For better or worse, electronic commerce is changing the relationship between consumers and vendors. It's often for the worse in customer service.
To make E-commerce work, one must be sensitive to the customer's experience. A customer who bought insurance from you and has a question should be answered in a nanosecond-and will be disappointed if you respond in a less timely manner. Even a day is really too long.
An instant response is only one of the new expectations brought about by the Internet; if customers can't ask for help, you stand a good chance of losing them. When I see a Web site with no street address or telephone number, I get suspicious. I assume that the company is too cheap or too uncaring to allow me to connect directly with them. My experience bears this out. I recently bought several products that didn't work as advertised. E-mail was my only recourse, but I found that it often took several days to get an answer. No matter how carefully I crafted my question, I always received a stock E-mailed response.
E-mail provides no way to have a dialog with the customer service rep-a process that's essential when trying to solve a problem. And 'emoticons'-those little expressions of emotion typed into a message using standard keyboard characters-are no balm for the frustration I feel when I can't get some much-needed help.
My advice is to make cyberspace a tool rather than a trial when it comes to customer service. Don't just shoot back stock answers, especially if the customer has carefully outlined the problem. It's rude to treat customers as categories rather than individuals. At least tack on a personalized comment to a canned response. Post all your stock answers in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) link on your Web site. That may save you the expense of having to reply at all.
But remember: Trimming customer service costs is only profitable if you keep your customers. If the humans you're dealing with can't connect with a person, they won't want to connect with your company. During these pioneer days of E-commerce, most online buyers are nervous about getting slighted. Paying special attention to service and courtesy will be gratefully received and remembered.