How to Interact with Your Customers

You'd think that in a bad economy, price would be the #1 issue with shoppers. But surprisingly, it isn't. According to a report issued by Ohio-based market intelligence firm BIGresearch, a survey of more than 100,000 small business and retail customers showed that buyers put good customer service ahead of price by an overwhelming margin.

What do this mean to you? It means that if you're not giving customers what they really want, they are going to find someone else that will.

Good customer service starts with good communication

In order to be successful, communication needs to be two-way. If you're talking at your customers, you're not communicating - you're preaching. Nothing turns a customer off faster than being ignored.

Fortunately, with the Internet being the communication medium that it is, it's easy to get down from the pulpit and work the crowd. Here's how to do it:

• 1. Add comment links to your newsletter. You are sending a newsletter, aren't you? If you're not - what are you waiting for? Don't make the mistake of letting your newsletter focus solely on getting your customers to spend more money with you. While that's your ultimate goal, you need to use some finesse. Include articles that educate and inform your customers in ways that are related to your products or services. And don't forget that comment link so customers can give you valuable feedback on each article. A great way to incent your customers to provide feedback is by offering free downloads like special reports that contain valuable information.
• 2. Include polls and surveys on your web site that pertain to relevant topics that your customers have in common. Share the results with your readers so they can see how their thoughts align with everyone else's.
• 3. Include a printed Thank You note with products you ship physically, or an electronic one after a digital purchase is made.
• 4. Add a blog to your site and buy, download or create posts that coincide with your market. Leave the comment links enabled so readers can sound off and let you know what they think. Be sure to use the "moderate comments" feature so you can edit or delete content that is spam or intentionally mean or disrespectful.
• 5. Add a Help Desk so customers can get direct answers to technical issues or product/service-related questions.
• 6. Add a forum so you can build an online community of users and give them a reason to keep returning to your site.

Communication builds customer loyalty and improves customer service. And that translates into more sales.

Don't wait another minute to give your customers what they really want. Get started now.