Online Customer Service Fahri Karakaya, Ph. D. Professor of Marketing Director, S. E. Mass. eCommerce Network University of Massachusetts Dartmouth F. Karakaya

Online Customer Satisfaction Shopping Factors Convenience Trust Delivery Technology Factors Security Usability & Design Privacy Product Characteristics Merchandising Product value Product Customization SOURCE: Schaupp L. Christian and Belanger France, 2005, A Conjoint Analysis of Online Consumer Satisfaction, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 6, No. 2

Previous Research There is relationship between service quality and firm profitability. Perceived high levels of service quality increases customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. Satisfied customers are less sensitive to price increases. Components of online service quality include: --Customized service --Descriptive information --Ease of contact --Delivery / Shipping / tracking F. Karakaya

Source: Zee-Sun Yun, Linda K. Good. (2007). Developing customer loyalty from e-tail store image attributes. Managing Service Quality, 17(1), 1-22.

Types of Online Customer Service FAQs – customers may find answers! Updating the information is important Online messenger – video, voice or just text chat Which method is most effective? --Depends on individual customer preferences! F. Karakaya

Cognitive Lock-In Internet has reduced customer switching costs! In general, customer remain loyal to web sites they have used before. WHY? COGNITIVE LOCK-IN (Johnson, Bellman, and Lohse (2003), Journal of Marketing. People learn how to use a web site and trust the web site they have used before. There is cost of switching from one web site to another! This cost is mainly the time involved in learning about the new web site and the trust! F. Karakaya

Cognitive Lock-In Expedia.com vs. Travelocity.com Online banking – set up of payments and your preferences! Information stored on the web site you have used influences you to use the same web site again! – Web site loyalty! F. Karakaya

Designing Web sites with customers in mind Usability and customer experience – Download speed! Online shoppers are not the most patient people! High speed Internet is here, but many people still use dialup Internet access. In most cases, if a page is not loaded in 5-10 seconds, customers move on to a competitors site. Pictures need to be optimized to minimize download speed F. Karakaya

Designing Web sites with customers in mind Web site navigation - pages need to be clean and simple - not busy and easy to move from one page to another Search (FIND) function in web sites is important for people who are busy! Update your web site regularly - Use a content management system to add new products, change prices, upload pictures, and provide other information. F. Karakaya

Designing Web sites with customers in mind Payment system - need a merchant banking account and make sure it is secure - more importantly, customers need to feel their transactions are safe - Most customers now know what is a secure site (Http vs. Https and security lock sign) Allow customers to check out without registering with your web site F. Karakaya

Designing Web sites with customers in mind Allow customers to get answers to their questions through FQA, Provide detailed product information, to customer service option, Chat with customer service representatives option, and telephone numbers (specify the number - do not use letters instead of numbers) F. Karakaya

Designing Web sites with customers in mind Have phone numbers and contact details on every page or have a special page for contact information on sidebar. Order Fulfillment & follow-through - --confirmation s, --an automated shipping/tracking system, --prompt delivery, and -- satisfaction surveys build customer loyalty and trust F. Karakaya

Designing Web sites with customers in mind Tracking visitors: --How many hits per day? --How many repeat visitors? --Busiest time and days? --where they come from? --pages visited? --how much time they spend on each page? --how many people actually leave their shopping carts without purchasing? F. Karakaya

Designing Web sites with customers in mind Test your web site's usability! How long does it take for a page to load? Can the users navigate easily back and forth from one page to another? Can the users easily find a previous page they were looking at? Use different speeds, different computers, and different web browsers, and different operation systems (PC vs. Apple - Internet explorer vs. Firefox vs. Safari, Windows vs. Vista vs. Mac OSX) F. Karakaya

Visit customer venting sites and read what unsatisfied customers say about you. Victims of Expedia.com Travelwatchdog.com F. Karakaya

Designing Web sites with customers in mind Here are some web links about good web sites and online customer service The Forbes link consists of top websites in different categories like top 12 websites for holiday shoppers. Time.com - 25 Sites We Can't Live Without The link below from BestBuy provides different options to customers, for knowing the opinions (of other customers) before buying the product, and after-sales customer service (online customer service). A web site providing information on 12 Internet Customer Retention Tactics Best Practices – Online Customer Service F. Karakaya