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How to Handle Complaints and Inquiries
Every site receives its own share of complaints and
criticisms no matter how big or small. Most unsolicited
criticism and general opinions can be taken with a grain
of salt. Design is subjective in that everyone has
different taste and ideas on how to present web graphics,
information, format and layout. You should not implement
every idea or suggestion that comes down the pike, but
still, you need to be open to ideas that might improve
your user's experience if you want your site to be 'user
friendly' and more successful. There is room for
improvement on every site. Instead of becoming defensive
or offended by criticism, take a step back and seriously
consider it from the user's standpoint. Give more weight
to it if it comes from a more experienced user or if you
have asked someone more knowledgeable than you are to
critique your site.
Sometimes you just have new users land on your site who
don't understand how the web works, users with older
operating systems, browsers and resolutions who can't
upgrade or change their settings for a variety of reasons,
and dial-up users that view the web much slower than DSL
and cable users. How you handle it matters more than you
think.
Instead of taking offense, you should thank each and every
one of the people who take the time to complain about
something on your site that didn't work for them. For
every complaint you receive, you can bet there are at
least dozens of visitors who have thought the same thing
but didn't take the time to tell you about it. And,
if no one tells you, you have missed the opportunity to
fix it for everyone. Don't shoot the messenger and
alienate the very individuals who obviously like your site
enough to want to help you improve it for them... thereby
improving it for everyone else.
It's called providing good customer service and it has the
potential to make or break a site where each site
represents either a brick and mortar or virtual
company/individual to a worldwide audience.
According to the stats on
DailyChanges.com, as many as 140,000 .com domains go
down the drain each and every day for a variety of reasons.
I would bet that
poor customer service played a major role in their demise. Don't be one of them. Everyone who
visits your site is a customer whether they buy what you
are selling, have a general question about a product or
are just browsing out of boredom... it doesn't matter.
I have actually returned product inquiries before and been
told that out of all the contacts they made on several
sites that day, I was the only one that actually
responded! There must be a lot of sites out there on
'auto-pilot' where you can't even get a human response.
Who do you think got the sale within 24 hours? That's why
it's so important to answer each and every
legitimate inquiry and complaint you get.
Investigate each complaint to determine if it is something
you can fix quickly. If it is, then fix it and inform the
person who sent the complaint that it has been fixed.
Don't just say you'll make improvements, actually do
something about it - if only to respond that you will look
into it. Don't argue or over-explain your reasoning if you
can't fix it immediately. Ignoring a complaint because you
don't know what to do is the worst thing you can do. The
internet is not all about who has the latest technology,
or who
has the best web site, or how to get rich quick, it's all
about people - and that means being of service to people.
The internet itself is just a communications
tool used in different ways by groups of people with
similar interests. It's just a new way to do the same old thing, only faster
at a global level.
If you have a web site, you're providing a service to
people.
Your customer is every visitor to your site and without
them, your site has no purpose for being there. How should
you handle a legitimate complaint or inquiry about your
web site?
Do:
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Respond to each complaint within 24 hours
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Ask additional questions as necessary to troubleshoot the
problem
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Personally thank them for bringing it to your attention
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Be grateful for the opportunity to improve your site
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If the issue has already been addressed, include a link to
the page in your reply
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Research the issue or ask for help from a more
knowledgeable source
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Make an attempt to resolve the issue without being
defensive
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If the complaint includes a suggestion for solving the
problem that does not apply, take the time to explain how
it really works
It may take a little extra time to investigate complaints
and provide good customer support but the greatest benefit
is that your site will get better and better with each
fix. That little extra service might just help you
improve your bottom line along the way and keep you from becoming just another
.com statistic some day.
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