Customer Service on the Internet Building Relationships Increasing Loyalty and Staying Competitive 2nd Edition
August 31, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
As businesses have overcome technical, financial, and promotional hurdles to developing online commerce, they are now confronted with the core issue of all businesses in a competitive market: providing quality and cost-effective customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Jim Sterne, who led the pack in the earlier stages of Net commerce with his book World Wide Web Marketing, has written a book that every company using the Net should consider giving to every employee involved in online commerce. Contains great practical information, case studies of companies that have paid attention to online customer service (and are doing well because of this attention), and an appreciation for the critical edge provided by caring about your customers.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars good information
has wide info about customer service in internet. but not exactly what i’m looking: how to build customer service web based application. but the book gave me some insight on situation around servicing customer in internet.
5 Stars It’s Customer Service, Jim, but not as we know it…
One of the most unpredictable things the Internet achieved was to re-define customer service. One of the first people to notice and to write a book about how to do it in the mid-1990s was Jim Sterne. It’s just been updated in this second edition.
In the real world, you can pay lip service to customer service and the resultant damage is hidden in the anonymous attrition of customers wandering away to the competition with a sigh and a shake of the head.
The Internet, however, is a ruthless amplifier of weakness in business process. Answer a snail mail letter from a customer within two weeks and they might be satisfied. Fail to answer the email the same customer sends you from your website within four hours and they’re already fuming at you for your disinterest in them. As all those surveys about customer dis-satisfaction with websites relentlessly show, it’s about service, stupid.
Before going further, I have to declare a bias here: I first became a fan of Jim Sterne when I saw him give a talk in which he illustrated how to use interactivity and personalisation to achieve web `stickiness’. Sterne chose the unlikely-sounding Clairol site - the hair and beauty products company. It allows you to post a digital photo of yourself on the site and then try on several different hairstyles.
The hairstyles come in the form of `virtual wigs’ that you stick on your digital head. Sterne had tested the site and showed his audience the result, throwing up a slide of himself, bearded, tie-and-jacket-wearing, grinning defiantly from underneath a long blonde wig. It took several minutes for the audience to recover.
Sterne’s wit and his relentless honesty are a powerful combination and come through in this book as much as in person, to make this an entertaining as well as informative read. Honesty? Too many Internet authors revel in complexity. Sterne de-mystifies and de-bunks, using an intentionally na?ve-looking approach.
For example, in the book he asks a couple of experts to explain what the modish CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is all about, allowing the differences in their answers, which he produces verbatim, to show that the software industry is all over the place in trying to define CRM, energetically re-branding everything in sight. Salesforce Automation? Nah, that was last year. This year we’re calling it CRM…
As well as offering unbiased commentary to help you steer through the maze of software and solutions on offer from the IT vendor community, Sterne takes you step by step through the basics, with impressive attention to detail.
The chapter on managing email, for example, is forty-five pages long and packed with examples of how to get it right (and wrong).
What makes the nuts and bolts `how tos’ in this book so compelling is the lacerating wit that Sterne uses to deal with those who get it wrong. There’s a four-page evisceration of Volvo Cars, for example, for consistently failing to allow customers to email complaints about their cars through the company’s website. Sterne catalogues the failures mercilessly, before concluding: “Volvo has tried to open a receptive ear to the public, but it forgot the Q-Tips”.
As well as acting as a manual for developing effective email practises, the book shows you in detail the best ways of approaching now traditional customer help mechanisms like Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQs), how to let customers talk to each other to provide you with vital market knowledge, how to practise personalisation and get to know customers as individuals, and - all-importantly - how to develop measurements that allow you to translate the success of your customer service initiatives into loyalty and retention figures that the Finance Director will listen to.
If you want to learn from Jim face to face, and can make it to London this Fall, Jim will be giving two Masterclasses on 11 and 12 October 2000 on how to do this Internet customer service stuff better. (Email Phil@eCustomerServiceWorld.com for details). I was hoping to conclude with a criticism - that the built-in problem with a book like this is that it becomes redundant as soon as it is in print, as the toddler that is web customer service grows up fast to become a spotty adolescent. The past couple of months, for example, have seen a wave of `assisted buying’ software solutions break onto the market which further blur the sales/service departmental divide (a functional business divide that is everywhere in the real world but which, as Sterne shows, does not translate to the Web).
But, there are too many universal fundamentals covered in this book for that criticism to hold true. And, as hard as I tried to find examples of outdated material, this is one of those rarities, a thoroughly updated second edition of a book.
4 Stars For specialist and for beginners
I think that this book is really, really useful for peopleworking in Customer Service Deps of firms dealing with the USA market(according to Cross Cultural Managemet rules, there are some differences on how You have to run a customer service dep:it dipend by the market You are dealing with, and this books is, in my opinion, very useful for firms dealing in the USA market) Not only Customer Service rules, but tons of examples (i.e. there are a lot of links to e-firms, how their Customer Service works, and so) I’m Italian and I manage the Customer Service dept of […]; I think that, thanks to Jim Sterne, the quality of our Customer Service will surely improve: thank You!
1 Star DotCom 1.0 doesn’t cut it 8 years on
As a historical snapshot this book is great. Written in 2000, it captures the vibe of the late 90’s dotcom period well. The sense of excitement, possible new busines models, and latest quotes from experts (all dated to the day in 1999) really took me back.
What this book didn’t do was give me a sense of how online customer care operates (and can operate) in 2008. The illustrations of web pages and technologies in the book only served to show me how much things have moved on in the last 9 years. While the principles of customer contact are timeless, this book is seriously dated. If, like me, you are looking for a book that identifies what the current state of online customer contact is, and how things might evolve going forward, then this book is way past it’s use by date.
4 Stars A good starting point
One of a very limited number of titles, as far as Internet customer service is concerned, a good starting point for throwing up ideas, although I felt it lacked a basic frame for somebody who was new to the net and looking to establish customer service procedures. As with any text written about technology, one would have to question how current the information was, although I apreciate this would be out of the control of the author. My only other problem was that I thought allot of time was dedicated to the interests of large firms, for example a big section was dedicated to setting up and monitoring disscusion groups, important and usefull sources of information yes, but not a realistic part of a website for a small company, more your major computer business etc. All in all though considering the limited number of titles available, (about two as I write this, including this one) if you have a spare ?20 its better than nothing!
The Complete Guide to Successful eMail Marketing Campaigns
August 31, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
Internet Direct Mail The Complete Guide to Successful E Mail Marketing Campaigns
Direct marketing via the Internet is the best way to avoid the rising printing and mailing costs of traditional direct mail. Plus, it’s more effective! An online campaign will often turn a profit even if the entire mailing produces only 1 percent response or less! If you’re ready to try e-mail marketing, or if you’re already doing it and want to know more, Internet Direct Mail has all the information you need. From selecting products and offers to writing copy and incorporating rich media-like video clips or audio into an e-mail, Internet Direct Mail shows you step by step how to create, send, and track a highly successful e-mail campaign. This guide also includes the authors’ carefully compiled, invaluable lists of resources for:
- E-mail list brokers and service bureaus
- Credit card companies and corporations offering merchants accounts
- Books and software on Web marketing
- Online advertising services
Internet Direct Mail offers insight, advice, and step-by-step assistance from seasoned direct-marketing professionals who have experienced great success with Internet campaigns. Their expert guidance will help you make sound decisions about your offer, your creative, your list, your fulfillment, your method of measurement, and many other issues–allowing you to start and run a smooth, professional, results-oriented e-mail campaign.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Great book for a new marketing medium
Any book that Bob Bly is associated with is bound to be good–no, great! And this one is no exception.
The author explores this new, exciting medium we call email and uncovers its powerful potential for direct response selling. It leads you through the basic techniques of marketing through email. What works and what doesn’t. Most importantly, it steers you clear of potential pitfalls inherent in this new medium–like how to avoid spamming, etc..
A great book on email marketing that is thorough, timely, and bound to become a classic in its field.
5 Stars Best E-Mail Marketing Book In Print
I bought this book because I know the authors by reputation. My company was a traditional mail order company. We used to sell all of our products through our printed catalog. The Internet has changed all of that. Half our budget is now dedicated to e-mail marketing.
I applied the Author’s recommendations and saw my e-mail response rates take off. On the most recent campaign, I saw a 247% lift in response resulting from the use of just one of their techniques.
The book is written in very clear and concise language. It’s methodical and step-by-step method worked wonders for my company’s program. I’ve read all the other books currently on the market, they just don’t compare. If you’re new to e-mail marketing or a serious pro, this book has information that you can put to use right away.
The tips and tricks in creating an e-mail program were dead on. I especially liked the chapters on the type of products that can be sold via the Internet and the characteristics of a successful Internet Buyer. The “Multi-Mailing” idea alone was worth the price of the book.
5 Stars These Authors Know Their Stuff!
These authors know their stuff. They’ve been very instrumental in helping Ancestry.com grow to over 320,000 paid subscribers over the past 18 months. Email Marketing is now one of our largest sources of subscriptions. I recommend this book for both beginner and expert alike.
5 Stars This is the definitive book on e-mail marketing
***** FIVE STARS***** Excellent….. If you are an executive looking for information on how email marketing will impact your business, you’ll want to read this book.
If you want to know how the pros are using email marketing buy this book.
It details the differences between opt in permission based lists, and SPAM, and how to avoid the pitfalls that can literally kill your business. It comes complete with information on where you can find the best email lists and email marketing services in the business.
It identifies the different types of copy, formatting, text Vs HTML, rich media, etc, and provides insight into which may be best for your business. I’ve been asking everyone about timing of our messages. No one was able to give me a clear answer that made any sense. This book gave me great insight into the time and day that is best for me to do my email transmissions… and the auothor’s information produced immediate positive results for us.
Aside from the practical knowledge, I also liked this book because the author’s share the latest thinking about where this medium is going, and what steps to take today to make sure that your business reaps the rewards of the future.
This book is not just for dot comers. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone involved in the sales and marketing of their company’s products and services.
This book is now the definitive resource on email marketing.
5 Stars Important Work - These authors have nailed it!
This book makes for some very compelling reading. It is not often that I read a book that delivers the goods… but these authors have nailed it. It uses both traditional and dot com companies to illustrate ways any company can leverage the Internet to gain customers at substantially reduced costs. This book has everything you need to implement a successful e-mail campaign. From how to identify good email lists to how to create the right message. Including dos and don’ts, front-end tips and back end response analysis. Has just the right balance of technical and practical information. I am a marketing manager working for a ‘Fortune 500′ company. The information in this book cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars to find out. Some things are so important, I wish I thought of them myself or discovered them sooner. I can’t wait to try some of these techniques out and see the effect on my next campaign. I am recommending this book to everyone I know. Buy it!
Web Commerce Unleashed
August 31, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
