Internet Marketing Strategies Part Ten: Customer Follow-up
by Shelley Lowery
Following up with your customer, once you've made a sale, is an important part of providing good customer service. Not only is it an important part of developing a good relationship with your customer, but it will also enable you to introduce your new products.
Although sending out a personal message to each of your customers may not be possible, you can provide your customers with the illusion that your message was personally sent. By using autoresponders, you can eliminate the need to manually respond each time you make a sale.
Autoresponders
Autoresponders are one of the best promotional tools on the Internet. They were designed to automatically respond to any email message sent to it with an automatic response. The more advanced autoresponders will enable you to set up a series of autoresponse messages to be sent out at a specified time.
You can use autoresponders to send all of the following:
• Thank you messages
• Welcome letters
• Order confirmations
Autoresponders can eliminate many of your routine follow-ups. However, they cannot eliminate your customer's support requests and your future mailings.
Customer Service
In order to develop a good relationship with your customers, you must provide them with quality customer service. Let them know that, should they have any questions or problems, they are free to contact you. Provide them with all of your contact information to make the process simple. Even if you can't personally assist them, make sure that you have a good customer support group ready to help. Reply to their support requests as quickly as possible and assist them until the problem is resolved.
Your customer service is one of the most important factors in determining your customer's satisfaction. Even if you have a great product or service, if your customer support isn't good, your sales will suffer.
For every dissatisfied customer, you can expect to lose one hundred new customers. Why? When one customer has a bad experience with your company, you can be certain that they'll tell everyone they know about their bad experience. It will travel through the grapevine and ultimately cost you sales.
Follow-up with your customers and ask them how they like your product or if they have any questions. This is a great way to not only provide good customer service, but to also obtain feedback about your product. By listening to your customers, you will know exactly what they want, what they're having problems with and how you can develop a better product.
Mailing List
The best way to follow-up with your customers is to set up a mailing list. No matter what mailing program you use, make sure that it will allow you to send personalized messages. Your customers need that personal touch. They don't want to feel as if the message they received was sent to an entire list. They want to feel as if it was personally sent to them.
By following up with your customers and providing great customer service, you are creating a life-long relationship. Satisfied customers are more apt to purchase your new products in the future. Treat them with the utmost respect and go above and beyond the expected.
Copyright © Shelley Lowery 2001.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of several successful ebooks including Web Design Mastery - An in-depth guide to professional web design. Ebook Starter - A Complete Ebook Design Kit, and eZines: A Complete Guide to Publishing for Profit. Subscribe to Etips and receive a free copy of her highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies." http://www.web-source.net
You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.
Part Nine
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
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