With the influx of web-based services and applications, customers don’t always have a brick and mortar option when it comes to customer service. Many web apps only offer customer service through email. How can these online companies still provide great customer experiences to customers?

As a follow up on my The Best Service is No Service book review, I asked the authors to share their thoughts on customer service for web-based applications.

One of the authors, David Jaffe, responded with his thoughts that I quote below.

Root Cause Analysis

We did some work a year ago with eBay and their Power sellers in Australia. There were many powerful lessons from the book for them:

a) Only some had analyzed and tried to fix the root causes of the emails they received from clients – Most had tried to put more and more information in the product descriptions and that made matters worse

Unless you identify the real reason customers are having trouble, you’re just guessing. Making assumptions based on your experience is fine, sometimes your educated first impression is correct. However, the sure way to verify your ideas is to test them. Let your customers be your real world testers and let them vote with their actions on which of your ideas is the best.

Customer Ignorance

b) Many were frustrated by customer ignorance – “Don’t they know that if they want to pay that way it will take X days?”

At this year’s SXSW Interactive, Henry Jenkins stated: “People aren’t idiots. They do things for a reason.” If customers are demonstrating behavior you feel is ignorant, find out why they are doing something. The fault may very well lie with your application, the design, copy writing, etc.

Easy to Contact

c) Many made themselves hard to contact – They had auctions closing on Sundays but no one answered emails on Sundays!

Web applications often force customers to contact the company via one channel: email. If such is the case with your web app, you need to answer emails. Be timely in responses and set expectations of your response window to customer emails.

Listen

d) None of them saw emails as a way to listen to customers – Emails were an annoyance even though it was their only direct contact with customers

Emails from customers may be the only way you hear from customers. If such is the case, listen and learn. Sure, you may get repetitive questions or feedback, but this can also be a goldmine for identifying issues and generating ideas. Turn your most frequently asked questions into online help or tweak your copy writing to better explain functionality.

Work with Customers

e) The clever ones had worked out that all issues could be solved – The bad ones got a hostile customer rating and fought back. The good sellers worked with the customer to have the rating changed.

Reach out and work with customers to resolve problems. Since many companies don’t even try with customers, the simple act of engaging customers in the discussion will put you ahead of many. Sure, not everyone will be happy, but those that you do help will be happier in the end.

Listen, Change, Test, Repeat

The key to customer service for your web application is an iterative cycle. Listen to customers. Identify the root causes of problems. Make changes to your application to correct issues. Test your changes and continue the cycle.

The web offers a great forum for rapid experimentation and response. Take advantage of the technological advantage you have over more traditional, offline services and create a stellar user experience for your customers.

In order to provide an experience that will make your customers want to return, your company needs to be ready to meet the inevitable customer demand for your product or service. This can be met with proper inventory, accurate reservations, or adequate staffing.

On our last family vacation, we rented a car with Dollar rental car. After the airport shuttle dropped us off at the pick-up location, we waited in line for almost an hour. The line of customers kept growing and wound its way outside the building. The office was significantly understaffed and the resulting delays strained the customers’ patience.

Ironically, Dollar knew exactly how many people would be picking up cars that morning. Everyone had reservations and there shouldn’t have been any surprises with the customer volume. Don’t let this happen to you.

Predict the Future

There are several formulas for calculating future demand for your products and services. Pete Abilla gives a great introduction to forecasting on his blog. Based on historical numbers, you can predict future demand. This, of course, depends on no unforeseen events changing the customer landscape. But whether forecasting with a formula or gazing into a crystal ball, the point of predicting the future is to help you anticipate future needs based on past performances.

Know the Future

One thing Pete mentions in his post is that “forecasts are no substitute for calculated values.” In the case with Dollar rental car, or other times where your customers have reservations or placed orders, you know what your demand is. Plan accordingly.

Prepare for the Demand

Once you know what customers want, you need to be ready. Staff your business accordingly, stock your inventory, or even extend your hours to compensate for customer demand. You should also have contingency plans in place for when your predictions or preparations are wrong. Empower your employees to solve problems on the spot or compensate customers who don’t get exactly what they want.

Verify and Adjust

Were your assumptions correct? If they were, you should have been able to ride your forecasts to successful sales. If not, learn from your mistakes and adjust your future estimates for next time. Constant iteration and adjustments will refine your predictions so that you can accurately and efficiently deliver on future customer expectations.

In The Best Service is No Service: How to Liberate Your Customers from Customer Service, Keep Them Happy, and Control Costs, authors Bill Price and David Jaffe seek to challenge the traditional view of customer service.

While the title is a bit daring, “no service” isn’t really the solution the authors are proposing. Through an eight step process, they outline how your company can refine its customer service by identifying and fixing problems and enabling customers via self-service.

Prevention

A majority of customer service problems can be resolved up-front by identifying the root cause of issues. These may be problems with packaging, customer expectations, instructions, etc. Your company can prevent problems from even happening by having a feedback loop, ensuring that those who hear from the customers send the information back to those that can fix the problem.

Self Service

The real “no service” option is that of quality self-service. With current technology, customers should be able to solve the majority of their problems via your website or even your phone system. If customers can find the answers they need online and can take corrective action, they will solve their own problems.

Listen and Act

Too many times the customer service department insulates the rest of a company from customer feedback. R&D, Marketing, Sales, Manufacturing, IT, and others need to hear what is wrong so they can actually fix it! Listen to your customers and act on that information. Otherwise, you’ll just keep getting the same inquiries and issues every day.

Joe’s Recommendation

Buy a Copy – The Best Service is No Service will change the way your company thinks about customer service.

They share numerous examples of both the good, the bad, and the ugly. You’ll see how other companies were successful (or not) in serving customers and can then apply those principles to your situation. This was a very thought provoking book.

Buy The Best Service is No Service: How to Liberate Your Customers from Customer Service, Keep Them Happy, and Control Costs on Amazon.com.