Starting an E-Business on a Shoestring.
Step 10. Provide Excellent Service to Your Customers
Issue 107, December 1, 2001

This article contains older information. Go here for newer information on ecommerce and selling online.

Dear Friends,

Some time ago I began a series on "Starting an E-Business on a Shoestring," but interrupted it for several months to focus on some opt-in e-mail topics. Here's the final step in the series, "Step 10. Provide Excellent Service to Your Customers." Providing excellent customer service is a huge topic, and we'll only touch the treetops here, but it is vital.

• Step 10. Provide Excellent Service to Your Customers
• Some Customer Service Resources
• Product Review: Position Pro

God bless you,
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Editor

I invite you to read some Christmas short stories and articles I've written to help you celebrate the deeper meainging of the season. http://www.joyfulheart.com/xmas/

Step 10. Provide Excellent Service to Your Customers

Internet businesses -- and businesses in general -- can't stay afloat without repeat business. Here's the reason customer service is essential and what you can do to offer excellent service. Read the Article.

Product Review: Position Pro

While WebPosition Gold focuses on getting high rankings for individual webpages and gateway pages, Position Pro is designed to help you improve the content of your existing pages so you'll get substantially more traffic from search engines. Read the Review.

Some Customer Service Resources

Customer Service on the Internet: Building Relationships, Increasing Loyalty, and Staying Competitive, by Jim Sterne (Second Edition; John Wiley & Sons, 2000). Great overview of customer service techniques on the Web by the acknowledged leading voice about customer service on the Internet.
http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471382582/ref=nosim/wilsoninternetse

"Full Sterne Ahead," a monthly e-zine on customer service by Jim Sterne. Humorous examples of how NOT to provide customer service (www.targeting.com).

e-Service: 24 Ways to Keep Your Customers -- When the Competition Is Just a Click Away, by Ron Zemke and Tom Connellan (Amacom, 2001). Explains how to differentiate one's website with fantastic service. How to develop a retention strategy, etc. Published by the American Management Association.
http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0814406068/ref=nosim/wilsoninternetse

Articles and Resources on Customer Service in our searchable online database of the Web Marketing Info Center and E-Commerce Research Room:

• Customer Service Online (currently 59 items). A more general category giving tips on providing excellent online customer service.
  /search/cat.php?page=1&querytype=category&subcat=ms_Cust-Service
• Customer Service in Online Sales (currently 270 items). Focuses on both before and after support for online sales. Article titles are given, but full access to URLs is provided only for subscribers to Web Commerce Today.
  /search/cat.php?page=1&querytype=category&subcat=cd_Cust-Service

New Ecommerce and Web Marketing Articles

Each month our team of link editors scours dozens of online periodicals and resources to find key information on e-commerce and Web marketing. With so much new literature available to you, how do you find what you need quickly and painlessly? Here's a selective and searchable database of article and resource links to help your research and keep you up-to-date in the field. (Links gathered in a given month are usually available during the second week of the following month.)