CONCLUSION

It seems that while many are conquering the basics of the e-commerce business model, they have not managed to come to grips with the practical procedures for handling customer service issues. This is because many website operations don’t treat their customers as the source of current and future profits; instead they look at customer service as just a series of individual transactions. This is not the only way to develop and nurture customer relationships.

The Web’s key appeal to the general public is its perceived ability to provide immediate gratification. When customers come to a website they expect to find information or products immediately, and then to solve the problem or purchase the product fast! Consequently, the web user is sensitive to any delay — it only takes about eight seconds before a customer gives up a quest for a product and/or service. Of course, some will continue their search — only on another website. Others will abandon the search entirely.

E-commerce businesses, therefore, operate under tremendous pressure to anticipate their customers’ every possible need. This need is passed on to the web designer, the people who contribute to the development of the website’s content, the marketing department, and customer support staff. Since the customer is hypothetically everyone in every geographic region, the range of information that potentially may be requested is staggering. Solution? Prioritize — don’t get stuck in limbo because of the enormity of the task — get the most important information and services on your website first, and then add to it over time, as your customers’ needs direct.

The same customers, who expect instant action and gratification, demand better customer service from a web-based business than they expect from a brick-and-mortar business. To maintain a high level of customer satisfaction the web-based business must realize that “site experience” is actually more important to an online customer than “product experience,” and build the website and customer service solutions around that fact.

Good marketing can be for naught if there is poor customer service.