In the beginning of this series I shared with you a story of a how a company lost my business because they never replied to my email.  This could happen to you too.

Remember, it doesn’t even matter if it’s their fault they didn’t get your reply, as the case might be if they use an email account that aggressively filters email.  Your customer might not even be computer savvy enough to know that a filter ate her email.  All she knows is that you didn’t reply …and she might take her business elsewhere.

The solution?

First off, make other means of communication available.  That means you should provide a postal address as well as a phone number and perhaps even a fax line (you don’t even need a fax machine or dedicated line if you sign up for one of the many online fax services such as efax.com).

Remember however that many people don’t want to take the time to write a postal letter to you, they won’t send a fax, and they dread getting on the phone because they don’t like talking to people, or they hate the dreaded “voicemail hell.”  Even if you don’t have that sort of system, they still might skip calling you for fear that you have an automated system.

So that leaves many of your customers using email to get in touch with you.  But as already mentioned, emails can get lost and filtered – and your customer will almost always blame you, perhaps assuming you simply didn’t bother to reply.

The solution?  Install a help desk on your site.

A help desk allows people to submit a “ticket” online …and yet still enjoy the convenience of receiving replies via email.  You can remind them that if they don’t receive a reply they should log into their ticket online, as all replies will be there (even if the email gobbled them up).

It’s not foolproof of course, since some people will forget to log back in.  However, it’s better than having all customers who don’t get emails assuming that you simply don’t answer your customer service mail.

The second thing you need to do is answer all customer service inquiries as quickly as possible.

Consider this – someone who’s sitting there with a credit card in hand but needs a question answered first will likely buy if you answer quickly. The longer you wait, the more the “excitement” of your product is going to wear off …and when emotion wanes, the prospect is less likely to buy.

Answer quickly while the customer is still excited, and you’re almost assured of making the sale.

Or consider this – you have an existing customer who has a support issue.  Perhaps they want a refund, perhaps they need support with the product.  Whatever the problem, they too deserve a speedy response.

In the case of an existing customer, the longer you wait to reply, the MORE emotional the customer will become.  And that’s not in a good way.  They’ll become more upset if they feel like you’re ignoring them.

So when we talk about a “fast response,” what sort of timeline are we referring to?

Ideally you should shoot for same-day responses.  For example, you can check your emails or support desk twice – morning and night – and take care of all inquiries.  Three times daily is even better to ensure customers and prospects never wait more than a few hours for a reply (except over night).

Of course best of all would be too answer questions as they come in throughout the day, but that’s not always possible (as you simply aren’t chained to your desk, and/or it’s not always feasible for other reasons).  If you have a heavy customer support load, then you may consider hiring a virtual assistant to handle inquiries as they come in.

Regardless of how often you check and answer your customer service emails, there is one thing you should do: tell your customers when they can expect a reply.

For example, if you check email two or three times per day, then generally customers can expect to receive a reply within 12 hours or less.

You need to also recognize that your customers reside in all parts of the world in many time zones – so you need to let them know your time zone, and your customer service hours.  That way if they send an email in what is the morning for them but the middle of the night for you, they know they’re in for a wait.

Likewise, you need to let customers know your business days.  For example, do you answer emails over the weekends?  How about holidays? 

Whatever policy you decide on is fine, but you should inform your customers – both on your customer service page and in the confirmation email you send – when they can expect a reply. And then be sure to not only meet their expectations, but reply sooner than you promised.

Most marketers know they shouldn’t divulge information about their customers or subscribers.  Many of them even have privacy policies in place assuring customers they won’t do so.  And most marketers really wouldn’t dream of sharing any customer information.

Yet something about having well-known subscribers or buyers throws all common sense out the window for some marketers.  While a marketer may never dream of telling anyone that “Joe Schmoe” is on his list, as soon as someone well-known joins, he blabs it all over the forums.

Around the forums you’ll start seeing posts like, “Mr. Well-Known is on my list!” or “Mr. Guru just bought my new ebook!”

Do this and you could not only end up upsetting the person who’s name your dropping, but you could also make your prospects uneasy about your business practices.  They’ll assume that your privacy policies and any notions about customer confidentiality are just for show and aren’t taken seriously.  And as a result they won’t want to do business with you.

Another way to make your customers and prospects uneasy is to use their words without their permissions.  In other words, you turn their private testimonials into public endorsements.

You see, just because someone raves about your product or service does not mean you are automatically granted permission to use those words in public.  Customer confidentiality standards still apply.  You shouldn’t use any private communications – even if it’s an endorsement of your products – unless you’ve been given explicit permission to do so.

Case in point: I know a copywriter who has dozens of extremely satisfied clients who won’t give her a testimonial.  Why?  Because she’s become their “secret sales weapon.”  If they should endorse her publicly, people would know about their secret …and they’d rather keep her away from their competitors!

That’s just one example, but there really are dozens of reasons why your clients and customers might not want anyone to know they’re doing business with you.  Respect their privacy.  And be sure that you extend this courtesy to ALL of your customers, clients, and even newsletter subscribers.

Plenty of marketers like to blow off steam after a particularly long day or long week.  Talking to your spouse or friends is one thing – going on a public forum and “venting” is another. 

You see, anything you write on forums pretty much lasts “forever” online.  Your customers may search for your name in Google one day, and they’ll run across the posts you’ve made in forums.

Look around at the popular marketing forums and you’ll see plenty of marketers ridiculing their customers, calling them “idiots,” etc.   Now imagine you were a potential customer, and the person you wanted to buy from was calling his customers “idiots.”  That would likely leave a bad impression and bad taste in your mouth, wouldn’t it?

And the same goes for your customers.  If you’ve vented about the “stupid” customers you have and the “hilarious” emails they send you, chances are a potential customer is going to find that post some day …and she’s not going to find it that funny. 

She might even have a question for you, but after seeing you ridicule other customers publicly, she decides not to contact you at all for fear of being called “stupid.”  She’s going to seek out your competitor instead – the one who keeps mum about his interactions with his customers.

Outsourcing is a beautiful and wonderful thing.  You come up with a great idea, send money to a freelancer, and like magic they send you a completed project.  If you do enough outsourcing, you can get projects from the idea stage to completion in lightning-quick time.

So you find your dream freelancers, go over the details, they give you estimated delivery dates, and you start planning out your marketing.  As the delivery dates near, you check with your freelancers to ensure they are still on track (they are).  Then you start sending out emails to build anticipation for the upcoming launch.

Can you see the problem boiling just under the surface?

The success of the product launch is completely out of your hands.  The freelancers may suddenly disappear, they could become ill, for example, and you won’t know what happened until it’s crunch time. 

It doesn’t matter if you’ve set your launch several days or even a week or more ahead of the date your freelancers told you they’d deliver.  What happens if they can’t deliver?  Now you need to scramble around and find another freelancer (and the good ones aren’t available at the drop of a hat like that), or you need to put in long hours to get it done yourself.

It’s exhausting to say the least.  And that means you might not get everything done before the launch, or you might drop the ball in a few places.  That could easily lower your credibility in the marketplace.

The same goes for your business partners.  Don’t let your success depend on another person, because it’s the customers who suffer if someone doesn’t keep their promises to you (and in turn you can’t keep your promises to your customer).

Your best bet?  Never make promises until you’re actually ready to deliver.  If it’s not already in your hand, don’t promise your customers that you can get it into their hands on a specific date.