. When you respond to a question about a product before the purchase, thank the shopper for his interest and then be sure to toot your own horn a bit. Include a signature line featuring your shipping promises and return policies. Make a professional impression right from the start. If youre responding to a question or concern from a customer awaiting a package or dissatisfied with an order, be sure to offer assurance that you are committed to 100 percent satisfaction for your customers.Youll take the steam out of the kettle quickly. So, what e-mail exchanges should you build into your daily operation? Just model yourself after Amazon, and youll be fine. You should certainly send an e-mail in response to every order you Customer Service Without the Smile 151 receive.Thank your customers and let them know when you expect to ship their items. This e-mail should include the shipping address you plan to use so that any mistakes can be caught before you ship. When the package is ready to go,

Finally, many sellers follow up their orders with a quick note, once again thanking the customer, extending wishes that the shipment was satisfactory and, of course, gently encouraging positive feedback. (Note: If youre on Seller Central, you can set your setting under Manage Orders to control the messages Amazon will send on your behalf, such as a message confirming an order was received.) Phone Support To be considered a professional, you have to provide your customers with telephone support.We know that seems so last century, but, and heres the good news for the descendants of Alexander Graham Bell, its still an essential part of your communication plan. Now, were not saying you should encourage each and every customer to call you. In fact, once you offer telephone support, do everything you can to avoid having your customers use it! Were an Internet company, explains Gary Richardson of

Goggles and Glasses. Phone transactions are not efficient time-wise for a small company. Still, not only does Gary offer phone support, he also offers a toll-free customer service number.Then, he gets busy with a series of e-mails to limit the number of customers who feel the need to call.Andy Mowery of

Still, for many years Andy has maintained a customer service phone number and published customer service hours for receiving calls. His strategy has worked well in that he rarely, if ever, receives phone calls outside his regular hours, and he still deals directly with customers when necessary.What Andy and Gary dont agree about, however, is whether you should invest in toll-free customer service for your business. 152 Get a Toll-Free Customer Service Number Gary is a big proponent of toll-free service. Hes found an inexpensive source for his 800 number through www.tollfreenumber.org, shown in Figure 6-1.We use our number for customer service reasons, explains Gary. I want to make contacting me easier than it would be to leave bad feedback. Gary doesnt use his 800 service for marketing purposes on small orders.On the front end, we advertise our regular number for sales under $25.00, he said. Rather, he saves his toll-free se