Posts Tagged ‘customer service’

eHarbor names final MVPs of 2009

Friday, December 4th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

We’ve had quite a few MVPs in 2009. MVPs are eHarbor, Inc. employees who go above and beyond their normal job requirements to accomplish something extraordinary. This month, eHarbor’s leaders selected winners for both November and December in preparation for the big announcement on December 10.

On December 10, at the Hawaiian Christmas Party in the Provo City Library, we’ll find out who is the MVP for the whole year. They’ll select someone from all of the MVPs who’ve been named in 2009. But that’s the topic of a whole other blog entry. For now, I’ll talk about November’s and December’s MVPs.

We had one winner for November and two for December. Designer James Gentry is the November MVP, and Developer Matt Walker and Customer-Support Representative David Smith are the December MVPs.

I can’t take credit for writing all of these MVP descriptions. I wrote the one on David while my coworkers Alyssa Udall and Britnee Nguyen wrote the spotlights on Matt and James, respectively. Britnee was actually last month’s MVP. You can read about her in my blog entry, “eHarbor MVP creates 6-month PR plan.”

On with the MVPs!

James Gentry
eHarbor, Inc. MVP James GentryWith hard work and dedication, James has really made an impression on his coworkers and earned the November MVP! Recent changes to the Design team opened up a position for a design manager, which James was unanimously appointed to.

Coworkers say that James “stepped in greatly” with his new promotion and continues to “go above and beyond and is always available to help and give his advice.” This new position enables him to “make sure customers are happy and that our Design team stays happy with their work,” his team leader said.

He loves recording and mixing music, eating peanut butter M&Ms, tacos, watching the shows 30 Rock and Community, and his favorite color is #669900… green.

Matt Walker
eHarbor, Inc. MVP Matt WalkerMatt’s Web-development skills have been valuable to eHarbor for the last three years he’s worked here. Matt’s the recipient, along with David, of the December MVP award for his combination of working hard behind the scenes and being a nice guy.

With the other developers, he’s been keeping things running smoothly throughout the company. He’s also a friendly guy who assists new coworkers around the office. “Matt always does such great work and is always so nice and pleasant to work with!” said one of his nominations.

Matt enjoys programming, which is a good thing since it’s his job, but he also likes to read, write and play video games. His favorite movie is Dead Poets Society and his favorite dessert is chocolate velvet. You can catch him watching Mythbusters and Doctor Who on TV or eating sushi at Sakura.

David Smith
eHarbor, Inc. MVP David SmithDavid works hard to give top-quality customer service to everyone who calls in. He goes the extra mile in helping customers by answering people’s questions thoughtfully and following up to make sure they are satisfied with their custom Internet-marketing solutions. Well done, Dave!

His favorite candy is Reese’s Pieces and his favorite food is gum. Interesting. Like James, his favorite color is green… forest green. For fun, he enjoys working on cars and playing sports, as well as listening to bands like Weezer, Pearl Jam and Saves the Day. His favorite movies are V for Vendetta and Gladiator, and his favorite TV show is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

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Successful Twitter strategy: Tweet less

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

By Robert Lockard

I know it sounds counterintuitive, but according to one blogger, the key to getting more website traffic from your Twitter account is to tweet less frequently. Of course, Dan Zarrella is not just any blogger – he’s a self-proclaimed social media and viral marketing scientist. That’s a pretty cool title.

Twitter birds - eHarbor eCommerce BlogIn his blog entry, “Want More Clicks? Tweet Less,” Zarrella made the bold statement, “If you want your Tweet to get noticed and ReTweeted, you should slow down your posting rate.” Twitter is all about speed, though. It’s an instant message service. Why would a smart blogger suggest you slow down your tweeting?

According to this study, Twitter users who only tweet one link an hour have a much higher rate of getting that link retweeted than those who post two, three or 13 links an hour. The same is true for days. One link a day gets a better click-through rate and more retweets than multiple links a day.

What does all this mean? I’ll try to interpret. I think it means Twitter users can tell the difference between people sharing genuinely interesting news, ideas or offers and robots or marketers who are just trying to sell their products through Twitter. Twitter users like people who listen as well as share. That’s called a conversation, and it’s what customers expect more and more from ecommerce companies in our current marketplace.

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Social Media Blog on Submit Solution on December 7, 2009. That blog entry is called, “Tweet less to gain more success.” The photo of the birds on a fence is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Sister72. Keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for great discussions like this.

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Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment »

Protect yourself with a strong website disclaimer

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

In Internet marketing, your website can be your first and best defense against lawsuits or it can be a huge liability. It depends on how strong your disclaimers are and how carefully you check to make sure your statements are all factual and ethical.

Zombie warning sign

I bring this up because I just read an eye-opening article on InfoWeek’s website, entitled “Website disclaimers – yes, they do work.” In that piece, author Guy Burgess describes a recent case in New Zealand where an ecommerce website had given customers the wrong impression about the soundness of some of the companies it advertised.

A customer sued the website owners when he received the short end of the stick on a deal with one of the companies the website advertised. But a judge ruled in favor of the owners because they had included a provision on their website to protect themselves. The judge found the owners to be both negligent in their faulty information and protected by their admission that their site didn’t have all the information customers would want to make a final decision.

We all make mistakes, and it’s unfortunate when others are negatively affected by our errors. If we want strong relationships with our customers, we have to make sure our ecommerce websites are accurate and that our products or services are as good as we say they are.

You can read the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Website Design Services Blog. The photo of the zombie warning sign is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of rchurch74.

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Posted in Web Design | 1 Comment »

eHarbor MVP gives great customer care

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Derek Anderson, a customer-service representative at eHarbor, Inc., was named eHarbor’s Most Valuable Player at our monthly company-wide meeting on Monday, August 3, 2009.

eHarbor MVP: Derek AndersonSince coming to eHarbor three months ago, Derek has worked tirelessly to give our clients excellent support when they call in with questions. In fact, in July he set the record for taking the most calls in a single day: more than 150. Amazing. Customer service is important at eHarbor and its subsidiaries. I discussed how essential it is to take care of ecommerce customers in my blog entry, “Angry ecommerce customers fight back on Twitter.” Good customer care can make the difference between success and failure in any industry, but particularly online.

Returning to Derek, he is quite competitive, and not just in his work. He enjoys a good sporting event with coworkers and other friends. And he usually wins. Congratulations on this award, Derek!

This is the second time I’ve spotlighted the eHarbor MVP. You might remember last month’s winner, Alisha Walton. You can read about her remarkable story in my blog entry, “eHarbor June MVP returns to work after breaking her neck.” We have many great employees to spotlight. I’ll keep you posted on them at the start of each month.

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Posted in eHarbor | 2 Comments »

Angry ecommerce customers fight back on Twitter

Monday, July 27th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Customer retention has always been an important part of business, but it is even more essential for survival in the world of ecommerce. I read an eye-opening E-Commerce Times article, entitled, “Mapping Out an Effective Online Customer Retention Strategy,” that really laid out the situation.

Dog jumping in San Francisco

I’ve talked a lot about using social-media websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, to spread the word about your online business. These, combined with search engine optimization, are powerful Internet marketing tools. However, they can also be used against you by disappointed customers with an ax to grind.

Word of mouth used to be the most-effective and least-expensive way to market a company’s products or services. But today, anyone with online access can easily send a message about a company, whether good or bad, and have it seen by hundreds or thousands of people.

This is an important topic, and this isn’t the first time I’ve talked about customer service on the eHarbor Blog. I mentioned some customers’ efforts to get even with companies they thought were unfair to them in the blog entry, “Do you hate customer service?” In that post, I talked in general about losing customers and how they often turn to social media to vent their frustrations. But now I can share specific statistics that show why it is so important to keep customers happy.

The E-Commerce Times article mentions some sobering statistics that add a sense of urgency to retaining online customers. I think it’s okay to republish them here because the article’s author was quoting from a book, “Leading on the Edge of Chaos.” Here they are:

- Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining current customers.

- The average company loses 10 percent of its customers each year.

- A 5-percent reduction in customer defection rate can increase profits by 25 percent to 85 percent, depending on the industry.

- The customer-profitability rate tends to increase over the life of a retained customer.

- A 2-percent increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10 percent.

Clearly, customer retention should be the focus of every business. Angry customers’ unfavorable words could influence a large number of people who might have otherwise become customers. If you keep your customers happy, they could share good stories about your company with their friends on social networks.

The photo of the dog catching a chicken in midair is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of mylerdude.

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Posted in Ecommerce, Social Media | 3 Comments »

Do you hate customer service?

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

By Robert Lockard

You’re not alone if you do. Customer service has gotten a bad name in recent years, but customers are trying to fight back. According to a CNN article, entitled “Customer service ‘vigilantes’ target executives,” customers who receive poor customer service from a company are turning to social media to vent their frustrations and get service.

"No Whining" customer service signThe CNN article includes several funny and interesting stories of people’s attempts to get the attention of companies’ management in order to solve a problem. One person tweeted an executive on Twitter, while another person made a YouTube video and sent it to a company to get a response. Some people taped conversations with customer-service representatives and posted them online. This could be good or bad, depending on your level of customer service.

Do you want to do business with a company that seems to ignore your service requests or that takes too long to respond to your messages? Customers want to be respected. Companies depend on happy customers to stay in business. Word of mouth is more powerful than almost any other form of persuasive communication, so it’s essential to cultivate positive feelings in customers so they will react positively to your brand when speaking with family members and friends.

This topic harkens back to my discussion of earning online shoppers trust. We must be vigilant if we want our customers to use our services or buy our products.

I think it’s strange that any company could forget to take care of its customers, since they ought to be their central focus. Perhaps stress, limited resources and other factors can lead to poor customer service, but companies that make an effort to please their customers and work out problems kindly often live longer than companies that don’t.

The extra effort is worth it.

So do you hate customer service? Hopefully, if you’re in the ecommerce industry, you love it. Even more than that, your customers should love your customer service.

eHarbor, Inc. prides itself on strong customer service. If you call us or any of our affiliates, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by our high level of care and attention.

The photo of the whining sign is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of yummiec00kies.

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Posted in Ecommerce, SEO | 2 Comments »

6 tips to earn online shoppers’ trust

Monday, May 18th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

A large number of consumers need more than promises of good deals to get them to shop online. According to a report by the Office of Fair Trading, a third of Internet users don’t trust websites enough to buy products on them.

Credit card shoved into a computerI read this in a BBC News article, entitled “Fear holding back online shopping,” which gave empirical evidence of a fact I had suspected. Twenty percent of potential online consumers said they don’t use shop online because they might put themselves at risk for identity theft or other dangers. Another 15 percent said they don’t trust online retailers enough to do business with them.

This topic goes right along with my eHarbor Blog entry on the disadvantages of ecommerce, such as consumers’ inability to touch products they see online like they can at shopping centers.

Just because technology has improved our ability to market to consumers doesn’t mean we will always reach them. Identity theft has become quite sophisticated and prevalent in our digital age, putting smart consumers on the lookout and retailers on the defensive.

We must earn our customers’ trust. How do we do this? Here are six suggestions:

  1. Include testimonials of satisfied customers who can vouch for your products and services. You might be surprised how willing happy customers are to speak highly of you on your website.
  2. Provide secure payment methods, using credible sources. I’m not going to advertise any here, but do a Google search and you’ll find a number of good ones.
  3. Tell customers the actions you take to preserve their security. Don’t assume they know all the trouble you go through to make sure they’re not improperly charged. You can include a prominent link to this section on the billing page.
  4. Make sure your customer service is top-notch. If your service staff is readily available, knowledgeable and helpful, you’ll be able to resolve problems and help customers develop confidence that you have their best interests at heart.
  5. Put a face on your website. People tend to feel more comfortable doing business with a person rather than a faceless organization. If you can put yourself or a spokesman out front to build credibility, you might be able to win over more customers.
  6. Keep your promises. If you make bold claims, make sure you can back them up with impressive actions. Words are good, but they must be built on the truth to foster trust.

Those are my suggestions on how to build trust. Don’t be afraid to take a chance and do something inventive to earn your customers’ confidence and, thus, their business. Consumers are holding back a lot of their money as they weather the recession, so you’ll need to be creative and forthright to win them over.

By the way, some good news from the BBC news article is that the amount of online shoppers who feel just as comfortable shopping online as at a store increased from 26 percent in 2006 to 54 percent in 2009. This is a welcome trend.

The photo of a credit card in a computer is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of garethjmsaunders.

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Posted in Ecommerce | 3 Comments »