If you own an e-biz, you may know that one of the most difficult tasks in an internet business is developing a relationship with your customers. Your customers exist on the other side of cyberspace, and you may never get the opportunity to smile at them or shake their hand. So how do you develop a strong, personal relationship? It is simply this: excellent customer service.

Customer service is your opportunity to shine. This is how you can set your business apart from the millions of other home-based businesses run by people with full time jobs who can’t respond to an email or a phone call until two or more days have passed. Remarkable customer service establishes trust, and if your customers trust you, they’ll return to your business time and time again.

So what’s the key to amazing customer service? You need to be available for your customers. There is nothing more annoying than spending twenty minutes wading through a company’s automated phone system before talking to an actual human being. If your customers have to wait three or four days for a response to their email, you’re putting them in a foul mood before you ever speak to them.

There are software solutions that can make you seem available to your customers even when you’re not. You can set up a knowledge base system that allows your customers to help themselves to answers to common questions. There are also ticket-email management options that allow you to organize your customers’ requests and track follow up. This is a great way to ensure that none of your customers are “slipping through the cracks.”

When you are available, a great way to provide personalized customer service is to interact with them directly using live chat software. This gives you the ability to talk with your customers in real time just as you would if they were in a regular retail store. You can answer questions and provide recommendations tailored to your specific customer’s needs.

The bottom line is your customers want to know that you’ll take care of them. The only way you can show them that they can trust you is to treat them like gold. Be there for them when they need you, and they’ll not only be customers for life, they’ll tell their friends, too.

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