Interact with Customers & Grow Your Business

Interacting with your customers and buyers was fairly difficult for ecommerce businesses in the not-too-distant past. Short of surveys most people don’t want to take the time to fill out, in many cases a netrepreneur with an online store only heard from a buyer when there was a problem.

Obviously, this left much to be desired, and was sometimes a case of shutting the barn door after the horse was already out.

If an ecommerce business owner is able to keep a finger on the general pulse of the average buyer, and find out which products are causing problems, it might be possible to take steps to either discontinue the product, or improve it in order to improve buyer satisfaction.

We live in a hectic, fast-paced world. Very few people want to make a phone call, even if it’s toll free, and risk being put on hold indefinitely and then still never connecting with a real, live human.

Smart businesses are adding User Forums to their websites so that buyers or shoppers can get on there and actually connect with someone to ask a question, make a comment, or just read and research to see what others are saying about a particular product.

The best forums have moderators from the business itself who periodically check the message boards for issues they need to address.

Another great idea is to use Twitter, MySpace or Facebook to interact and connect with your customer or potential customers.

A lot of ecommerce businesses are doing this and are reporting it hugely successful in terms of really getting a feel for what buyers are thinking and experiencing with their products and websites.

Making your business advisers (or yourself) more accessible to customers is good business strategy for several reasons:

• It makes you and/or your business more “real” to the customer.

• It can save a world of frustration if the customer has a problem and will often make the difference between gaining or losing a repeat buyer.

• It’s great PR and word-of-mouth advertising!

So, don’t be inaccessible to your customers. If you are, take immediate steps to get in the loop.

You can accomplish this without spending a penny and it will reap you rewards that will add up to more money in sales!