Keep The Human Touch In Customer Service

For better or worse, electronic-commerce is changing the relationship between consumers and vendors. One area where it's often for the worse is customer service. Increasingly, technology vendors provide e-mail as the only way for users to obtain product support. Unless it's done very carefully, it's a mistake that may cost more than it saves.

To make e-commerce work, we must be sensitive to the customer's experience. A customer who buys a product and can't get it to work is disappointed. And if customers can't ask for help, you stand a good chance of losing them.

When I see a Web site with no street address or telephone number, I get suspicious. I assume the company is too cheap or too uncaring to allow me to connect directly with them. And experience bears this out.

I recently bought several products that didn't work as advertised. E-mail was my only recourse, but I found it often took several days to get an answer. And no matter how carefully I crafted my question, I always got a stock e-mail in response.

With e-mail, there is no way to have a dialog with the service rep--a process that is critical when trying to solve a problem. And "emoticons"--expressions of emotion typed into a message using standard keyboard characters--are no substitute for the well-practiced desperation that I unleash on phone reps to get some much-needed help.

My advice is make cyberspace a tool rather than a trial when it comes to customer service.

Respond fast! Like you, your customers are on "Internet time" and expect rapid response. Even a day is really too long.

Don't just shoot back stock answers, especially if the customer has carefully outlined the problem. It's rude to treat customers as categories rather than individuals--at least tack on a personalized comment to a canned response. Post stock answers in a frequently asked questions link on your Web site. That may save you the expense of a reply.

Trimming customer service costs is only profitable if you keep your customers. I have some $200 software I can't use because I can't get the support I need. And I won't purchase more products from these companies--which they probably won't realize as they celebrate their reduced overhead. Bottom line: If the humans you're dealing with can't connect with a person, they won't want to connect with your company.