Just because a huge percentage of customer retail experience is had online these days, it doesn’t mean that customer service should be lacking. The absence of a retail assistant or relevant expert should never have your customers buying products and services without the correct information and support.

Let your customers find you

First and foremost the best thing to do is to have a telephone number or email address where your customers can get hold of you. We’ve all been on those websites that have their contact information hidden behind a myriad of puzzles and deceptions because they don’t want to be contacted, but in reality this only serves to irritate.

When you have a link that says “contact us” you really need to provide information straight away, not offer a load of answers to questions the customers is not asking you.

Product descriptions

You could of course do your best to describe your products and services in a more thorough way. This is the best way to present any retail site, and if you can leave no doubt in your customer’s mind as to what the product is, what it does and why they need it, and then you should be onto a winning system.

Be sure to include all product specifications and a returns policy, as well as exact pricings including tax/shipping costs etc. Remember the more information you put on your product description the less likely a customer is to need your assistance.

Online help

Online help doesn’t always have to be a series of FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions). These only serve to irritate a lot of people, so it’s best to have only a few obvious questions here and perhaps have something else in place for those questions that need a proper answer. There are such things as live online help desks available for certain websites and during particular hours. This may be an expensive way of settling any customer service requirements you have, but it’s certainly worth considering if you are doing large amounts of sales through your site.

If your site is just small and you’re not doing that much business at the moment then a phone number of email address should really suffice; just make sure you answer your customers promptly.

FAQ’s

FAQ’s need to be relevant, and when you decide what they should be you really should try your best to look at your website from the perspective of a customer in order to ascertain what potential problems you may encounter during the shopping experience. Make sure you update your FAQ’s from time to time with any new and relevant questions your customers may have come up with, but be sure to stick to the point; no-one wants to sort through a load of irrelevant questions to find what they’re looking for.

Conclusion

If you take the above points into consideration and review your customer service regularly you shouldn’t have any trouble at all. Just ensure that you are easy to find and that you rectify your customers’ problems as quickly and efficiently as possible. Always consider your own website from your customers’ point of view.

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