Posts Tagged ‘ecommerce’

Customer service with a virtual smile

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Your web site ranks well, attracts lots of traffic and is achieving record sales – so you’re making money while you sleep! – right?  If that’s the case well congratulations but don’t forget about customer service.

We’ve all heard the saying “bad news travels fast”.  Offline an unhappy customer will tell on average between 8-16 people about the bad service they have received.  The reality is that news of dissatisfaction spreads fast through forums, social networking sites, blogs and a growing number of sites like  Get Satisfaction, TripAdvisor and Word Of Mouth On the Web .

To provide good customer service you need to make the whole experience pleasant and exceed shoppers’ expectations.  Because you aren’t dealing with people face to face, it is even harder to make a connection, earn trust and build a relationship.

Your aim should be that at the very least a customer would return to your site to make another purchase but ideally be so thrilled with the site and your service that they will tell everyone they know!

What constitutes good service?

  • Easy navigation: Once arriving on your site it should be easy to find what you’re looking for fast.
  • Great product information: Because people can’t physically see your product they want detail to help them make their buying decision. So good quality photos, a detailed description including all necessary information like size, colour, uses etc … and possibly comments from others who have recently purchased this item.
  • Easy to order: Whether you sell one product or have a catalogue of thousands the process of ordering or placing in a shopping cart and checking out should be as easy as pie, no matter what a shopper’s computer skills, and not require any guess work. Providing clear instructions each step of the way and in the minimum number of clicks, is preferable.
  • Fast communication: Soon after the order has been placed, the customer should receive an email that is a receipt or tax invoice and confirms what they have ordered, when they can expect delivery and even how than can track their delivery, if necessary. Contact details are also important in the event that something does go wrong, like there being an error with their order or the package doesn’t arrive or arrives damaged.
  • Fast delivery: The sooner goods arrive the happier customers will be so be as quick as you can with processing, packaging and delivery. Even offer express delivery options for those in a hurry and prepared to pay a little extra.
  • Great quality: It goes without saying that customers expect great quality products that arrive and work as described.
  • Extra little touches: Receiving a hand written note, a free gift or a discount coupon all help to win a happy repeat customer who you hope is a raving fan.

My most recent online purchase was from Belles Familles, it was for a pram liner and some party goods for my one year old’s birthday.  I shopped around extensively, especially for the pram liner, wanting one suitable for summer and winter that fitted my pram, had holes for the safety belt and wasn’t too expensive.  Belles Familles caught my attention as they has some really different products, several to choose from, good prices and they allowed me to order exact quantities of the party goods instead of having to buy complete packs.  So after several hours online, I made my buying decision after 5pm on a Friday afternoon, paid extra for express delivery and waited to see what happened.  I received an instant response that my order was confirmed and then one not long after that it had been processed and was on its way to me.  The goods arrived speedily on the following Monday, with a handwritten address and a business card.  I was very impressed, would order from them again and have been telling lots of people, including you!

Managing your brand, reputation and any complaints

If you type “unhappy customer” into Google you will start to see the sheer number of people posting about their dissatisfaction with various companies, products and services.

So if you make a mistake or receive a complaint from a dissatisfied customer I urge you to respond quickly to resolve the situation.

It is also wise to keep tabs on who is talking about your site online on other public forums or social networking sites – so that you can respond and control any potential situations before they get out of hand.

For example: anyone running a hotel, guest house or bed and breakfast would be wise to check whether they are included on TripAdvisor and what past customers are saying.  You do have the option to respond to any positive or negative comments and explain your side of the story to put potential customers at ease.

So make sure you exceed expectations and keep learning – both from happy and not-so-happy customers!

About the Author. Internet consultant and author, Melissa Norfolk, speaks to business, school and community groups about online marketing, email newsletters, search engine optimisation and effective use of the internet. Her new book Starting an Online Business for Dummies is due for release in February 2009.

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Michael Bloch: Minimising and handling chargebacks

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

ccThe word “chargeback” strikes fear into the hearts of most merchants. But they can be avoided – and challenged.

What is a chargeback?

A chargeback occurs when a credit card transaction is refunded to a cardholder at the direction of the card issuing bank after a dispute from a customer.

Chargeback period

The customer has 6 months to dispute a transaction in many cases. If you offer subscription services, the situation is even worse as the chargeback can still be made 6 months after the end of the subscription and for the full subscription amount.

How does the chargeback process work?

1.    Customer lodges complaint with card issuing bank
2.    Bank researches the issue
3.    Bank debits merchant account and credits cardholder
4.    Merchant account provider sends you documentation
5.    You can then challenge the chargeback by providing suitable evidences as to why the transaction was valid.
6.    Further evidence may then be required, or a decision is made.
7.    In the even the chargeback challenge is successful, cardholder is debited again
8.    If the chargeback challenge ultimately fails, merchant is charged a chargeback fee along with having refunded the purchase.

Due to the to and fro with evidence requests and counter challenges, it can literally take months to resolve a chargeback one way or another.  It’s a frustrating, time-sucking and life wasting affair.

Chargeback danger levels

If your chargeback level is too high, you can lose your merchant account. Usually the danger figure is around 1% of transactions. However, this can mean  1% of transaction *value*. If you have lots of small sales and few large ones; and one of the large sales is charged back, that can threaten your merchant account!

Losing your merchant account is not only a short term problem, but it’s a bit like having a criminal record – you’ll find it harder to get another account and could possibly have to swallow higher processing fees.

The costs of chargebacks

Chargeback fees are usually around the $30 mark. That’s rather nasty, but then there’s all the time you spend in dealing with the issue too; plus also the loss of the sale itself where there may not be goods involved or the good are not returned. Even if your chargeback levels don’t quite hit the 1% level, your merchant account provider may get jittery and up your transaction fees. Every chargeback inches you closer towards such a situation.

Preventing chargebacks

While you can challenge chargebacks, prevention is better than cure, particularly when you understand that the way the chargeback system works is in favor of the customer – and is abused. Here’s a few tips to minimise the number of chargebacks you’ll see and things that will help you when you receive them.

Accurate marketing

If you’re exaggerating or simply misleading people in your marketing, expect a ton of chargebacks. Keep things above board.

Fraud

Fraud is a major reason for chargebacks – so ensure you have the proper screening processes in place. You should also ensure you use CVV2 on your order forms, also known as the Card Security Code (CSC). The CVV2 number isn’t included on the magnetic stripe of the card; so if card numbers are stolen, without the CVV2 number, there’s less of a chance they’ll be used successfully in fraud.

Refund policy

Refund policies can be quite contentious critters with some companies adding in all sorts of conditions. Wherever you can, be as flexible as possible with refunds as it’s cheaper to refund than to deal with a chargeback. A solid refund policy can also help boost your sales.

Communications

Offer multiple points of contact, clearly posted on your site. It’s unusual for a customer to engage the chargeback process without having first tried to contact the merchant and it’s something that the card issuing bank will usually advise them to do first.

A sure way to see more chargebacks is to not respond promptly to customer complaints or support requests; so ensure that it’s easy for people to contact you and that you do check and respond to your email regularly.

Always provide invoices and receipts to customers that very clearly state the business name that will also appear on the statement  – it helps the customer to recognize your company name when they see the charge on their credit card statement and lessens the chances that they will think it’s a fraudulent transaction.

It’s also crucial your contact details on file with your merchant account provider are current as chargeback notifications are usually sent via fax or snail mail unfortunately – and often they are delayed.

Clear terms of service

Be very clear in your terms about issues relating to cancellation, refunds and the way your services and/or products are provided. Any grey area that’s challenged will likely work against you.

Record keeping

You need to keep a copy of all receipts and communications with a customer as these may be valuable evidence in a chargeback challenge.

Be civil

You need to be professional in all communications with your customers. If you’re aggressive, this can work against you in a chargeback review. Even if the customer is being totally unreasonable and rude themselves; stay calm – their behavior will work against them.

Be thorough in challenges

A chargeback notice will contain specific instruction on what you need to provide in order to challenge it. Read these notices carefully as failure to supply the  information will just waste time and money as the review will be delayed. If you’re unable to provide a particular item; call the merchant account provider for advice – they may offer ideas as to what other forms of evidence would be acceptable.

For online merchants, chargebacks are a particularly threatening problem, mainly because the cardholder signature isn’t provided. In many ways, the banking and credit card system is still quite antiquated. Until such time that the card industry is dragged screaming into the 21st century on these issues, merchants just need to cover as many bases as they can.

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Michael Bloch: PCI Compliance – what Australian Online Businesses Need to Know

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

credit-cardUp until late 2006, PCI compliance was only compulsory for merchants capturing credit card data on their sites and processing more than 20,000 transactions a year; or having been identified previously as a security risk.

PCI compliance for all Australian merchants capturing credit card data from their sites for Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Financial Services transactions became compulsory way back in September 2006; but many still don’t know what it actually is, let alone how to implement it. This is no fault of business owners, but it just appears that the financial institutions in Australia have had challenges getting the right information through.

With credit card data theft from large companies and organizations continuously hitting the headlines in Australia; card issuers are now demanding more from ecommerce merchants, large and small, to ensure that transactions occurring via their sites are secure. They’ve created what’s known as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) or PCI compliance for short. This isn’t just an Australian initiative, it’s been implemented globally.

The Risks of Non-Compliance

Australian online store owners who are obligated to implement a PCI compliance program and don’t become compliant may find themselves without the ability to process transactions or may face fines from the card company in a situation where security is breached. Additionally, the added protection that being PCI compliant provides can prevent damage to your business reputation and legal action by decreasing the chance of breach of your systems.

Unfortunately, achieving compliance is not something you’ll be able to do totally on your own as PCI compliancy requires scanning and verification by an authorized 3rd party.

It all sounds quite frightening if you haven’t been through it before and while it is a somewhat time consuming exercise and can be costly depending on the vendor you select, the process isn’t as difficult as you might expect – but much of the complexity will also depend on the third party scanning vendor you engage. You should really shop around for deals on PCI compliance because you’ll find huge variations on price and support.

What’s Involved With PCI Compliance?

PCI compliance is a set of security precautions that must be implemented to provide maximum protection of sensitive information during any credit card transaction. The compliance criteria include specific auditing processes, some of which are automated, the others requiring some action on the part of the merchant. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is referenced by all credit card issuers.

PCI compliance for most online businesses, that is merchants processing up to 6 million transactions a year, consists of two main elements:

  1. An automated scan of your site and the server you’re hosted on by an authorized scanning vendor every 3 months
  2. Yearly self assessment questionnaire

Quarterly PCI Compliance Scan

The scanning vendor you select will execute a range of automated tests against your web site and the server it’s hosted on and then provide a report. The scans test for hundreds of different security issues.

The report will contain a great deal of detail; much of it in technical jargon, highlighting potential problem areas in relation to severity. Depending on the issues flagged, it may be just an advisory on how you can improve your security; but there may also be critical items that prevent your site from being PCI compliant.

A good vendor with then work with you and your web hosting company if necessary to help you address those issues. Chances are, if you are hosted on a shared server with other accounts, server based issues affecting your compliancy will affect all other clients on the server, so it’s in the host’s best interest to deal wit the issues.

PCI Compliance Self Assessment

In addition to the scan, you’ll also need to a self assessment questionnaire; a sample of which can be viewed here (PDF). It consists of the following requirement sections:

  1. Build and maintain a secure network
  2. Protect and maintain client data
  3. Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program
  4. Implement Strong Access Control Measures
  5. Regularly Monitor and Test Networks

Many merchants may find the form quite off-putting given some of the jargon in the self assessment, but again, a good PCI compliance vendor will assist you with completing this form.

The Benefits of PCI Compliance

While all this may seem to be an utter pain to do, there are real benefits from achieving PCI compliance, including

  • Your scanning vendor will give you a seal you can display on your site; a great reassurance to potential customers that you are able to secure their details. Many merchants experience a boost in sales when displaying recognized seals.

  • You’ll feel better knowing that your platform is secure to industry standards.

  • You will be actively helping in the fight against fraud.

  • You will help to lift the general reputation of ecommerce – and that benefits the entire industry.

Scanning Vendors

There are a wide range of choices available; some costing far more than others and doing essentially the same thing. Remember to shop around and that you don’t have to find an authorized scanning service in Australia as the PCI standards are global. All PCI scans must be executed by a compliant network security scanning vendor – a list of approved vendors can be found at https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/

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Useful Articles: About Us Benefits

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

taming-the-beastMany small online business owners don’t say much about themselves on their web sites and the “about us” page can often be very vague, reading something along these lines:

“Established in 2005, Example.com offers the very best Flombles at the cheapest prices. Rest assured when you buy from us, you’re buying quality. We are experts in the field of Flombles… blah, blah, blah”.

This type of thing can be found on thousands of sites – but it really is just fluff and puffery. It says nothing about you and can cost you sales as it has zero credibility.

The vagueness may be for reasons of privacy, but if you’re wanting people to purchase your goods and services, they need to be able to trust you won’t just grab their money and run. There needs to be a human connection.

Small businesses with few staff that thrive do so mainly due to the “personal” vibe they cultivate with their clients. In fact, the personal touch allows them to charge far higher prices than the big box competitors and still survive. We purchase from small business services as we know the owners or staff – we trust them as humans, rather than as a business name.

When I ran my mobile computer services business back in the mid 90’s (I had no shopfront), most of my customers already had a fairly good idea what type of computer they wanted and how much they wanted to spend. What they were unsure of was who to trust. I spent as much time selling myself as I did the products. The fact that I visited them in their own homes played a big role in my success as the customer felt empowered being on their own turf.

We don’t have that sort of face to face in the online world, but the “About Us” page is an excellent means of selling yourself and it should be considered one of the most important pages on your site.

Here’s how to structure a good “About us” page

Aside from the general “we’re the best” blather (and keep that side of things subtle), include a few paragraphs about yourself and your team.

Remember to include the following points

1. A photo of yourself/your team helps people to connect to you as a human being rather than just as words on a page. It has an added benefit when you are communicating with potential customers via email as they’ll be able to put a face to the name

2. List your experience in your area of business – don’t hide your candle under a bushel, but by the same token; try not to go overboard or exaggerate your experience.

3. Reveal some (positive) personality traits, hobbies or pursuits to potential customers that translate directly to your business. For example, let’s say you sell surfboards – if you’re a member of any surf club; mention that.

4. Your contact details. Invite your visitors to communicate with you – even if it’s just a link to your contact page.

5. Some of your plans for the future (relevant to your business)

If you are hesitant to provide those sort of details and arethat concerned about your privacy, it’s really time to get over it. Nice people like to do business with other nice people.

Don’t make the common mistake of trying to make your online business out to be a faceless international mega-corporation, because then you’ll be competing at that level – and you simply don’t have the resources to do so.

Selling you as much as your products is one of the secrets to success in small online business.

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