Chapter 19. Customer Service

In This Chapter

• How to service the customer before the sale

• How to service the customer during the sale

• How to service the customer after the sale

• How to deal with product returns

• How to handle disgruntled customers

A company's customer service permeates every stage of the buying process, not just when customers have order status questions or lodge a complaint. In addition, online customer service requires electronic assistance that can guide customers to a purchase. In the online world, shoppers can be easily frustrated by bad site design or the inability to find the right information to make a purchase decision.

To create a world-class customer service experience, you must respond to customers in a personalized, timely manner through the use of customer-service technology before, during, and after the sale. In brief, it's not customer service management, but customer relationship management.

So how do you build good customer service into your Web store? Easy. Walk a mile in your customer's shoes. Ask yourself, "What kinds of service would I expect before, during, and after a sale?" In this chapter, we look at the best approaches to make your Yahoo! store shine when servicing your shoppers.