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Title:
Customer Service on the Internet
Review:
This is not just another book on building your own website; it aims to take the issue of e-commerce one stage further, by discussing how internet companies can use the available technology to give themselves a competitive edge in excellent customer service.
The first half of the book is focussed on the need for good communication with lots of examples from real life of what can happen if it goes wrong. The second half deals more with new developments in web technology that more and more companies are harnessing for improving customer communications.
The book is well laid out and clear. It consists mainly of anecdotal evidence with frequent illustrations and several case studies of each point made, which makes it an easy, if repetitive read, with an understandably American bias. Jim Sterne gives many examples of companies that have got it wrong, and some that have pushed back the frontiers.
Some of the tools outlined to improve customer service are simple to put into place and require only an imaginative outlook from companies that already have an internet presence. These include: making the site easy to use and navigate, and including a FAQs section and learning from it.
The management of e mail and newsgroups is one of the most interesting sections in this book. Sterne suggests that companies should regularly monitor newsgroups to discover what people are saying about them, but also should participate proactively. He also recommends that companies should host their own newsgroups, bulletin boards and closed discussion lists, all of which give companies valuable product and service information.
Newer developments are also mentioned, such as dynamic services and extranets, all of which can be harnessed to improve customer communication.
Much of this book is common sense. It reiterates constantly the message that it is important to communicate with customers; to encourage them to communicate with you, and to respond promptly and efficiently when they do so. What is different is that the author takes those tried and tested marketing principles of two way communication with customers, and puts them into an Internet context, arguing that it is vital to keep up with technological changes that allow new ways of interacting with the customer. The book does not set out to be a technical manual of how to put these concepts into place. It simply suggests and exemplifies useful tools.
There is a great deal of padding in this book, and huge chunks are little more than extended advertising for the author's consultancy, but the basic premise is sound; the Internet is a great opportunity to interact, and it is all too easy to get it wrong. Most of the ideas can and should be put easily into place by companies with any sort of Internet presence.
Free Pint Reviewer:
Diana Nutting initially qualified as a librarian. She spent her early career in academic libraries, including that of the Polytechnic of North London, then moved to Unilever where she worked in market intelligence. After managing the market intelligence units of JP Morgan and Parcelforce, she became Head of Marketing at the London East Training and Enterprise Council. Two years ago she set up her own marketing and market intelligence consultancy, which concentrates on providing hands on marketing advice and help to small but growing companies.
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