Are you in business to conduct transaction based relationships?

or

Are you in business to build relationship based transactions?

If your answer was yes to the first question, we recommend that you invest your money somewhere other than the Internet. Everyone cannot offer the lowest prices. The lower your prices are, the higher your volume has to be. Eventually all of your competitors will be offering products below cost with free shipping and so will you! Ultimately, there will only be a few survivors in your category and most if not all of those companies won't be making a profit.

If your answer was yes to the second question, congratulations! You already have an idea how create a foundation for building long term business relationships. If you build the relationship first, the transactions will follow, not just one transaction but many transactions!

How can you build relationships with people or customers you never talk to? Here are the steps we recommend you implement.

1. Make your web site easy to use.

Nothing is more annoying to a customer than a web site that is difficult to place an order on. If your customers cannot complete their order in 4 - 5 screens or pages, then your shopping cart system is too difficult to use. Make sure the customer receives a copy of their order automatically once the order is placed.

2. Provide your customers with a confirmation message that the order has been received.

3. Provide your customers with a shipping confirmation message and a tracking number. (If you are using a shipping process that allows you to track the shipping status of orders).

4. Make your phone number highly visible on your web site.

Many Internet businesses think that they do not have to talk to customers because they have a web site and they do not a physical store. If you think talking to customers, solving their problems and addressing their concerns is not worth your time, you are wrong! Making it easy for customers to conduct business with you, is what building a relationship is all about.

5. Provide details of your customer service policy and response time.

Show your customers that you care about them. Post your customer service policies. "We return all e-mail inquiries within 24 hours". If this is your policy, then make sure you do it. Most consumers on the Internet are surprised if a company responds to inquires within 24 hours. If you can do it faster, you can start building relationships faster.

6. Have a process for handling large problems with customer orders.

Make sure your order form requires the customers telephone number. If you have a big problem filling a customer's order, have your customer service person call them on the telephone. That's right, call them on the telephone! If you think it exceeds a customers expectations by responding to their e-mail request within 24 hours, imagine the kind of relationship you can build if you call them, instead of waiting 24 hours for them to respond to your e-mail.

7. Technical F.A.Q.'s

Make sure your web site has complete and current technical information. If you want your customer service people off of the phone, make it easy for your customers to solve their own technical problems. You can do this by offering easy to read and easy to follow technical advice on your web site. Don't forget to let customers know how quickly you will respond to their technical questions too! Our advice is, the faster you can respond the better your relationship will be.

Implement these seven easy steps and you will be on your way to building relationship based transactions, that will last a lifetime!