Change is difficult…

Jim Edwards here with an article (below) that should serve
as a wake-up call if you plan to operate a successful online
business.

Spam has made it virtually impossible to operate the
customer service of an online business using email
exlusively.

With all the email filters, emails get lost… customers get
angry… and things generally go poorly.

You may have noticed that we (along with many online
companies) implemented a “help desk” solution at
Ebook Fire Support

This isn’t because we don’t want to answer emails… it’s
because we DO want to answer them — and too many emails
were getting lost and spam was eating too much time.

There have been a few bumps in the changeover, and I
apologize if things seemed a bit out of sorts the last
couple of weeks… but we’ve got it down to a science now.
(smile)

But the great news is that now we are spending more time
serving customers rather than deleting spam and tracking
down lost emails.

Feel free to share this article on your blog, on your
website, in your autoresponder, or in your newsletter (see
simple reprint instructions at the end).

To your success,

Jim

PS – If you have a comment about this newsletter issue,
please feel free to post your comments here

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No Customer Left Behind

– by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
The Net Reporter
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As more companies make the jump to cyberspace every week and
billions of dollars flow across the Internet, nobody can
deny that ecommerce plays a significant roll in business
today.

However, as the aisles of your local online shopping site
get more crowded, the tendency for customer service issues
and contact to fall through the cracks increases
dramatically.

The main problem for any site revolves around the fact that
email as a means of communication has become unreliable over
the last couple of years.

Spam (unsolicited commercial email) lies at the heart of the
problem since it clogs the email boxes of both the company
and the customer.

In an attempt to stem the tide of spam, email gets filtered,
lost, or deleted on both sides, often leading to hard
feelings as customers think their emails have been ignored
when actually they’ve never been received.

As a result, many companies, large and small, have started
using “help desk” software to manage their customer
communication.

Gone are the days of just emailing for support and getting a
simple reply back from a live human being on the other end.

Spam makes it impossible for a company of any size to
operate with email-only support.

A help desk makes it possible not only to maintain a “chain”
of communication, but also avoids messages disappearing into
cyberspace.

Help desk solutions run the range from free to several
thousands of dollars for a custom program.

Two very workable and reasonably priced solutions are
Kayako.com and Perldesk.com.

(You can also do a search in Google for “free help desk
software” if you don’t want to spend any money.)

Both offer the choice of installing the software on your own
server, or paying a monthly fee to get a copy of the
software installed and maintained on the provider’s server.

Which option you choose depends on your level of technical
ability, level of customization needed, and how much support
you’ll need over time.

I suggest starting out with the hosted version until you get
the hang of the system, then switch over to a version on
your own server to avoid the monthly charges.

An online help desk operates fairly simply.

A customer submits a ticket through a form on your website,
the customer support staff (even if it’s a staff of one)
responds to the ticket through the website, and all
communication gets posted on a private web page.

Both Kayako and Perldesk enable customers to search a
“knowledgebase” or collection of articles to try solving
their problems on their own (especially during non-business
hours), thus frequently eliminating the need to get a live
response.

Anyone who does business online should consider installing a
help desk solution from the start rather than putting it off
until the future.

Get your customers conditioned to operating with a ticket
system rather than switching on them in mid-stream once your
business gets too busy to handle support via email.

Here are a couple of other tips to help you.

Designate one person to act as the “sorter” answering the
basic issues, then referring off the ones they can’t answer
to other staff members.

Also, post your help desk hours and stick to them.

Answer questions the same day if possible, but no later than
the next business day.

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
step and click-by-click how to finally create your own
money-making mini-sites…

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leave all links in place, do not modify the content and
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