08/2010Recently we had a hiccup with our software, which failed to recognise that a customer had paid for their plan. We have always been very particular about our customer service process, because we know how we like to be treated ourselves when things go wrong (and with the best of intentions, they do).
We were able to email our customer with a response immediately and then continued to liaise with her until everything was put right. Obviously we don’t stay up all night to do this, but we sort things out as they arise as soon as we possibly can, so we have usually dealt with problems within 12 hours (and with the help of our web designers).
This set me thinking about customer service and the Internet, a 24 hour, global business, and my recent attempt to email a large supermarket chain in the UK. Sad but true, all I wanted to know was “Why have you changed the spray nozzle on my favourite bathroom cleaner, so that it comes out in a blob?”
Now, our customers can email us with no hassle: as far as we’re concerned that’s how it should be, and there are only two of us! But these are the hoops that I was expected to jump through when I began my email journey with the supermarket:
1. I am asked to “Choose the topic you want to email to us about from the drop-down list below. If the subject of your enquiry is not on this list, please select 'Other questions'. Click 'Confirm' to continue.
For quality and monitoring purposes, emails you send to us may be read by more than one person.” No problem with that.
So far, so good. I selected from the list and clicked continue.
2. On the next page I found a form that asked the following:
- Full Name
- Email address
- Postcode - find address
- If your address is not listed, please enter your details below: followed by the ususal fields, including Telephone number and Nectar card number
Even though only the Full Name and Email address fields are mandatory, the form is daunting.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but why do they need all these details if I am emailing them?
3. Below this was another box “Have you contacted us before?”
4. Only then did I reach the section where I could leave a message.
Guess what? I’m a contrary customer who doesn’t want to spend time doing all this and giving away my details unnecessarily. So I decided to forget it and will buy a different bathroom cleaner somewhere else! Do you want your customers doing that, just because you make it hard for them to contact you? Make it easy for them to communicate with you – and follow it up! Have a look here for more information:
http://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com/1768-3894/No-comment-No-customer.html
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