There is a big push for big companies to offer more customer support options like Twitter, Facebook and chat. But what about us small businesses? Is email still good enough for us or should we be reaching out to our customers in more ways?
For many years, we used the little HTML section on the header of our eBay store to put the java chats for AOL IM (AIM, to the hip kids), Skype and Yahoo chat. The icons would change based on whether a chat operator was active, idle or offline but you could send a questions along instantly at any time and we usually answered in less than an hour, usually in seconds. Someone from Priced Nostalgia was online just about every hour of the day on Trillian which let them be logged into all of those services at once ready to answer questions the second anyone asked them. (On a side note, if anyone would like to know how to do this with their eBay store, let me know and I will write a tutorial post).
Bonanzle has a chat feature built into the basic store that serves a similar purpose since you can set this to forward to the IM client of your choice.
We recently took that section down from our eBay store. The reasons were mostly because we were short staffed and 99% of the questions we got over there were general eBay support questions from people who found it easier to find our support than eBay’s. Also, as Facebook, Twitter and Gmail chat overtook traditional IM clients, we were going to have to start including chat support for every single client which was a daunting process. But as a customer, I love being able to connect with a company instantly and I prefer chatting with a CS operator to even phone because it allows me to do other things while I’m waiting and is usually far faster. In fact, the main reason our company offered this service for so many years was that I know that, as a customer, I would have appreciated it.
Which brings us to today’s topic. Let’s talk about moving beyond email in connecting with our customers.
Priced Nostalgia has a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a phone number and we still get the overwhelming bulk of our questions via email. This was true even when we maintained an account on every major chat client nearly 24/7.
But is this indicative of the fact that people would prefer to use email or simply the way we present our support options. Is it enough to simply make these other support options available or is there something more we need to do?
I have always seen these Web 2.0 methods of communication as a way to acquire new customers while thinking of connecting with existing customers as secondary. Perhaps its time for smaller sellers like us to broaden that perspective. But where to begin?
What percentage of your customer support queries do you get via email versus less traditional means?
What have you done that worked for you and what hasn’t?
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It’s all well and good to want to provide phone support, IM support, and email support, but someone needs to pay for the time it takes to give it, and that someone is the business owner. At some point the economic reality of running a profitable business so that you can stay *in business* needs to taken into the decision of what kind of customer support you can offer. Small businesses should make no apologies for limiting phone or IM support in this regard.
It's all well and good to want to provide phone support, IM support, and email support, but someone needs to pay for the time it takes to give it, and that someone is the business owner. At some point the economic reality of running a profitable business so that you can stay *in business* needs to taken into the decision of what kind of customer support you can offer. Small businesses should make no apologies for limiting phone or IM support in this regard.
I asked Dan to repost this because the blog ate it. Thank you for your comments (both times!)
Yup, we use skype, online chat, email, ning groups, and phone.
Most active is email and ning group. Phone is a given, always been active.
But I would love to know how to use skype on ebay, wasn't it discontinued a while back? If possible, drop me a note, I'd appreciate it.
Skype has a web button that shows your current web status and then, when clicked, opens a chat window to your username (if Skype wasn't open before you clicked, it also opens it). You can use this little button on any website, eBay listings included. That was what we used in the HTML of our page header so it was on every page.
Here is the link: http://www.skype.com/share/buttons/wizard.html
I know the skype button.
Checked listing frame (standard ebay store) no option to place.
do you mean on the about me pages only?
I was kinda hoping to plop it into listing header so it would show up in store or listings.
advice?
You used to be able to add HTML below your store description in the basic store. Maybe they got rid of it with the last Stores update, not sure as we haven't used that feature in a while. Either way, no, it was not the About Me page I was talking about.
yup, had a feeling.
I've just tossed it onto our about me page.. and will include on listings from here in… thanks for the nudge.
shame about the store listing header change though. It was a nice touch once.