Martin McClanan
President Sahalie
And he is a Linked In Member -
Let me know how that part goes...

posted December 8, 2007

Reggi

I'm not sure, but good question.

Perhaps its the volume of transactions that popular sites make that are a concern. By making themselves too accessible, perhaps they see this as encouraging feedback, something they may struggle to cope with or may see as negative to the cost of doing business.

It could be based on the proposition that an e-commerce site is there to reduce overhead and human interaction, not the reverse.

Where I am sure, is that most, if not all companies need to put more resources in to listening to their customers, incorporating this feedback into future business and build positive long-term relationships.

Paul

posted December 8, 2007

Seems to me that management's responsibility here is not to field the calls from customers who are having trouble placing an order, but to ensure that customers >>always<< have clear and immediate access to the Customer Service team -- and that C/S staffers have the tools and data [customer, product, inventory, shipping] necessary to offer solutions. [Live chat, call center numbers on every web page, and click-to-call are just 3 examples of techniques give customers better access to service.] Any issues that the call center staff can't handle should be escalated up the chain to management and addressed cross-channel.

Assuming an effective customer service team is in place and easily accessible, the "About Us" page is a great opportunity to help communicate the brand -- its history, vision, benefits, etc -- to new and returning customers. Again, access to the customer service team is an important element on this [and every] page.

posted December 8, 2007

This is a very interesting question, although i believe the majority believe that providing contact forms or contact information is sufficient. In my experience online only retailers have been far more responsive to fielding issues from contact forms etc., and those that do a poorer job are the larger companies with multiple channels - it has been my experience that these appear to either go into a black-hole of no-response or you get the useless 'answer' from someone in India, forcing one to resort to call them up .... which may be their intent anyway!

posted December 8, 2007

Dear Regi--
In my opinion and experience I think it depends on the company's philosophy of revealing their top management personnel. In general if the ecommerce website is rather smaller outlet all we related inquiry do end up with the ownership group, however larger retails do not reveal these information. [Isn't it why everyone wants to sell online--- not need to deal with sales employees or consumers directly?]

I do believe that any ecommerce should have a ways for customers to do inquiry/complain etc. Seems like everyone wants to put out good testimonials via there website, so why not allow consumers contact them also? Anyway, very good question and hope you get the answers here.

posted December 8, 2007

In the same way that almost all high street shops don't advertise who the owners or senior management are, most websites tend to work in the same way. Traditionally, if I can use that phrase in the same sentence as the word website, ecommerce sites minimised overheads for a company allowing them to offer prices that were much lower than the equivalent product in the high street. Unfortunately many companies saw this as an opportunity to minimise all overheads, including those for customer service staff, hence the black hole effect. Fortunately, this is changing, partly through increased legislation, but also through an enhanced awareness that an Internet customer is just as important as a high street customer.

No senior management of successful companies want to avoid their customers, but if there is a dedicated customer service person/department in place, then these should always be the first point of contact, rather than going straight to the top with a complaint or a comment. It is far more likely that your complaint will be dealt with swiftly than speaking directly to senior management who are likely to have to speak to the customer service team anyway for an answer.

Any good company would then deal with your comments promptly and efficiently, responding to you with a resolution of the issue, and identifying elements for change that could be passed up the management chain. The companies who listen to and act on this feedback ultimately gain respect and loyalty from their customers. After all, you are hardly likely to go back to an online trader, or indeed a high street store, if they ignore you.

We are also encouraging our clients to take a more proactive role within their online stores, so that the customer has a direct point of contact when visiting the website. Using elements such as live chat areas within ecommerce sites, therefore creating a virtual shop assistant experience, we have found that this can increase order volumes and average order values significantly, together with greatly enhancing the customer experience.

This, together with other more interactive methods of live customer relationship building, provides not only opportunities for assistance and hand holding support during the ordering process for customers who require this, but also creates additional sales opportunities through product recommendations, the introduction of related products, or indeed the direct promotion of special offers.

Best regards

Jeremy

Links:

• http://www.slightlydifferent.co.uk

posted December 9, 2007

There are a number of answers to your question. But first what is good practice. We build eCommerce websites for all types and sizes of business and we recommend that our customers always provide a physical contact address and phone and also list the company owners on the website page relating to company information. In some countries it is a legal requirement to provide these details or some company registration information or number (in Australia it is an ABN - Australian Business Number). Generally many business owners do not understand the governance requirements or choose to ignore them. This applies to businesses both large and small.

When asked what to look for on an eCommerce site you want to buy from we tell people:

1. physical address/phone
2. owership details
3. SSL
4. Terms and Conditions
5. Privacy Policy
6. Returns Policy (maybe in T&Cs)

If these are missing just don't buy from the website as there are risks. If you know the site and trust it then go ahead but I always recommend to fall on the side of caution.

So why don't companies put this stuff on the site? Again many reasons here are the common ones we found.

1. Forgot or bad advice - no excuses just dumb
2. Trying to cover something up - maybe a previous failed business or just bad practice.
3. The web site is maybe a 2nd or 3rd business and they have a day job. So they may not want the boss to know or not want calls or direct contact. This one is getting more and more frequent as ecommerce gets easier and more available. This is a tough one as some of these people may be very real and doing the right thing. You know the old story - "no one knows how big you are on the internet".
4. many large businesses are tending towards IVR and email messaging for help desks and support. Frankly I still hate it but I am not a gen-X or gen-Y so maybe I need to just "get over it" as they say. Try calling eBay or PayPal and see what happens these days. I was told by an executive at a very large ecommerce merchant recently that they go out of their way to make direct contact as painful as possible.

If you have a public company then there are laws in most countries that govern what must appear on the website for contact information.

Hope this helps

John

posted December 9, 2007

Hi Regi,

I agree and have found that this is not limited to ecommerce sites, quite a few sites just don't bother. Frankly, I don't feel comfortable when the background information is not there, and the "click to chat" does not impact my confidence level.

Eileen

posted December 9, 2007

Regi,
Some don't care. Some have been burned by a deluge of spam. Others by a deluge of errantly directed rants from email authors. I recommended all contacts be dropped from a client's site specifically because of contact deluge.

If it's a publicly traded company that info is readily available on a number of sites. If not, Hoovers is a great tool, though you need a subscription. And you might just try looking in LinkedIn itself. I was able to find a number of internal people by just using LI's people search.

Hope this helps,
Randy

posted December 8, 2007