KentonNewby.com

(Want to keep your buyers from looking like this guy? Read on…)

There seem to have been quite a few blog posts recently on the topic of customer service…like Terry Dean’s post here & Ed Rivis’ post here.  I figured I’d chime in on this topic too. 

Most of us would probably agree that it’s pretty crazy to think you can totally ignore customer service or completely leave it up to automated systems.  For some issues, you’ll need a person in the loop (but no, it doesn’t HAVE to be YOU).

It seems like too many people online try so hard to be completely inaccessible…no contact info, email, phone number…NOTHING!  With the Internet being a pretty impersonal media to start with, that strategy seems like shooting yourself in the foot.  So much for know, like and trust.

Not that you should allow your support system to go completely out of control and turn into a free coaching program.  But it just makes good sense to offer some basic level of support to help people if needed.  This is especially true if you’re offering software, but still applies across the board for all of us online if you have any sort of product or service.  People expect a bare minimum of support in case issues come up, especially if they’re shelling out their cash for your products…and it’s not that difficult to offer. 

Just taking the extra effort to have an easily accessible, OBVIOUS frequently asked questions page or knowledgebase that people can search at their convenience is a good start…maybe good enough.  The point is, you got them to your site and have them as a customer now.  You either paid for the traffic with cash or with time.  So you may as well do what you can (within reason) to KEEP them as a customer.

On a side note, one other thing people seem to overlook with this whole "inaccessibility" thing is how on Earth are non-customers, but potentially good business contacts supposed to contact you? 

What if someone wants to partner with you on a project, give you an outlet for some good PR, or other opportunities that would help further your business?  Then again, maybe some people don’t want that sort of exposure.

I had an idea for an interview I wanted to do with a handful of people awhile back.  But I tabled the idea when I discovered not ONE of them had an obvious way to contact them on their site.  Sure, I could have done a WHOIS lookup and gone all stalker-style, but do you really think MOST people are going to know to do that?  Or take the time to do that?

I’ve always had a means of contact on this site (since I started actively posting that is).  Just click the contact link here or at the top of the page. 

You’ll see that I recently changed from a plain ol’ contact form to a support ticket system, and there are several very important reasons for this:

1. To handle all support issues / contacts at once & easily track the back-and-forth
2. To offer support across all my products/sites, including some new projects in the works
3. To add info to an easy-to-use KnowledgBase so people can self-help before needing to submit a ticket (yes, I know it’s empty now, but I’m getting there)
4. So I can easily outsource some of these tasks to contractors, etc.

The software I chose isn’t free, though there are free alternatives available.  Oh, and there are a few things I wish it did, like automatically adding email replies to the correct ticket, sort of like what some of the more expensive solutions do.

But hey, that’s a pretty minor downside and a whole lot of upside.  And I can say from an admin perspective, it’s pretty easy to setup and use.  I’ve also used this software to get support for products on other sites and can say that from a user’s perspective, it also works like a champ.

So if your online business use a streamlined, user-friendly support system, then this software gets my "green light" and you should check it out.

But DON’T buy this if you don’t have any products or don’t need to provide customer support yet.  Focus on other stuff first…it’ll still be around when you actually need it.

Oh, you can see a working demo of the admin area and get more info here:

Customer Support Software demo and more info

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