Using customer service to improve sales makes sense. Sometimes, retailers and other providers need to think about customer NEEDS. Here are two areas to consider.

Online customer service

Have you ever been on a website and wanted to purchase something, but had questions? A website, unlike a live person, is unable to answer specific questions unless someone else has already asked that question. What often happens is that if you have some doubts about the product in question, you simply won’t buy it. E-commerce operators are slowly coming around to the idea of providing live customer service online, as CNBC reports (article: Higher E-Commerce Sales May Only Be A Click Away).

The CNBC article says the following:

The thought is that by adopting live help—a category that includes tools to enable customers to chat online or to call a salesperson directly—shoppers will buy more because any concerns they have about buying a product online will be addressed.

Currently, about 27.8 percent of retailers provide services where customers can click a link on the Web site to start a chat session, a Forrester [FORR 32.36 --- UNCH (0) ] survey said. But that number is expected to grow. By the end of this year, 26.5 percent more retailers will add “click-to-chat” capabilities on their Web sites, the research firm said.

It’s interesting that only about a quarter of online retailers offer this service. It makes sense to offer customer service online to spur sales. Perhaps it depends on what you are selling online. Some items are certainly easier to understand than others. Some websites rely on reviews and may provide answers to uneasy customers. However, if someone is undecided and can’t get information to sway the decision, he or she will just not buy. The potential customer may end up going to a brick-and-mortar store to research (and buy) the product.

Obtaining feedback

If you think everything is fine, and you don’t ask whether it is or not, YOU CAN’T IMPROVE OR ADDRESS ANY ISSUES. Having your head in the sand when it comes to customer service is not a growth strategy, it could very well be a recipe for disaster.

Having a mechanism for obtaining feedback (online survey, paper survey, phone call) guarantees that you will be able to measure how you are doing. Don’t assume everything is fine because you haven’t heard a complaint. Some issues are not complaint-worthy for customers, but could impact their decision to do business with you again in the future.  The only way to know if these issues exist is to ask. Sometimes, customers want to provide anonymous feedback. That’s fine, because the feedback is important.

The lesson here is to install some kind of feedback mechanism, and make it robust.