Customer service has changed with the popularity of online social media platforms, online shopping and just generally the Internet. Now is the time to get your customer service processes up to speed before it’s too late and you and your business is left behind. So what does today’s customer want?

24/7 is the new 9-5

The upside of the internet is that your place of business can be open 24/7 but with that comes an added customer service expectation. While people understand that it’s unlikely your site and social media will be monitored all day, every day they do expect to be able to receive answers to basic questions whenever they want. How do you do this? Simple – ensure that your website and social media platforms have content which is easy to understand and engaging. In additional, an FAQ page is a must – cover all the important topics related to your business such as ecommerce security, returns policies, sizing guides, opening hours etc. (as an extra bonus – FAQ pages are great for SEO purposes and are considered evergreen content, meaning that they do not usually have a shelf life).

While many businesses will swear and declare that they have always been 100% dedicated to their customers and customer service/satisfaction, the cold, hard truth is the opposite. Of late, marketing has been quite ego-centric – ‘we offer the best/fastest/cheapest delivery’ or ‘our product is the best’. We’ve lost customer focus and they have had enough. In order to regain their trust, their patronage, their hard earned money, we need to renew efforts to build value around our customers – not the channel or even the product or service.

How to do this

The number of people accessing the Internet on mobile devices has outstripped expectations over the past few years! We know that to maintain our relevance our websites need to be mobile responsive but we shouldn’t lean too far to one side and forget about the desktop users.

Being the hub of your digital/online presence, your website really needs to work for you, your brand and your business. In order to do this it needs to continue to be relevant to your target audience and their expectations and obviously it needs to rank well on a consistent basis.

One of the stalwarts of digital marketing, email campaigns are still achieving results – often results better than those newer mediums. Often put on the back-burner, often an afterthought, email marketing campaigns remain one of the most cost effective marketing tools and one of the best ways of reaching prospective customers.

If you run a business fan page on Facebook (and operate out of Australia) you may have noticed a new addition to your page which is quite exciting. Finally rolled out here is the CTA (Call-to-Action) button. Why is this exciting?

 
The CTA button will allow you to create a button right on your Facebook cover photo so you can direct people to the next action you’d let them to take.

There’s lots of advice around about how to build a better brand – have a fantastic, user-friendly website, engage on social media platforms, provide regular, relevant content, know your target audience and connect with them where they hang out – and while all of that is true, the one number thing you need to do is…