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10 Secrets for Successful Web Based Customer Service" excerpts from 
Customers are your company's most precious resource. That's why it's so important to provide great customer service. Companies that provide a superlative service experience keep their customers satisfied and loyal. And that's a significant competitive advantage.
It has become particularly important to deliver great customer service on the web. More and more, the web is where customers go to find answers. It's convenient, it's open 24 hours a day, and—ideally—makes it easy to quickly pinpoint information. In fact, many customers now prefer the web to phone or email. They don't want to spend time on hold, call back during business hours, or wait hours for a reply. They want to quickly click their way to the solution they need, any time of the day or night. That's why great web self-service should be a top priority for every company.
Unfortunately, many companies fail to effectively exploit the web's full potential as a customer service channel. Some fail because they don't recognize how important the web is to their customers. Others fail because they don't implement a system that makes it easy for customers to find answers to their questions online. Often, the problem is an inadequate understanding of exactly what information customers or looking for. Another common problem is poor integration of web self-service with email and voice channels. In other cases, companies neglect capabilities that can make web self-service really "click"—such as store locators or rich content.
There is a cost for such failure. Companies that don't provide great service on the web lose customers and waste money. They lose customers because web users who can't find what they need online get frustrated and head elsewhere. They waste money because their contact center costs wind up being much higher than they need to be.
Ten Secrets for Successful Web-Based Customer Service - As these companies and others prove, effective web-based customer service is a very achievable goal with significant potential rewards. It simply requires the right principles, practices and tools. By surveying today's most effective practitioners, RightNow has distilled ten basic attributes that make web-based customer support work:
1. Make sure your web site can "listen" to customers - Every successful salesperson knows the most important part of their job is listening to the customer—for both explicit and implicit messages. Web sites should do the same. Explicit messages are clear requests for specific information. Implicit messages are patterns of queries or usage that provide clues about customer needs and interests. Effective online service requires mechanisms and/or practices that give an attentive ear to both types of messages.
2. Give customers what they want—quickly - Once you've "heard" what kind of information customers want, you have to give it to them—quickly. The web is all about immediacy. So whether it's getting new information posted onto your site or making the information that's already on there easier to understand, you must optimize your ability to respond to your customers' needs with online content. Don't confuse this with the rapid posting of the information that marketers want to put on your site. Quality customer service requires the rapid posting of content that is completely customer-driven.
3. Make customer service resources easy to find and easy to use - Great content isn't much use if customers can't find it easily. That's why it's essential to provide customers with highly intuitive search tool that let them pinpoint the answers they need with a minimum number of steps. It's also smart to maintain a "Top 20" list of current hot topics that customers can view as soon as they come to your main self-service page.
4. Integrate all your communications channels - Different customers will use different communications channels at different times. You don't want them to get different answers depending on which channel they happen to use. So it's important to leverage your knowledge base across all channels. Ideally, the information you provide on the web should be exactly the same as what you provide via your live operators, voice self-service, email and chat.
5. The "80/20" rule - To be successful at web-based customer service, you don't have to be able to answer every conceivable customer question online. More than 80% of all customer questions are usually answered by just 20% of a support knowledge base. And many companies achieve 97-plus percent self-service rates with relatively limited—but highly customer-driven—content that they've developed over time by learning what customers need. That's why it's more important to get started with web-based customer service than it is to first develop the "perfect" knowledge base. Smart companies get the most important information up right away, and then refine their content over time.
6. Let your customers rate you - You can't improve what you don't measure. So the companies that are most successful with web self-service provide customers with a way to rate the quality of the answers they find online. Using this feedback, content that isn't useful can be quickly weeded out—thereby improving the overall effectiveness of the site.
7. Use rich content wherever appropriate - A picture is often worth a thousand words. Photographs, diagrams, and animations can therefore be very useful in helping customers solve their most common problems. Creating these types of graphics can help further improve the effectiveness of your online customer service system.
8. Connect the online world to the real world - For retailers, banks, and many others types of companies, it's important to link online operations with real-world facilities. After all, many customers come to a web site specifically to find a local store, branch office or service center. One of the best ways to do this is to provide a searchable database of real-world locations on your web site. It's also a good idea to supplement street addresses with maps and driving directions to ensure that your customers can get where they want to go without getting lost.
9. Consider a hosted, on demand solution - Many successful web-based service implementers are taking advantage of hosted on demand solutions in order to eliminate capital costs and ongoing infrastructure management hassles. Hosted systems accelerate time-to-benefit and offload ownership burdens from corporate IT organizations that already have their hands full. Hosted systems also offer advantages when it comes to performance, reliability, scalability and security.
10. Buy experience along with your technology - Online customer service technologies can be very powerful. But you have to know what you're doing to get the most out of them. That's why the smart buyers look for a source of substantial customer service experience to complement the technologies they acquire. Best practices like those listed here are extraordinarily valuable. So it makes sense to partner with a vendor who can help you apply those best practices to your company's online customer service initiatives. It's even better when that vendor can help you optimize the rest of your CRM processes as well.
These ten simple principles can make your online customer service initiative a high-ROI success. And they're not hard to fulfill. With the right technology and the right partner, you can take full advantage of the Internet as a medium for superior customer service and reap all the rewards that result from great web-based customer service.
"Eight Simple Steps For Enhancing Your Website" from 
To be successful with your online business, whether you are selling your own product, services or are selling for other merchants as an affiliate, you need a Web site that focuses on that subject alone. The site must be easy to build, maintenance-free, low cost, credible, and a powerful traffic-builder and customer-converter.
Having the right tools or product alone will not ensure the success of your website. There are many factors to be considered when designing your site. And unfortunately, most of these are usually ignored by Internet business owners. Below are eight simple steps to enhance your site and make it profitable.
1. Build It for Speed - There is no denying that in this day and age that people are in a hurry. You have between 10 and 30 seconds to capture your potential customer's attention. To minimize your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible. Use flashy technology (JavaScript, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is imperative to your presentation.
2. Target Your Market - Know who your market is and make certain that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site reflect the values of your potential customers. Is your market mostly business professionals? If so, the site must be clean and professional. Is your product aimed at teenagers and young adults? Then your site could be more informal and relaxed. The key is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.
3. Focus the Site - Make certain your web site is focused on the goal of selling your product or service. If your business offers many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one page. This can easily be accomplished through the utilization of subdomains.
4. Build Credibility - The most professionally designed site won't sell if your customers don't believe in you. Become an authority in your chosen niche. The internet is all about information, not just marketing. People go to the internet to find information on a particular subject. Providing clear concise articles focused on the subject of your site makes you an expert in your field. Providing a clear privacy statement is also away to build your credibility. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site as well as from any location that you are asking your visitors for personal information. Provide legitimate contact information on line, including your mailing address and telephone number. Don't hide behind a computer!
5. Keep Navigation Simple - Make site navigation easy and intuitive. Simple and smooth navigation adds to the convenience of the visitors. Add powerful search and catalog features. Many times a lot of visitors do not have the patience to navigate through the whole website to find what they are looking for.
6. Keep It Consistent - Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.
7. Make Your Site Interactive and Personalized - Make your website interactive. Add feedback forms as well as email forms that allow your prospective customers to ask you any questions they might have pertaining to a product. Personalization of your website is another key element that can lead to customer delight and can increase your sales. Personalization technology provides you the analytic tools to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling when the customer is buying online. It would give you an idea of what products to cross-sell and up-sell. For example, when a person buys a CD player, a disc cleaner can also be offered.
8. Content is King - Good content sells a product. Ask yourself the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and edit your copy to ensure it is delivering the intended message. Always double-check your spelling and grammar.
These eight, simple rules will go a long way toward the improvement of your website and most importantly, turn visitors into customers.
"Why Your Site Needs Inbound Links" from
Most web-savvy people quickly learn why they need "links" from other sites pointing at theirs. Your inbound links are one of the most important ways of getting yourself known in your field, generating traffic to your website, and influencing the search engines to notice your site.
"Traffic" is what linking is all about. Without traffic your website is useless as a tool for selling your products or communicating your ideas. Getting links from other websites is not the only way to generate traffic, but it is probably the most important one. But how do links generate traffic?
**Direct traffic from links** - First, links generate direct traffic. Links from sites that share your target audience will be an important source of traffic to your site. A visitor to the other web site sees the link to yours, clicks on it, and becomes your visitor. Some estimates put the percentage of internet traffic resulting from this kind of link as high as 21% of total traffic.
Why do people click on these links? One reason is they may view a link to an outside source as an endorsement. They assume the webmaster is saying "Here is a source you will find interesting or helpful". They are looking for the kind of service you provide, so they click on the link to check you out.
But just as important is simple curiosity. Someone sees a text link with intriguing wording like "Powerful Cheap Advertising" or "Win a Free iPod" or "See Pamela Anderson Video" and, depending on their interests, a certain number of people are likely to click on it.
This suggests at least three things about your links. First, you should get as many links as possible on pages your target audience is likely to be visiting. The more people see your links, the more traffic you are likely to get.
Second, your anchor text (the words that are linked) should be intriguing. It should be short and sweet, and suggest a benefit -- a reason for people to click on it.
Third, your links should be on pages that people actually look at. Having hundreds of links on pages that nobody ever looks at will not result in traffic -- at least not direct traffic. Putting your link on a link exchange page containing hundreds of services similar to yours is not likely to generate very many clicks. This is why exchanging links with link directories is such a questionable waste of time. Web visitors rarely look at these directories.
Finding good pages where you can place your link is not always easy. One method is to systematically do searches for your most important keywords -- the search phrases people are likely to use when looking for your kind of product or service. Many of the results will be competitors of yours. But one or two may be secondary sources such as directories or reference pages. Getting your link on some of these secondary sources is almost guaranteed to result in traffic, so it is worth the effort -- and sometimes the cost -- of getting listed in the resources that score high for your keywords.
**Traffic from Search Engines** - The second reason for getting inbound links is to impress the search engines. Most search engines use the quantity and quality of your inbound links to evaluate the importance and relevance of your site to specific keywords. For instance, if you sell a product like "Full Color Vinyl Banners", or you are a Real Estate agent servicing "Kitchener Real Estate", one of your objectives is to rank high for searches done on your primary search phrase (and other similar ones).
This will result in traffic because when people search for your important keywords your site is more likely to show up in the search results. The more inbound links you have that relate your site to full color vinyl banners or web promotion services, or "fill in your keyword here", the higher your site is likely to rank for these terms, and the more search engine traffic you are likely to receive as a result.
**Using Articles to get traffic and impress the search engines** - Embedding your links in articles is one of the best methods of rapidly increasing your inbound links. Many times a well-written article will show up in hundreds of places on the web. And if it has your link embedded in it, that will obviously increase your inbound links. Webmasters pick up these articles because they want content to enhance the value of their sites.
Articles will also generate direct traffic because people who read them are already interested in your subject matter, and are therefore more likely to click on your link.
This suggests that the most valuable place to publish your article is in a themed or categorized article resource. For instance, if your product is "health" related, having it published on health-oriented sites will be more valuable than having it published on generic sites.
You can even take this a step further. If your article is about something more specific like "mesothelioma advice", then getting it published on sites that focus on "mesothelioma" will get more "reads", and have a greater influence on the search engines.
Second, when embedding your link, try to use anchor text that contains one of your important keywords, not just your URL or web address. Remember that search engines are dumb. One of your objectives is to have them relate your website to specific search terms (keywords or key phrases). And the best way to do that is to use them as your anchor text.
"The Dark Side Of Google???" from
The way that search marketers dream up conspiracy theories you'd think that we're all paranoid with nothing better to do.
Is there a true reason for concern? I think not, but reading other peoples paranoia is always entertaining. We all know search engines are "out to get webmasters". They have nothing better to do than to think of new ways that will infringe on websites rankings or play hide and seek with site PageRank. Google is at the forefront of the theorists' attention. And it's not very hard to see why.
It's Tough Being At The Top - Google's market share is certainly growing. It handled 60 percent of Internet search queries in November 2005, up from 47 percent a year earlier, according to ComScore Networks. Google's chief officers have expressed that they are committed to growing the company itself in a sustainable way.
Quoting CFO George Reyes: "Google would be spending more on research and development, and will invest heavily in its computing infrastructure."
Google's motto "do no evil" has been analyzed and debated so many times. Forum posts and articles are always met with "Google does this" or "Google does that", the fact of the matter is that none of us know "what Google's intentions are, except Google themselves of course...but it's still nice to enter the guessing game to see exactly "how close, or far off" you are from the materialization.
Enter the Conspiracies - Everyone has their opinion on the matter - which makes for entertaining reading at least.
Jagger Update - The conspiracy: Google is out to destroy all the organic listings so that everyone will move over to PPC.
The real deal: Google updates their algorithm from time to time to help make search results more relevant. Each update usually receives a name by the SEO community - somewhat like naming hurricanes. The most recent update was called "Jagger". Many scraper directory sites and sites that bought those links were removed from the update.
If you had made use of any shädy techniques it is most likely that your site was caught in Jagger. It was quite a harsh update if you had not employed solid SEO techniques. So needless to say there are a lot of angry webmasters out there. A good example is the German BMW site (bmw.de) which was recently removed for making use of sp@m techniques. Just goes to show SEO is SEO no matter what the language.
Google Adsense - The conspiracy: Google Adsense sites get priority in rankings so that Google can make more money. And also Google is trying to take dominance and force webmasters to use Adsense rather than outbound links (link building).
The real deal: If this were true, regardless of how hard Google was to "try", they couldn't force a greater number of people to Adwords through preventing the achievement of a favorable ranking. Besides, when Adwords first was released, several SEO's tested this theory buy purchasing paid listings over varied lengths in time. The results? There was absolutely no correlation between purchasing an Adwords account and your organic search ranking.
IP Recording / Privacy Infringement - The conspiracy: Search engines log IP addresses. The data collected can be used against you. The real deal: There have been many theories that Google logs searchers' IP addresses etc., to track their search behaviour, but the situation has gotten much bigger than that. With all the hype stemming from the Department of Justice requesting logs from the Big Shots of search to see what searches were conducted, the talk has shifted to legal implications should the court find in favour of government.
Every bit of network traffic you use is marked with your IP address; it can be used to link all of those disparate transactions together.
Filtering Results - The conspiracy: If Google can filter the results for China, what stops them from filtering the rest of world? The real deal: Well this is still very much a hot topic at the moment and I have not really made up my mind on this one quite yet. I can only refer to the Google "Human Rights Caucus Briefing" in their Blog. ...
According to Larry Page: "Google's goal is to provide a much higher level of service to all those who seek information, whether they're at a desk in Boston, driving through Bonn, or strolling in Bangkok."
The Google philosophy:
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well
3. Fast is better than slow
4. Democracy on the web works
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer
6. You can make money without doing evil
7. There is always more information out there
8. The need for information crosses all borders
9. You can be serious without a suit
10. Great just isn't good enough
Excerpt from site: Full-disclosure update: When we first wrote these "10 things" four years ago, we included the phrase "Google does not do horoscopes, financial advice or chat." Over time we've expanded our view of the range of services we can offer -- web search, for instance, isn't the only way for people to access or use information - and products that then seemed unlikely are now key aspects of our portfolio. This doesn't mean we've changed our core mission; just that the farther we travel toward achieving it, the more those blurry objects on the horizon come into sharper focus (to be replaced, of course, by more blurry objects).
Some psychologists say that the closer one becomes to a person (or something) the harder it is to see the good stuff. Has Google become so intertwined in our daily lives that we no longer recognize the good stuff that it has brought us?
Let me remind you of a few:
1. Relevant Search Results: A source to find information faster. Every update gets rid of the "clutter".
2. Gmail: As far as free web based email goes, this must be the most user-friendly with the largest amount of storage space to boot. You can also tie in any other email accounts you may hold and use Google's interface as the "one stop shop" so to speak.
3. Gtalk: Google's free IM and Voice Chat service. Now also tying in with your Gmail interface. This means that it's accessible from wherever you have internet - you don't need to have the program installed on the machine that you're working from.
4. Leader of other SE: There is no doubt that Google is at the forefront of "great new ideas" for search engines. Google leads and the rest follow. One example is Gmail - more storage space for free. Yahoo! was soon to follow with a similarly sized email account for Yahoo! Mail users at no cost. MSN, however, charges for an increased mailbox.
5. Google Earth: Geographic information at your fingertips. Get driving directions and location information for just about anywhere on the globe, and because they use satellite imagery intertwined with maps you get a pretty good idea of what any place looks like.
6. Google Video: A selection of homemade clips, TV shows, movies and viral clips *freely available on the net. (*some TV shows and movies need to be purchased of course)
7. Google Alerts: Need to know when someone has mentioned you, your company or any topic of interest to you on their website? With Google Alerts you are notified *as it happens. (*as Google spiders that site)
These are only but a few things that Google has brought into our lives so to speak. So ask yourself again - is there really any concern for their progress, or are we benefiting from it at the end of the day?
"What Every Website Owner Must Know" From
Every month, it seems, a major company stares down the barrel of Google's brand recognition gun. The company of the month right now happens to be PayPal. The Wall Street Journal published an article on Ebay's Jeff Jordan's preparations for Gbuy, the so called PayPal killer (PayPal is owned by Ebay). Many news sources and blogs are anticipating Gbuy to quickly become a PayPal killer given Google's huge brand name recognition and reach with consumers.
But the whole PayPal killing talk is really much ado about nothing. I have no doubt whatsoever that Google will release Gbuy, but I do have significant doubts as to whether it will actually replace PayPal as many merchant's payment processor of choice. Given Google's recent releases, and given how PayPal has positioned itself in the marketplace, I would not be surprised of Gbuy proves itself to be a significant flop considering all the attention it has been given.
PayPal's Vulnerability - Jeff Jordan of Ebay has every right to be scared, however. Executives have a history of losing their dignity and control when they feel pressured by Google. Steve Ballmer is well known for his professional wrestling-like tirade in which he sent chairs flying and cursed the name of Google, and Yahoo is not much better having publicly given up its quest for search dominance, which in effect was Yahoo executives crying "Uncle!" with the hope that they could finally focus on something that they could actually excel in.
Professional wrestling rant's aside, Jeff Jordan does have reason to be worried. PayPal, unlike Yahoo and Microsoft, is much more vulnerable to a direct attack from Google. The history of PayPal is filled with trouble with CEO's, run-ins with the mafia, and pressure from an Attorney General. This article, however, is not the place for a lesson on the history of PayPal (a book was written for that), regardless of how fascinating it might be.
Article Tip - Did you know that PayPal is one of the few companies with a single letter domain name? Check it out: X.com.
The problem with PayPal is that it has not solidified itself in any other market besides the payment option of eBay merchants. The result is that many website owners view PayPal as a 'cheap' option. Furthermore, even though PayPal does allow non-members to purchase items through their system, it is not as easy as many merchant's would like. Many of the problems of PayPal were actually discussed on the forums a while ago.
These problems open up a vulnerability for PayPal. If Google releases a product that improves on the downfalls of PayPal in much the same way that they were able to revolutionize online maps, then PayPal should be worried. Google does have a knack for making web applications that make existing applications look outdated and simplistic.
Why Gbuy Will Not Kill PayPal - Experts have been predicting the wild success of Google in many different industries for some time. When Froogle was released it was thought by many to be a major threat to Amazon.com. Although Gmail has been a success, there have been no reports of Yahoo Mail suffering significant attrition (in fact the buzz over the new Yahoo Mail interface shows just how much interest there is in Yahoo Mail). And although Google News is a highly useful service, it is hardly considered the default news service for most web users.
The fact is, the past few Google releases have been relative failures. Google admitted that they screwed up with their video service (the Apple iPod Video is much more successful and sets the bar much higher than Google is currently meeting). Google Reader was met with a collective 'ho-hum' from the webmaster community (as was Google Pack), and even though Google Sitemaps may be useful, it is still under used. Google Analytics still is not able to accommodate mass signups, and the buzz over analytics has also declined significantly since its release.
Really, if we were to look at Google's recent releases, the only relatively successful releases have been Google's Search (obviously), Adwords and Adsense (also obvious), Google Maps, and Gmail. The fact is, with the exception of Adwords and Adsense, Google has not been very successful in launching commercial products.
Google's Lack of Simplicity for 'Everyday' Users - The problem with most of Google's recent releases has been its lack of simplicity. Google's initial success in search was powered by the extreme simplicity they brought to the process. All the user saw was a search box and search results. What could be more simple? On top of that, search results were stunningly accurate compared to the other results available.
In a best case scenario Gbuy could really only hope to fit in as an alternate payment system to those who have already established how users are supposed to pay for their goods. In all reality, though, the market is crowded, and Ebay users will likely continue to use the integrated, easy to use PayPal over any new-commer - especially of Google fails to make a relatively simple product.
February Search Engine News From
www.searchengine-news.com
Google - Google is revamping its ranking algorithm and putting new server infrastructure in place in preparation for what it hopes will be significantly improved search results. The expected roll-out-date will be sometime either this month February '06 or March. You can see it temporarily at http://66.249.93.104/
Google Refuses to Hand Over Search Data to Feds - The subpoenas requested one million random URLs and records of all searches from any one-week period. Google was the only search engine who refused to comply. Google maintains their position that the US government is overreaching in their request and that it would violate the privacy of Google's users while revealing some of Google's own trade secrets.
MSN - MSN is in the process of beta testing their new adCenter contextual advertising program with a select group of advertisers. You can expect adCenter to offer a program much like Google's AdWords or Yahoo's Sponsored Search.
AOL - Google will continue supplying AOL with search results for a good long time and that AOL will continue displaying Google AdWords.
Yahoo! - All remained quiet on the Yahoo front this past month. Yahoo!
336-408-9075
Rich@RichsWebDesign.com
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