Date: 1 Sep 2009 Comments: 1

Make Yourself Accessible

You cannot put a price on quality Customer Service.  This may sound horribly cliche, but it is 100% the truth.  When developing a website one of the biggest priorities should be accessibility to your customers.  When I write about accessibility I don’t mean making it as simple as possible to order a product or service.  That is important for any site, yes.  What I am referring to is making your customer feel comfortable to contact you with questions or complaints.  Feedback is your most precious resource.  The quickest way to earn negative feedback is to bury your contact information deep within the site or refuse to place a phone number on the site.

There are plenty of times when a simple email inquiry will suffice for questions, comments or concerns.  But sometimes people need to speak with another human on the phone.  Crazy, I know.  And when you do not list a phone number you are raising suspicions about what it is you have to hide.  Using services like Twitter or Facebook to field customer inquiries is just lame and not at all what those sites are intended for.

Of Blue Jeans and Auto Insurance

Here are a couple of examples of excellent Customer Service and how it relates to Search Engine Optimization:  I was in the market for a pair of jeans recently.  I’d read good things about A.P.C. Jeans and did a Google search.  One of the sites that came up that sell these jeans was Tobi.  Here is immediately what I loved:  On the top of the page they have a “Shop 1-to-1” link.  You can chat directly with a Customer Service representative, you can email them directly or you can call them.  I did the online chat and had all my questions answered.  I even followed up later on with an email questioning sizing.  You see what they’ve provided the customer?  Accessibility!

Found them via a Google search for a product they sell.  Immediately drawn to their Customer Service options.  Currently blogging about how wonderful and helpful they are.  Pretty simple, eh?

Another example:  Allstate Insurance blew me away recently with their Customer Service.  I had an accident and called them to report the incident.  Not only did they call me immediately after I spoke with a Customer Service rep to verify I had a good experience, they set up a car rental for me and an appointment to have the damages appraised.  What did they do at the end of each call?  They directed me to the Customer Care section of their website where I could track my claim online (from the convenience of my work or home computer) or where in large font there is a contact phone number.  Accessibility!

Your Customers Want to Talk to You

The point of this post is to express the importance of not getting so caught up in optimizing page content, Title Tags, blog posts and acquiring links that you neglect superior customer service.  Chances are your responsiveness to questions and ability to grow from criticism are opportunities to build returning visitors and new visits from word-of-mouth and online PR.