E-Commerce Business ?Proceed With Caution

Title:E-Commerce Business ?Proceed With CautionWord Count:534Summary:A brief look at the e-commerce industry and theneed for live operator customer service support.Keywords:Answering Service, Call Center, E-Commerce,Customer Service, Customer Relationship

Management, CRM,Article Body:There is an epidemic in the United States. Anepidemic that is so overlooked, if gone uncheckedany longer, could cripple the economic strata ofthe U.S. An epidemic that could be responsible forthe genocide of millions of businesses. Curiouswhat it is? I am referring to the grossmismanagement of e-commerce businesses. Okay,perhaps the phrases 揷 ripple the economicstrata?and 揼 enocide of millions ofbusinesses?was stretching a bit too far, however,it is a fact that the bulk of e-commercebusinesses are not built on an infrastructurethat embodies stability. I am referring to a lackof customer service support in the umbrella ofbusinesses designating themselves 揺-commerce?or 搗 irtual businesses?It is true that the lure of starting the

e-commerce business is powerful. An endeavor assuch usually requires little or no capitalinvestment, a credit card processing account, andrudimentary knowledge of HTML coding. These threeelements compose the basic formula for startingan e-commerce business. There is a markeddifference in the formula for starting a businessand the formula for maintaining a business. Toexpound on the latter, what truly makes a businessthrive is proper customer relationshipmanagement and immediate telephone / live voiceaccount support. This is the key component thatis missing from most on-line or 搗irtual?businesses.Take, for instance, the internet based companyNetflix. If you are unfamiliar with the company,they are a relatively young e-commerce businessspecializing in mail order DVD rental. The mindsbehind the ingenious idea that is the basis ofNetflix failed to create telephone support fortheir product. There is no doubt this decision was

a calculated one as they most likely weighed thecost of maintaining an in-house call center vs.integrating purely e-mail based support.Without looking at the numbers side of theargument, imagine the frustrated consumer havingproblems with their order and having to rely ona 24 hour lagged e-mail response system to rectifytheir account issues. Based on this plausibleconjecture, I believe lack of live operatorsupport will be the ruin of the Netflixorganization and the downfall of all e-commercebusinesses that follow the same train of thought.What these businesses do not realize is that itis possible and extremely cost effective tooutsource your call center needs to anestablished advanced call center facility. Thissolution has a two fold benefit. It serves toestablish a solid foundation of customerrelationship management and opens businesses upto benefit from word of mouth advertising.I believe even a small internet business can

greatly benefit from utilizing a call center tomanage their customer service or sales calls. Theinitial investment is usually zero (excludingresearch time to find the appropriate facility)and most call centers charge on a per call basis(meaning you only get charged for the calls theyactually receive). If looking at business fromthe customer 抯 perspective as opposed to lookingat it from an initial profit standpoint, itbehooves all e-commerce businesses to initiallysetup a live call center to manage all of theircalls. If the infrastructure is not initiallysetup correctly, your business may fail before ithas even begun.