Why keep a plugin on your blog when all it does it junk up your site?

Commission Automator seemed like a good idea at the time if it actually worked as specified.  What it was supposed to do was write a new review post on a product.  Unfortunately, it did not write the post in the category I created for it and the post frequency is not as advertised.

So all those tweets that have been going out are driving me crazy and I am officially removing the blog posts that were created.

Why did I install it in the first place?  For the simple reason that I thought it might help keep the blog alive, since I seem to have little time to post on a regular basis.  Well – you betcha I will after this experience!

Why I Am Forced To Do This

I have contacted the support team several times on the issues I was having and have never received a response.  I kept checking my email inbox and junk/spam folder, but never received even a courtesy message.  What the hay?

Since I wrote the “book” on Internet customer service, you can imagine how this really ticked me off.

Hey – if it doesn’t work as expected or as advertised; if you don’t get a response to a cry for assistance, especially when they tell you where to go to get that assistance, then I pretty much have the right to write about my experience – right?

I really hate doing this, but they had a chance to make a customer happy and they blew it.  Nice idea for a product, but how about supporting what you created instead of just pushing out more products?

Hey – if you offer customer support, make sure it’s working!

And now you finally decided to go ahead and just do it!

But unfortunately, something goes wrong and you’re unable to access what you just paid for with your credit card.

What now?

Well, reputable online merchant sites understand many of the people making Internet purchases are doing so for the first time, and they understand these people will require assistance.

In anticipation of these issues, merchants have been proactive in establishing help desk support portals on their sites. The Internet support solutions customers are seeking to resolve their issues are commonly found in FAQs, or frequently asked questions, usually as a separate web page or system altogether.

And if the customer is unable to resolve the issue using the FAQs provided,  consumers can often search for a “Contact Us” or “Customer Support” link. This link is available to provide the dissatisfied customer with at least one way to directly contact the merchant for assistance. This is usually provided in addition to the FAQ support as online computer help.

By reading and following the procedural instructions, most customers can help themselves speed up the resolution process through their own actions.

Yes, it’s always upsetting when something goes wrong, but customer support systems or representatives cannot possibly read the mind of the consumer, and they cannot research a consumer’s issue or purchase history without the consumer first providing the correct information to the computer help desk.

For your own sanity, when contacting a merchant for customer service, provide as much information as possible about your what the problem is and how you’d like the problem resolved.  It’s the usual who, what, where, when and how that will get your issue addressed promptly, and fixed as quickly as possible.  Failure to provide the information to help desk support only delays the process.

What NOT To Do

I have a Support Desk that is staffed with a regular support person who takes care of help desk troubleshooting procedures for me.  This week Terry opened a new ticket that was submitted by Darrick.  Instead of providing the purchase information requested in the ticket template, the only information Darrick provided was “ebook!”  Terry knows people want their tickets resolved as quickly as possible, so she took the time to research the current purchases to see if she could find one for Darrick.

After finding Darrick’s purchase, she decided to reissue the download link for his purchase, since this is the most common problem people have.  Here’s the response she provided:

Hello Darrick!

I’m not sure exactly what the issue is since you did not provide much information. I’m going to assume you have not received your download. In that case, I have reset the download link and sent you a link. Please look for an email from grmbusinesssolutions.com in your email inbox or junk/spam folder. That email has the download link.

If additional assistance is needed, please reopen this ticket.

Terry
Support Desk

Well, it turns out that Darrick actually wanted a refund, although he failed to
put that in the ticket.  Now here’s the interesting thing, the product Darrick
purchased is through one of my clients who uses my Support Desk services for his websites.  My client had spent over an hour on the phone with Darrick, patiently answering his questions and concerns after reading the eBook.  He told my client he was very interested in starting the business outlined in the eBook.  He never mentioned anything about wanting a refund!

Within a few minutes of receiving the ticket response from Terry, Darrick replied to the ticket with this…

Terry, FYI…….I was experiencing trouble figuering out how to apply for a
refund, and after I explained this to you, I find it funny how you quietly
disappeared. Here’s the deal. I’ve documented my correspondence with this
company, and filed a dispute with my credit card. We can draw this out for
months waiting to see how the dispute resolution dept sides, or you can
credit my account today. It’s your choice!

Here’s My Advice

The Support Desk (or Help Desk) provided by a merchant has been established and staffed to help you get a problem resolved.  The people who process the tickets have been trained in customer support procedures and their only concern is to h-e-l-p you.  Therefore it is not in your best interest to insult or threaten them in any way.  Their only recourse is to stop working on your problem and report the issue to management.

Do this – not what Darrick did…

- Follow instructions

- Provide required information and more if necessary

- Review the site for days of service and the time to resolve issues. You’re not going to get a response in minutes…remember, there are other tickets that
have been submitted ahead of you.

- Log back into a Support Desk (or Help Desk) to update your ticket when necessary.  Not every Support/Help Desk accepts a reply via eMail.  Read all the information inside your ticket to determine how to update your ticket information.

Well – that’s over five years ago and the Internet has progressed far since then with much more helpful information being provided to guide you through a purchase.  In fact, most reliable sellers now provide step-by-step instructions through the purchase, even what to do when your payment has been processed.

The Order Process

Here’s the general order process:

- If you are purchasing hard products, you will probably be using a shopping cart.  This holds your products just like a shopping cart at the market.  As soon as you’re finished shopping, you go to Check Out to enter and process the payment.

- If you are purchasing a digital product, you click on a Buy Button somewhere on the sales page.  The Buy Button will take you to an order page to obtain customer information and the form of payment.

- Once the form of payment has been entered, you are asked to supply the required information, such as credit card number or PayPal log in.

- After you have provided the payment details, the payment is processed and you should be given instructions on what to do next.  This may include 1) Click Here to Return to Merchant to obtain your download, 2) Click Here to receive your download – this is the actual link to your product to save on your computer, 3) Look for an eMail from – this directs you to an eMail that is sent to the eMail address you provided. This eMail will contain information about your order, including instructions.

When you make a digital purchase, you are added to the merchant’s customer
list.  To do this, the merchant must send you an eMail asking for your permission to add you to their customer list.  This eMail requires your confirmation and should tell you to click on a link that has been provided in the eMail.  This is called a double opt in and is required to satisfy the CAN-SPAM Act.  Once you give your permission by using the activation link, the merchant can send you other offers via eMail.  These follow-up eMails are not SPAM – you have given your permission by using the authorization link.  This is referred to as permission based marketing.

What to do When the System Hiccups

When you’re using the Internet, you’re constantly being passed through different systems that are connected together through routers.  That means you could lose a connection at any point in the order process.

Don’t Panic!!

Reputable websites have contact information on their site for you to use for questions and issues.  There are many different ways they can provide customer support and include:

- Phone
- Online Chat
- Help Desk Support
- eMail Address

Any of these methods will work, the only issue is how responsive are they and how fast do you need assistance?  If you are contacting your web hosting
company because your site is down, then you need immediate help.  Most hosting companies will have an online chat during regular business hours. This allows you to get assistance now in lieu of waiting for someone to respond to an eMail or Help Desk Support ticket.  Look for an option to get a hard copy of the chat in case you need to reference it later.

I really like using Help Desk Support because they usually have a Knowledge
Base of self-help articles that may resolve my issue without opening a ticket.
If you can’t resolve your issue, then open a ticket.

About Help Desk Systems

When you open a ticket with a computer help desk, you will have to wait for
your issue to be addressed.  This means there may be a lot of tickets ahead of you if it’s a busy merchant.  Expect to wait anywhere from 2 – 16 hours for a response.  This means you need to check your eMail to see of a response has been sent.  Look to see if the ticket resolution time has been provided on the computer help desk.  This should tell you what hours they work and if they are closed over the weekend.

Internet support solutions will vary from merchant to merchant.  You just need to know where to look to find assistance.  You’ll usually find this information on the merchant site as “Contact Us,” “Customer Support,” or something similar.  Just follow their instructions and you should have no problem getting your issue(s) resolved.

I can still remember the first purchase I made and accidentally clicked off the download page.  I was absolutely sure the site was a fraud, frantically looked for support and practically screamed for a refund.  After creating several digital products, some in niches outside of Internet Marketing, I too found customers frantically asking for a refund when they had issues with a purchase.

Here’s a few examples of good customer service on the Internet that can be used by website owners to address customer complaints and website visitors before making a purchase.

Customer Service Tips Before You Purchase

Internet Marketers provide customer support in a variety of ways:

• Help Desk
• Contact Form
• eMail Address
• No Support

Yes – you read that correctly – NO SUPPORT has been provided.  Or – one of my favs – what they do provide doesn’t work!

Before you make that purchase, be sure to check out the contact information that has been provided.  You’ll want to know that it’s current in case you actually have an issue that requires their attention.

Recently, I used the Internet to find a local electrician.  The one site that attracted me used a contact form to request service.  I filled in and submitted the required information and within minutes, I received an email informing me the information could not be sent.  So much for the professional website!

Internet Help Desk

It’s good news for you if you find the site is using an Internet Help Desk to assist customers.  That means the site has the ability to provide FAQs, Technical Support and a Knowledge Base or Articles for customer self-help.  This allows the customer to resolve the issue before having to open a support ticket.

Don’t assume these self-help features are being used.  I have found that most are not being utilized.  But don’t fret – as long as the help desk will allow you to open a ticket, you should be OK.

I say should because many website owners are not employing a support staff and don’t monitor their tickets every day.  If you can, look for information on their Help Desk system that tells you how long it will take your ticket to be resolved.  A common Help Desk requirement is to resolve tickets as quickly as possible, usually within 8 hours.

Realize that 8 hours is relevant – if they’re located in Australia and you’re in Canada, you could be waiting up to 15 hours before they pickup and resolve your ticket.  Good customer service training for an Internet Help Desk is to have a postal address listed on the site – be sure to look for this information.

Help Desk Best Practice

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Look for a FAQ page or category on the Help Desk.  This is provided to address the most common customer issues.

Technical Support This section of a Help Desk will address the most common technical issues that are encountered by customers.  Some of these issues could be 1) Could not Download Product, 2) Could not Open Product, 3) Could not Install Software, etc.

Knowledge Base This section is usually provided to address common customer issues by product.  This information could be 1) to explain the affiliate program, 2) to explain the features of a product in detail and how they are used, etc.

Articles Not all Help Desk software provides all these categories.  Sometimes you’ll find the information in articles that have been categorized for easy access.

Tip on Help Desk Support

Need more information about Help Desk systems and building a Help Desk?  Learn more about customer service management and get my customer service tips.

With automation comes a very unique set of problems.  If you’re not providing the correct response to a customer issue, it will escalate.  People need to feel you are talking directly to them, so even if you have canned responses, you need to find a way to personalize each and every one.

Unfortunately, many people become braver online than they are in the offline world.  That’s because they don’t have to face you.  They leave spam or other nasty comments on your blog and very demanding requests for a refund.  Don’t you just hate it when those refund requests come in and they don’t have the necessary information required to process the refund?

Use Surveys and Polls to Monitor Website Visitors

Just as you need to survey your customers that made a purchase, you should consider using an online survey tool to discover if your website visitors are finding what they were searching for on your site.

The Internet has a diverse pool of people developing digital products, selling affiliate products, building membership lists, Squidoo Lenses, Hub Pages, Blogs and much more.  In order to discover if you are giving visitors what they were searching for, you should be considering using customer and visitor surveys.  You may be getting traffic to your site, but they won’t do you any good if they were not looking for what you gave them.

You may think your site is visitor friendly… they may not!  The only way to find out how to improve the visitor experience is by asking them.

Improving the Customer Experience

Successful web sites and pages are continually tracked for traffic, clicks through to links and monetization.  If you’re not earning, it’s time to start surveying and polling your visitors.

Once you setup a survey or poll on your site, make sure it’s collecting feedback.  If not, you may need to move it to a more prominent place, like above the fold so visitors see it right away.  Sometimes an exit poll is effective when gathering specific information about the visitor’s experience.

You can do a Google search on “poll software” and “survey software.”  You’ll find many different options for website survey creators available from services you access online to software that downloads to your computer.

Here’s a FREE poll creator I developed that’s very easy to use.  This is an executable to install the software on your computer – just follow the directions and be sure to check the box to create a desktop icon: