Online retailers still need to work on customer service
While a study of 46 leading e-commerce sites found overall performance to be satisfactory, with average scores ranging from 76% to 90%, many etailers still need to improve on customer service.
The eRetail Benchmark Study from eDigital Research used mystery shoppers to assess the usability of leading online retail sites in the UK. Customer contact by email and phone are two areas where some retailers performed poorly.
Q&A: Zappos' Jane Judd on customer loyalty
Zappos has built up a reputation for excellent customer service, and owes much of its success to this. The fact that 75% of its business comes from repeat customers provides convincing evidence of its importance.
I've been asking Jane Judd, who is the senio manager of Zappos' Customer Loyalty Team, and was one of the keynote speakers at the recent Internet Retailing conference, about the company's approach...
Five ways to drive interest in your tweeting
Advice for using Twitter to build an army of engaged followers is prevalent. Less is suggested for the ways to drive awareness of your Twitter presence using other communication channels.
If you apply the basic logic of acquisition and retention, you can use Twitter innovatively to engage your current followers but if you do nothing to tell others, how do you grow this channel?
This blog looks at six practical steps to pushing your Twitter presence. It's not rocket science but good ideas shouldn’t be complicated...
Gone fishing: Seven tips for providing customer service support via Twitter
I've never done a list before, but here's my seven tips from using Twitter to provide customer service and online help and support. What are yours?
Love your customer service staff, love your customers
There's an old adage about it costing five times as much to acquire a new customer as to retain a new one. So why – in these difficult times - aren't more businesses focused on reducing customer churn, and improving customer service levels, to generate more repeat business?
This is fundamentally a cultural problem for many companies. There needs to be a shift in the mindset of larger organisations, in order to keep both staff and customers satisfied. I'm not sure that the balance is right, and I'm hoping that the next decade will be all about retention and satisfaction, so here I'm going to lobby for love. I want you to give more love to your customer services staff, for they are at the forefront of your push towards boosting customer satisfaction...
When Twitter met Yammer
I have been exploring for a while to see if a link between our customer service agents on Yammer and our customers on Twitter exists. Is there a point at which the two platforms could come together in the provision of customer service?
Happily there is. It's a bit clunky but it works. And the answer is '#yam'.
10 reasons why customer service doesn’t have to suck
Last night the BBC aired Watchdog, which this week focused on the ailing state of customer service among big businesses (and no doubt some smaller ones).
Almost three quarters of people said customer service is getting worse, according to a survey of more than 7,000 consumers. The worst offenders tend to be broadband / mobile operators, and utilities companies, though web companies aren’t immune either.
It doesn’t come as any shock to me, but surely good levels of service and a focus on the customer experience are key to surviving a difficult market?
Web 2.0 needs Customer Service 1.0
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. These are but a few of the services many of us have come to enjoy.
Yet there's one thing that seems anything but enjoyable about them: dealing with their customer service.
What if customers don't want to give card details online?
While online shopping is safe for the vast majority of customers, there are still some people who are so concerned about fraud that they are reluctant to enter their card details on an e-commerce site.
According to a Get Safe Online survey (pdf) from last year, 14% of people in the UK are deterred from using the internet due to fear of online crime, so what can e-tailers do to combat such concerns?
The power of social media for customer service
We've written about the potential of using social media for customer service, or at least monitoring and responding to customers' comments and complaints, and here is a great example of how valuable this can be.
Naked Wines, which launched last December, was very quick to get involved in social media; it has a Twitter account as well as a Facebook group, and this example shows the value of monitoring and responding to customers' concerns where they are talking about you.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
