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Increase in Customer Sales = Increase
in Customer Service
One of the most popular questions asked in online business
forums or even by my customers and subscribers is this
:
"How the hell can I increase my sales?" or
"I've got tons of visitors but nobody
seems to be buying anything? What gives?"
FISHNETS WITH HOLES? ANYONE?
Getting traffic is not the be all and end all of a successful
online business. It requires skills, specific online
marketing strategies designed for your site and a robust
customer service strategy.
So what if you have thousands of visitors
per day! That does'nt amount to success, unless you
close at least 5 to 10% of those visitors.
You see, when you get a lot of traffic
from your advertising and marketing activities and nobody
there to guide them, is like hauling a big fishing net
in the water with a major flaw.....it has a sizeable
hole in the middle. So you can say goodbye to eating
fish...for now, at least.
Would you go and pick up items on display
from a store that does not offer the least bit assurance
of somebody manning it? Sure! Sure, we're on the work
smart, work less attitude but hey, humans prefer humans,
and they most certainly will buy from somebody they've
talked to before. You see, they need to feel some warmth
and yes, especially on the internet where items are
passed on in "cold" or "digital" means.
DOING THE BOTTOMLINE
It's good that you have some or a lot of visitors to
your website, but the bottomline is that you should
have the best customer service and a lot of options
for them to contact you, the soonest. The more the better!
Look around you. Take a look at the
most popular sites on the net or even your favorite
newsletter, they all have one common factor, customer
service availability.
The most common or popular customer
service strategy is through a form-to-mail which prohibits
anybody from spamming your email account rather than
having them email you directly, well unless you have
a very good email filter software. But you can offer
them additional ways to contact you such as these options
below.
PROVIDE MANY OPTIONS FOR CONTACT
Online business is a contact sport. You want to close
more sales? Then increase your customer service availability
and options.
Providing them with a lot of options
would mean that you are always ready to receive their
inquiries, or issues with a welcoming smile. It would
make you more credible. It would create a halo of success
to your already plumed hat. Let us take a look at some
of the free ways for you to interact with your website
visitors:
CHAT SERVICES
Mostly, website owners would be the one manning these
free chat services and if you'd like to be assumed as
a pro-entrepreneur you can always advance anytime to
a helpdesk solution or upgrade from your free account.
Bravenet.com - Free Webmaster Resources.
Cut and paste services you can use for your site for
free. They use LivePerson for their customer help service.
(FREE AND PRO) http://www.Bravenet.com
Chat-Forum.com - They offer free Java
Chat Rooms & Advanced Custom Internet Chat Solutions
(FREE AND PRO) http://chat-forum.com/
Parachat.com - They're solutios enable
real-time communication on their own web site for a
host of applications, including corporate interaction,
moderated events, distance education, visitor retention,
customer service, dating and romance, entertainment,
and family fun. (FREE AND PRO) http://www.parachat.com
Boldchat.com - Boldchat is a FREE live
chat service for web sites to do live help and live
support chats with visitors. They don't have ads and
their free account is for unlimited personal use. (FREE
AND PRO) http://www.boldchat.com
PHONE SUPPORT
If you want credibility then put your phone number up
in your website. Make it more visible to the eye especially
on your home page or on your product or service order
page. This way, they'll be more comfortable to see that
they can call you anytime. You can ask your local phone
company to provide you with a 1800 number so visitors
all over the world can call you for free.
RULING IN VOIP
VoIp is certainly getting it's share of the market right
now as more and more softphones or internet phones are
coming out of the market every month.
What is voip? Voice over internet phone which basically
denotes that you can now make clear pc to pc calls worldwide.
Skype.com
Take a look at Skype for example. They're definitely
a new player against giants like Yahoo, and MSN but
they say that they have 14 million downloads up to date.
I'm not against them but hey, they're software is ad-ware
so you should be aware! http://www.Skype.com
Buzzfon.com
There's a new player in town and they call their pc
to pc calling softphone, Buzzfonp2p. They're giving
away free 30 day trials and yes, the user surveys are
in. They're clear, the quality is amazing with no disruptions
mind you even if you're on dial up! So you can check
them out. http://www.buzzfon.com
and nope, they don't have ads on them and you can even
make pc to phone calls, phone to phone calls, phone
to pc calls on their advanced version of Buzzfonp2p,
aptly called, Buzzfon+.
GO BROADBAND FOR LESS
There are a lot of broadband services out there who
would'nt charge you an arm and a leg for their services.
One of them is Vonage and the newest player in town
is Bonusfon.
Vonage.com
They have specific target packages for different market
segments and they're basically number one in terms of
broadband user surveys. http://www.vonage.com
Bonusfon.com
They are certainly getting their own share of the market,
as what the energetic telecom owner Tam Sanchez said
regarding distributing global broadband services. Their
rates are highly affordable and they have a feature
called pay -per-talk. Pay only for the services you
need and you want. Yes, they're lower than Vonage and
more competitive and flexible in terms of packaging.
http://www.bonusfon.com
HELPDESK SOLUTIONS
Helpdesk solutions are web applications that you install
on your own server or hosted on the provider's server
that includes most of the customer support solutions
like
FAQ, TICKET SUPPORT SYSTEM, and LIVE
CHAT.
Some even have phone in support. There are a lot of
helpdesk solutions out there which are free but then
always has a drawback. It's either, chatting service
are slow on your server or it just freezes in the screen
while you're online or you can only try it if you have
the latest language of php, and perl installed in your
server. There are particular helpdesk solutions we like
that offers a lot more for less.
LiveHelp.Stardevelop.com - PHP Live Help Messenger is
the new real-time, live chat, customer service software
solution allowing customer support operators to chat
to potential online customers browsing your web site.
(Price : $89.00) http://www.livehelp.startdevelop.com
DNAHelpdesk.com - DNA Helpdesk is a
powerful yet user friendly module for the corporate
helpdesk available on its own, combined with DNA Pack
1 (Inventory) or as part of our overall DNA management
suite. DNA Helpdesk is a fully web based solution providing
detailed recording and tracking of user Help Requests.
(Price : Commercial) http://www.dnahelpcenter.com/
IN CONCLUSION
There are a lot of ways to interact and create a more
personalized service than your other competitors and
that will surely depend on the ways and means that you
want them to contact you. Provide them more avenues
of interaction and they will certainly trust you more
than your competitors. Help them to help yourself. Happy
Profitting!
About the Author
The author Maida M. Barrientos is the owner and publisher
of TalkingProfits.net, (http://www.talkingprofits.net)
and a marketing assistant for Buzzfon.com (http://www.buzzfon.com)
and Bonusfon.com (http://www.bonusfon.com),
a premier voip solutions and broadband communitications
provider. You can contact her at maida@buzzfon.com for
partnership inquiries.
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