Loyalty is very important to online customer care
From www.TCPalm.com
January 15, 2004

By Janet Bigham Bernstel business correspondent

The Internet offers countless marketing opportunities. Unfortunately, online customer care is one that many companies overlook. Providing good customer service is the hallmark of a strong brand and it's just as important to communicate 'we care' online as it is in any other channel.

"So many of us think we're on the curve by putting products online and we're just now realizing we have to create the experience," said Monica Champion, group vice president for Internet and e-business for SunTrust Banks, headquartered in Atlanta. "We are investing in quality customer experience online because a good experience creates loyalty."

You can deliver that experience by offering superior online Web support. Consumers often prefer the convenience of online support and utilizing self-service can help you to reduce customer care costs.

For example, enhanced Web content can guide a customer through a complex process or complicated information, eliminating long and expensive telephone support.

Whether using full-service Web support complete with live chat and a 24-hour call center or strictly self-service through FAQ sheets and user guides, good Web support offers customers what they're looking and shows them how to do it.

"We make the information easy and accessible," said Champion, whose company chose business process outsourcer SafeHarbor Technology Corp. of Seattle to provide full Web support. "We tell them through annotated self-help and we show them with screen cut outs. It creates a smart, satisfied customer -- that's the name of the game, not just hawking products online."

Sophisticated Web support systems also allow you to track the whole customer support chain. Issues identified through assisted support should be used to continually update and improve the Web self-service environment.

"The most important thing in providing support as a service is the analytics," said Tom St. Onge, director of business development for SafeHarbor.

SafeHarbor suggests that a successful Web self-service environment include the following:

It must be easy to use and navigate, and in the world of Web self-service, less is more, so remember the site must take the user to the desired answer in as few clicks as possible.

Once the user lands on the solution page, the answer must be very easy to understand.

A Web self-service environment also should not be all text. In communicating 'how to,' an illustration is truly worth a thousand words.

Provide multiple navigation choices for finding an easy-to-understand answer to a customer's question in real-time. In addition to offering FAQs, include natural language search and knowledge base browsing functions. Additionally, offer users guides and tutorials dedicated to getting started or troubleshooting.

When new issues arise or individualized help is needed, customers should be able to easily access support via telephone or e-mail. Above all, make sure that initial self-service experience is a good one. Be certain that the information you're offering on the Web is consistent with all other available channels or else you've failed your customer and lost trust, not to mention branding points.

Copyright © 2004 The E.W. Scripps Co.

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