Return Customer turns 3 years old this week! Thank you, loyal readers, for making this another great year.

I once again reviewed the data on how people arrive at this site. There seem to be some perennial favorites among the most read and referring sites when compared to last year.

Top 5 Most Read Posts

Based on traffic data, these were the top most visited posts this past year:

1. How to Get People Talking About You
2. Think Outside Your Constraints
3. Four Customer Expectations
4. Clever Auto Reply Email Address
5. Your Small Business is Worth More than a Free Email Address

Top 5 Referrers

Thanks to these non-search sites that were generous in linking to Return Customer over the past year:

1. The Aweber blog has mentioned several of my articles over the past year.
2. 9rules - I’m a member of 9rules’ business and marketing communities
3. Service Untitled offers solid customer service articles and interviews.
4. Smiley Cat - Featured in the Typography for Headlines gallery
5. Particle Tree and their “Guide to Email Roundup“

Top 5 Searches

The following searches (linked to their respective posts) brought the most people to this site last year. It is always interesting to see the diversity of incoming keywords and phrases:

1. customer expectations
2. southwestairlines@mail.southwest.com
3. honesty is the best policy
4. proactive customer service
5. digiorno pizza coupons

If you have any comments on things you like or that could be improved with Return Customer, please leave a comment or send me an email.

I look forward to celebrating four years in 2009!

Do you have company policies or practices that are literally a slap in your customers’ face?

Many businesses spend significant resources in marketing and recruiting customers to turn around and take advantage of these very customers.

On a recent family vacation to San Diego, we visited both the San Diego Zoo and Sea World. Both had pricey admission fees which were to be expected. One difference between them was what they charged for parking.

Naturally if you’re going to visit one of these large attractions, you’ll have to park on their lots. Sea World charged us $10 for parking. The San Diego Zoo parking was free.

Either of these parks could forgo admission fees and still make money off of all the food and souvenirs you buy inside. However, unlike food and t-shirts, you usually don’t have a choice with parking. You have to park, and thus you have to pay.

Is your business like Sea World in this example, trying to squeeze every last penny out of customers? Or are you more like the San Diego Zoo, welcoming all with open arms and hoping that generosity encourages you to spend more later?

Tread carefully when you force fees and expenses on customers.

Today’s article is from guest author Heather Johnson.

Beyond advertising, the way you treat your customers will define your company. The best advertising in the world can’t compensate for a lack in customer service. The word-of-mouth that is generated about your company travels much more swiftly than a great advertising campaign. The best way you can avoid negativity is to treat your customers with respect. Here are some tips to follow when you are dealing with your customer base:

1. Make it easy for customers. It seems these days that a customer never knows who to speak with regardless of the nature of their inquiry. It’s imperative that you make it simple for the customer to speak with the proper party depending on their concern. Often it seems that the customer has to speak with different departments in a company to find the answer they want. Eliminate the need for the customer to travel through the cross section of your company to receive proper attention.
2. Limit who attends to a given customer. It’s unprofessional to pass a customer off to another representative if you’ve already been dealing with them. This makes the customer feel unwanted or that they’re not dealing with the best company. Whoever starts the process with a customer should be the one who finishes it.
3. Chop down the phone tree. There’s nothing more frustrating for a customer then going to a company’s website and seeing a litany of phone numbers. Invariably the one the customer chooses isn’t going to bring them to the proper department. It can be difficult to figure out how you can narrow down all the different numbers your company may have, but it’s necessary that you make it easier for the customer to contact the right person.
4. Own up to your mistakes. There is nothing more frustrating for a customer than when you’re just looking for someone to admit they were wrong. If you make a mistake then it’s crucial that you correct the error and admit that you were wrong. This will leave the customer with a good feeling about his or her experience and won’t turn them away from doing business with you in the future.
5. Humanize your call center. There is often pressure on the people you have answering phones to handle a call in a certain amount of time and to handle a minimum number of calls in a given day. Let your representatives be real human beings and let them attend to a customer’s complaint or issue in a manner that leaves the customer feeling good. Ultimately, this is more important than statistics.

About the Author:
Heather Johnson is a freelance business, finance and economics writer, as well as a regular contributor at Business Credit Cards, a site for business credit card and best business credit card offers. Heather welcomes comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address
heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

I mentioned recently that I had to return some defective software to the manufacturer. While the process was unnecessarily complicated, it did have a happy ending.

Norton dutifully sent me the check to refund my purchase price. However, the check was for a little more than my receipt had indicated. After a few moments of confusion, I calculated that that extra amount was exactly enough to cover the postage I had used to return the software CD.

I have to assume that this wasn’t an accident. What that means is that whoever was opening the package noted the postage and included that in the amount to be reimbursed.

A little attention to detail and acknowledgment (in this case via reimbursement) of a customer’s efforts can go a long way to rebuilding the trust and confidence needed to regain a customer.

When you accept customer returns, do you burn bridges with customers? Or do you provide the great customer service needed to leave the door open for that customer to return?

Remember, that when you end on a good note, or even with a personal response, you can help diffuse an angry or upset customer.

The United States has hit a recent subprime mortgage crisis. At its core this was brought on by questionable lending practices to people that really shouldn’t have been given loans. All of this was done in the name of revenue and profits for the banking institutions.

Unfortunately, this highlights how companies can get greedy and start down a path of questionable ethics which may lead to short term revenue growth but ultimately ends in disaster.

I saw an email from ING Direct’s CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann where he explained how his company has avoided the current mortgage crisis:

Global financial markets ended 2007 with many challenges ahead. While ING DIRECT avoided the sub-prime mortgage problem, we understand that this housing crisis threatens the well-being of countless families and, in the end, it will be seen as a major failing of the mortgage industry and its regulators.

The fact that ING DIRECT was not adversely affected is a testament to our operating philosophy that, as Americans, we should only buy houses we can afford. That way we can keep them for years to come. We believe a mortgage is a contract that both parties should execute in good faith and expect to see through to its conclusion. We will not waiver from our sworn promise to provide you with great value, service and convenience.

Kuhlmann mentions two very import points that should be at the core of every business transaction:

1. Customers should only buy what they can afford
2. Contracts should be executed with the trust that they will be honored

Imagine if more lenders lived by these principles. Surely we’d be in less trouble than we are today. Of course not all the blame falls on the mortgage industry and regulators. The homeowners who entered these contracts often knew what they were getting into. However, if more mortgage providers had denied questionable loans, they would have prevented customers from making mistakes in the first place.

Your business must hold on to the moral high ground. Don’t engage in unethical or questionable practices. This includes helping your customers and even potential clients avoid entering transactions that ultimately aren’t in their best interest.