After the Sale - THE SALE -Electronic Commerce 101 - Making Sales on Your E-commerce Website

After making the actual sale, communication with your customer will save you from a lot of problems. Make sure they receive an acknowledgement that their order was received and is being processed. If there is a back order on anything they purchased, make sure they are told about it and given a timetable of when they can expect to receive their order. If they purchase something and you find out it's no longer available, let them know as soon as possible and offer alternatives or a refund.

When the order ships, let them know and give them tracking information if it's available. Keeping the customer informed will take care of most questions and complaints, even if the order will take longer to arrive than the customer expects.

If a customer emails or calls after placing an order, make sure you answer them as quickly as possible. This is one of the three things that customers use to judge their experience with an online company. If they want to return or exchange something they purchased, give them clear instructions based on your return and exchange policies.

In customer satisfaction surveys, customers who had problems with an order they placed and received help, often rated that company higher than they did companies where they didn't have any problems.

Good communication with your customers will help you get over the many problems that new businesses encounter. Most people will accept problems or delays if they are kept informed. While good communication will help you with most situations, there are some customers with which good communication will not help. We'll talk about them on the next page.

Bad Customers >