It’s too easy to ignore your website and possible problems with it. Become your own customer to find ways of improving.
I recently had the displeasure of visiting a large tax website that I use yearly because they offered free tax advice which I had to sign up for. I went through the typical form filling and extensive explanation of what I wanted help with. I was then taken to a page to select my preferred day and hour of contact. TWENTY FIVE TIMES!
After each selection I made, I was given a popup message saying “Oops, either there’s a connection error on our end or your chosen date and time aren’t available.” It then made me go back to the very beginning in order to choose another date and time (luckily all of the form information was still filled in, but quite unnecessary).
After trying many, many times to find a day, I ended up initiating a chat to find out if indeed it was a problem on their end or not. The rep lagged in responding, didn’t try to answer my question until I asked it three times and only then did they admit there were indeed no days or times available.
Then why wasn’t there a message just saying that instead of having people waste their time with it?? I wouldn’t have spent 20 minutes looking for one or 10 minutes chatting with a rep if they would have just been proactive! I even told the person that they needed to fix that and remove it from the site or put up a message saying there were no available slots. Talk about frustrating!
I couldn’t help but think to myself, “If that was MY website, it never would have happened.” And I bet you, if I went back to that website today, it’d still be the same as it was yesterday.
It made me start to think about how it’s easy for business owners (large and small) to not even visit their own website. You may have 2 employees or 2000, but you may not know your customers’ pain points when using your site. I’m guessing that the chat rep didn’t go any further with my complaint and that isn’t uncommon. It’s easier to sweep problems under the rug and let someone else deal with it or just not mention it at all.
It’s another reason why it’s so important to listen to your customer complaints and fix them immediately. Sending out surveys after a chat session or looking at your online reviews can be one way of rectifying problems before they become larger. Also, making sure those reviews are responded to immediately without being nasty.
I suggest that you become your own customer! If you have an eCommerce store, do some shopping, chat with your rep about a problem, email customer service (with a different email address than your normal one) and see how long they take to respond and how they deal with it. Buy some products and have them shipped to you. See how long it takes, how the package looks and if the order was right.
While you may think that you’ve employed people to have your back and be on the lookout for problems, at the end of the day, they’re not the ones running the business. It’s all about your reputation and that responsibility ultimately falls on you.
If you don’t have an eCommerce business, but still have a website, have a look through it. Google your business name and see what comes up. Be proactive and send out a PERSONAL email (from your own business email address) to your customers and be frank. Tell them that you would like their honest opinion about your business and how it could be better. Tell them that you will personally read and respond to each email that is received (and be sure you do!). This is much more effective than an impersonal survey which most may tend to ignore. You’d be surprised when a customer can speak directly to the owner, the amount of responses you will get!
Remember that you need to think like a customer. That can be really difficult when you’re so close to the business…you’re busy with a million other things. At the end of the day, it’s the customer who keeps you IN business and it’s in your best interest to keep them happy.
The next step, once you’ve identified where the problems lie, is to train your employees on how to handle issues that come up and be sure they follow through with them.
The more you can do to avoid problems or negative reviews will keep you at the top of your game and keep your current customers happy. Word of mouth is everything these days. People will trust their friends with their opinions so never underestimate the impact of that.
Warm Reptile Designs can help lead you through the process of discovery. With over 30 years experience in customer service, knowing how to address and remedy problems is one of our specialities. Contact us today to see how we can help!
