Customer service has always been a critical factor in the failure or success of a business. The fastest way for a company to get a bad reputation is through poor customer service, and with today’s shortened market cycle, not to mention the cutthroat level of competition presented by the Internet age, that axiom is truer than ever before.
Although it’s relatively easy to open up a Web-based store and sell your product, the bar has consistently been raised by companies who innovate in the area of customer service. Those companies which offer not only competitive prices on quality goods, but also lightning-fast order fulfillment and shipping, ease of ordering, a variety of payment and shipping options, online consultations and advice, and simplified, no-hassle returns have set the standard for the entire pack.
The Internet has raised customers’ expectations for fast, reliable service, in addition to providing a wealth of alternatives if your business isn’t up to snuff. A simple Google search will show your customers exactly who else is offering similar goods, what kind of shipping costs they charge, and any special promotional offers. It’s never been easier for customers to comparison shop – and to jump ship.
Even after they’ve made their purchases and received their products, customers remain in charge. With the popularity of Web 2.0 applications like Twitter, blogging, Facebook and Web-based discussion forums, the individual’s voice is amplified much louder than ever before. Remember the old shampoo commercial about “…and she told two friends, and so on and so on”? Social media has multiplied those two friends by a hundred, or many more. It’s not just videos that can go viral anymore – it’s bad press and complaints.
How do you plug into the social Web in order to listen in on your customers’ opinions, while simultaneously making all channels of customer service faster and more responsive? Cloud computing.
Cloud computing, a model for enabling on-demand network access from multiple servers, is an alternative to traditional in-house software hosting. Since it offers comprehensive and fully customizable business applications for customer relationship management, it can be tailor-made to address your unique customer service needs. Want to offer a self-service Web portal where customers can research their questions themselves? A Facebook application? Live Internet chat with a customer service rep? A customized radio station on Pandora? The ability to connect with other customers on a discussion forum? Or simply a call center comprised of agents who have an unprecedented ability to view real-time metrics in order to deliver world-class customer service to callers? Cloud computing can handle all of that and more, more easily and less expensively than a conventional software and hardware system.
When your company contracts with a third-party cloud computing vendor, they get access to a nearly unlimited variety of pre-built customer relationship management applications – or they can have apps custom-built for their unique needs. Each end user of these applications has the additional capability of tailoring their own interface, making it as simple as their favorite Website. And since these business apps take place through the cloud – which is essentially akin to the Internet – rather than being linked to physical servers, mobile accessibility is much broader. Agents no longer have to sit in a room on the premises, but can be fully operational anywhere they have a Web browser and a net connection – which means your company can pay less in terms of physical infrastructure across the board.
Faster response time and more avenues through which to respond, in addition to real-time visibility of all customer profile aspects, translates into better customer service. Better customer service, of course, translates into higher rates of customer retention, increased customer loyalty, increased revenue – and something that you can’t put a price on – good buzz out there in the World Wide Web.
