Many companies charge customers extra for help with installation, set-up, or other assistance in using the purchased product.

Doubtless more of your customers have trouble than would pay for this service up-front.

Why? Because people assume they know how to get everything working.

Buying installation assistance, help, or other services requires customers to admit they don’t know what they are doing.

This is a mental dilemma which may be difficult for your more proud customers.

So what is the solution?

Include all the help a customer needs with the purchase. It is a value add. It is a bonus.

Including the necessary help with a purchase is a competitive advantage for you.

You are saying, “Customer, I will help you.”

Costco is a great example of this principle.

With each electronic purchase, Costco has a free concierge service. This service will help you (over the phone) with any trouble you have with installation, setup, or use of the product.

You need to differentiate yourself from your competition. This is particularly true if you are selling a commodity product in a crowded marketplace.

Providing help to customers is a very personal thing and will not only help close the sale but will build an enduring relationship with them.

Have you ever seen miscommunication cause inefficiencies in your business, problems with orders, and even more disastrous results?

My employer hosts an annual conference, and in order to save confusion at the conference center, has employees register online and pick up our badges at the office before heading downtown to the conference.

This week I went down to the lobby to pick up my badge. After waiting 20 minutes in line and observing several printer malfunctions and technical delays, I made it to the front of the line.

I provided my last name to the girl behind the laptop. She started typing away and then asked me, “Joe or Joseph?” I said, “Joe,” since that is the name I go by. She continued typing but said nothing to me until, “It shows you as not registered. Did you register? Did you get a confirmation?”

I answered yes to all these questions and had her confirm the spelling of my last name. I then said, “Did you look under Joseph? I am the only one with either of those names here.”

Apparently I was registered under Joseph and not Joe, so she said with a huff, “That is why I asked you which name before.”

Unaware of how my answer to her previous question would be used, I answered incorrectly.

So what is the lesson here?

If you need some information from a customer that must be an exact match for something you are doing, tell them why you need that information.

In my example, if she had said, “Which first name did you register under, Joe or Joseph?” I could have answered correctly and quickly been on my way.

If there is confusion and rework with every customer transaction, people will be waiting unnecessarily long and you may lose customers.

Confirm that you understand the answer that was given when asking questions of customers. Doing so will make your interactions with them less awkward and more efficient.

Every person that comes across your website is different. They have different care-abouts, preferences, and buying behaviors.

Unfortunately, your website is either oblivious to these differences or may be trying to appeal to everyone at the same time. Both of these approaches can kill your online potential.

Think about how you like to shop online.

Perhaps you like to watch a video that shows a product demo. You may find that you are a more visual person, one that likes large images, videos, and graphics to help you make a purchase decision.

On the other hand, maybe you just want the facts and a long list of product descriptions suits your fancy.

Your customers likewise have differing tastes and preferences that ultimately impact how they trust you and if they will buy from you.

I recently read an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review titled “Morph the Web To Build Empathy, Trust and Sales” that highlighted some emerging technology and algorithms that lets your website learn from customer behavior and respond accordingly.

The article highlights how people can fall into different cognitive styles which indicate how they “perceive, think and solve problems.” People may lean towards being more visual or verbal and then more analytic or holistic when considering your product or service.

Why would adapting to customer behavior be important on your website?

Your website is your virtual sales person. A real-life sales person can adjust the tone, sales pitch, talking points, and invitations to match customer reactions.

The closer your website can intelligently respond to the individual customers, the more likely you will strike a cord with them and convert more visitors to customers.

Naturally, too much intelligence could be a little creepy to a customer. However, if you present choices, data, pictures, and descriptions a customer likes to see, it won’t seem creepy at all, but rather reassuring and natural to them.

Customers will be able to find what they are looking for, be confident in your product, and will buy from you all because you anticipated the style in which they wanted to receive that information.

This leads to customers having an emotional bond with your website and company, which is a very powerful relationship to have. Loyal, repeat customers aren’t mechanically returning to you, but want to do business with you again.

Every single one of your employees needs to be able to help customers.

On our recent trip to Disneyland, I found myself asking multiple employees throughout the day, “Where’s the nearest restroom?”

Every time I asked this question, they kindly described how to get to the nearest restroom and pointed me in the right direction.

Your employees need to know the answers to customers’ most common questions.

Whenever I go to Lowe’s home improvement store, the employees are extremely helpful in aiding me to find the parts I need. Whenever I stop to ask a Lowe’s employee where can I find a product, they stop what they are doing and walk with me across the store and show me.

Your employees should know where other departments and products are located, even if they aren’t directly responsible for them.

Naturally, each employee will not know everything in their head. However, they need to be prepared on multiple fronts.

If an employee doesn’t know the answer, they should have a clear escalation path to get the customer’s question or problem resolved.

If the answer isn’t known, the employee should know who to talk with in order to help the customer. Ideally, your staff would walk with or personally transfer the customer to the one who knows the answer.

Your employees may not know everything about your business, but they can give that impression to customers.

Follow the 80/20 rule.

Make sure your staff can answer the common and frequent customer questions. For example, know what is stock and where to find products. This will cover 80% of your customers’ needs.

As a backup, make sure your employees know who to talk to and provide a smooth transition for the customer to find the resolution they seek. This will handle the remaining 20% of your customers.

By preparing your staff and anticipating customer questions and concerns, you can be ready when they come and provide the outstanding service your customers expect.