Internet Marketing Customer Support

How To Structure Your Client Support System

A beginner at Internet marketing or online business building might not put too much thought or effort into customer support - because, frankly, it's hard to be interested in something that doesn't exist... CUSTOMERS!

But here's the problem. Slapping customer support or client service onto a process as an after-thought will not be as effective as making it an integrated part of your complete business process.

So, even though it appears redundant in the beginning, spend some time thinking out your customer support process and structuring it effectively.

What Customer Support Issues Do You Expect?

It depends on the nature of your business. If you sell an ebook, customers may not be able to download it, or have trouble opening and reading it, or may lose their link or accidentally delete the ebook file and need a replacement.

On the other hand, if you sell software, you may face technical support issues related to installing or using the software, trouble-shooting problems or bugs and crashes (in addition to the others mentioned earlier).

And more complex products and services have their own unique set of tech support and client support issues.

When Will Customer Support Problems Arise?

Spend some time thinking about when in the sales cycle your customer support problems are likely to arise.

• Will buyers want some questions answered or doubts cleared up before they buy?
• Will customers need guidance immediately after they order?
• Will some problems crop up a few days or weeks later?

How Urgently Do Your Customers Need Service?

Another thing to plan for is the urgency or nature of customer service issues.

• Are they emergencies that could result in loss or harm?
• Do they need to be addressed within hours or can they wait longer?
• Are your prospective customers anxious, irritable and short-tempered - or are they more likely to be patient and tolerant?

And what about the nature of your customer's problem?

• Is the situation complex or challenging enough to require specialist attention all the time?
• Or can anyone handle them confidently?
• Most important, can the solutions to common problems be automated?

Once you've got these questions answered in your mind, the next step is to plan who is to handle customer support at your organization.

Who should handle customer care?