Customer Service with a Virtual Smile

By Jennifer Schiff

Just about any e-tailer or e-commerce business owner you ask will tell you that the customer is number one. But as surveys of online shoppers have shown (heck, just ask the person in the next cube or your friends and neighbors), that's not always the case.


"Right now, customer service online is kind of a split personality," explained Lauren Freedman, president of the e-tailing group, which in January published the results of its 10th Annual Mystery Shopping Study of 100 online retailers. On the one hand, "you have merchants who really put a lot of passion and effort behind taking care of the customer," she said. "And then you have another group of merchants who are thinking about cost savings and self service and ways that they can [provide customer service] cheaper… with less people."

So why should smaller e-tailers care about going the extra mile when it comes to customer service, instead of doing the bare minimum? As the e-tailing group study found, "great service leads to loyalty, and those merchants who make it the differentiator will profit from their investments."

Importance of Going the Extra Mile
While the e-tailing group survey targeted larger online retailers, such as Blue Nile, Crutchfield, Pottery Barn and Zappos (all considered top performing B2C sites for online customer service in 2007), Freedman stressed "you don't have to be big to give good service." In fact, she said, "in many instances it's easier to be small," because you can be more nimble and creative and really get to know your customers.

"Providing customers with relevant and timely information is really what customer service is all about — or should be about," stated Zachary McGeary, an associate analyst at JupiterResearch who covers customer service. And like Freedman, McGeary said you don't need to be big — that is have a lot of employees and a big customer service budget — in order to provide great customer service. You just need to adopt what he called a "proactive approach to customer service," meaning understanding what your customers want, anticipating potential problems or questions and addressing those potential problems or questions before they result in a return or an angry phone call.

One small but rapidly growing e-tailer that constantly goes the extra mile for customers is Sweetwater.com, which sells musical instruments and audio equipment. Known for its no-minimum-purchase free shipping and for including a handful of sweets in every shipment, Sweetwater has garnered a large, loyal customer base, no doubt in large part due to its exceptional customer service.

"At Sweetwater, it's all about the customer," said company president Chuck Surack. "Sweetwater offers a number of customer benefits that cost us money to provide but are the reason why Sweetwater customers are so loyal. These include free lifetime service and technical support, which no other retailer in the industry provides." (Sweetwater also makes it ridiculously easy for customers to contact them and provides easy-to-find links to its online shopping guarantee, shipping and delivery information, and privacy policy.)

While you may not be able to afford free shipping or free lifetime service and technical support, there are plenty of other things you can do, even with a limited staff and budget, to make your customer service stand out.

Top 10 Tips for Exceptional Online Service on a Budget:


Tip #1: Provide a toll-free/800 number on your home page, merchandise pages, contact page, and checkout pages.

Tip #2: Make sure you have people who are familiar with your products answering the phone(s) — and that they answer calls in a timely fashion. As anyone who has ever been put on hold can attest to, five minutes can seem like an eternity.

Tip #3: Make your contact information easy to find and provide an e-mail address for customers who prefer to ask questions via e-mail. As with phone calls, make sure e-mails are answered promptly, if possible within 24 hours of receipt if received during normal business hours.

Tip #4: Include a return policy, privacy policy and a guarantee (regarding quality, security and/or shipping) on your site.

Tip #5: Provide a detailed, easy-to-find list of frequently asked questions (FAQs). Having excellent, comprehensive FAQs that really address customer issues is a great time and money saver, said Freedman, as the better the FAQs the less questions customers will have to call or e-mail you about.

Tip #6: Make checkout easy, and include a variety of payment options, such as PayPal and Google Checkout, in addition to traditional credit cards. Per the e-tailing group study, on the sites with the best customer service, customers clicked no more than six times from selection of product through checkout.

Tip #7: Provide online order confirmation and send an e-mail confirmation with the order number and contact information.

Tip #8: Let customers know when their order has been shipped. Order tracking has become very popular and allows customers to see the progress of their order.

Tip #9: Make sure orders are delivered on time. While this is given as the ninth tip, a late or undelivered order is often the top reason for a customer telephone call or e-mail — and why they may not do business with you again, particularly if the order was needed by a certain date or the customer paid extra for overnight or two-day shipping.

Tip #10: Provide a personal touch or a little something extra. Although this is the last tip, in many ways it is what customers remember most, as evidenced by anecdotes from online shoppers like Heather Lee, who runs a design and communications business called design/type.

A Site with Moxie
Lee, who did a lot of her holiday shopping online this past holiday season, cited one online merchant in particular as being a standout when it came to customer service, Moxie, which sells "random, quirky, beautiful, interesting, useful and unpredictable goods," including clothing, baby gifts, stuff for kids, home accents, jewelry and more, per its Web site.

"I love their Web site [which has easy-to-find Contact Us, Checkout, About Moxie and Shipping & Return Policy pages, as well as an address and phone number, albeit not toll-free, on every page], and I love their merchandise, but what I particularly liked was the personal touch I received, which I really wasn't expecting and found extraordinarily refreshing," she said. "When my order shipped, I received a personalized e-mail from 'Lindsey' that read, 'Hi, Heather - I wanted to let you know that your order was shipped out today. It was sent priority mail through the USPS. Thank you for your business and have a great holiday!'"

But the personal service didn't stop there, said Lee. "When I received the package, it included a personal, handwritten note card from Megan (Moxie's founder) thanking me for the business, along with a roll of Giant Smarties (which they also sell). Attached to the candy was a tag that read, 'You're so 'Smart' for shopping with Moxie. Thanks a bunch!' (It probably didn't hurt that Smarties are my favorite candy and Giant Smarties? Well, what more can I say?!)"

Thanks to those personal touches, Lee said she would definitely shop at Moxie again — and has referred others to the site, many times.

Charisse Lombardo, the president of CLM Interiors, LLC, had a similar experience with www.clientattraction.com, an e-commerce site run by client attraction expert/author Fabienne Fredrickson. Before ordering some books, Lombardo called the toll-free number on the site to ask a question and wound up chatting briefly with the customer service representative, revealing that one of the books was for herself.

Satisfied with the answers she received over the phone, Lombardo placed her order online. Not only did the books arrive earlier than promised but the author had signed the inside of one of the books to Lombardo and included a personal note. "I thought that was pretty cool!" said Lombardo, who has since gone on to recommend the site and Fredrickson.

"Personal stuff goes a long way, and people underestimate its value," said the e-tailing group's Freedman. In addition to a personal note, she highly recommends including free samples or goodies (à la Sweetwater and Moxie) or, even better, a 10 percent (or more) off coupon on their next order. Not only do coupons build good will, she said. They get customers coming back for more.

Make Sure You Deliver on Your Promises
And while all of these tips will definitely help endear your business to your customers, JupiterResearch's McGeary warns not to spread yourself too thin. "Only provide or offer a service if you can support it," he said. If you provide an 800-number but keep people on hold for more than a few minutes or provide an e-mail address but don't return e-mailed queries promptly, you're going to lose customers.

The holy grail of customer service? "Delivering on your promises," said McGeary. "Meeting customer expectations to the best of your ability — and living within and performing within what you promise to consumers."

Jennifer Lonoff Schiff is a regular contributor to Ecommerce-Guide.com and runs a blog for and about small businesses.