The Ultimate Online Customer Service Guide: How to Connect with your Customers to Sell More!

by Marsha Collier

Make your online customers happy—and create new ones—with this winning guide

Social media gives you an unparalleled vehicle for connecting and engaging with an unlimited number of customers. Yet this vehicle is different than other, more impersonal forms. With social media, reps become part of their customers' lives. They follow back. They handle complaints immediately. They wish customers "happy birthday." They grow their brands by involving themselves in communities.

The Ultimate Online Customer Service Guide gives you the keys to authentic and engaged service to customers through social media. Using a blend of case studies, a primer on classic online customer service, and instructions on how to execute quality customer service, this book enables you to access the opportunities that social media presents as a means of serving customers.

Authentically use social media to connect with customers to boost your bottom line Attract new customers through your online presence Achieve higher GMS (Gross Merchandise Sales) with quality customer service

Social media gives you a new and growing realm to distinguish your business. Create a productive presence in this interactive space with The Ultimate Online Customer Service Guide.

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 15, 2010

Reviews

[Cynthia Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read! The book had some great points about staying on top of current trends, interacting on social media, and the importance of responding to your Contact Us methods! Worth a look!

[Blog on Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

eBay marketing expert and author Marsha Collier returns to bookstores with “The Ultimate Online Customer Service Guide: How to Connect with Your Customers to Sell More” (Wiley). In it, Collier, a long time internet user (can you say UseNet?) shows readers how the old adage “the customer is king” can be applied in the modern-day marketplace. We’ve all heard the stories of how certain companies aided their customer relationships by creating a robust online feedback loop (famously Comcast, Zappos, etc.) but Collier explains just how every business, large or small, can benefit from the new world of social communication. Collier explains how to build customer relationships, not just on your dedicated website, but how to interact with users on various platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Posterous and the latest geo-tagging sites like Foursquare and Whrrl. Maintenance and tone are important ingredients in Collier’s customer service recipe and she even goes so far as to describe the habits of all the various demographic groups and sub-groups (GenMix) along with examples from companies that work well in this arena (Dell, JetBlue) to those who got stuck behind the curve (NASCAR). Read, learn, engage.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

What does a business need to know to be effective online? Collier explains it thoroughly, based on her own experience as a retailer and consultant dating back to the initial days of online commerce. The book is filled with plenty of solid advice about communicating genuinely and quickly. What I appreciated most was the variety of historical examples she provides, referencing both well known and local firms that have succeeded in their markets.

[Dan Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good checklist of customer service touch points to watch out for online but I didn't find any really interesting data backed studies. Mostly anecdotal information.