Are you providing email support or email reply?

Having bummed around on the Internet for some time now, I’ve had my fair share of making purchases from websites that promised me to make a decent income online using their programs, only to find that they are just scams or unethical ways of promotion.

Learning from those lessons (good thing they didn’t cost too much), now I consider thrice before any Internet purchase, to make sure I don’t waste my time and money on any bogus programs out there again.

If you ask me, I have a bad impression on these merchants.

But I was thinking today, these websites are definitely set up by people - someone, somewhere on another part of this planet. While some of them are really just out to cheat, I believe that most of the programs I have bought are actually legitimate people with legitimate efforts to help others.

The product might not work, but I should have a bad impression of the product, not the merchant!

But why has it happened this way? Why has the situation turned sour?

The answer?

Customer Relations.

Most Internet marketing gurus will agree that “the money is in the backend” - and it basically means that investments on lead generation is worthwhile, because you need to see the lifetime value of the customer.

While your first product sale may not make much (the customer may even have asked for a refund for the product!) you can still make the lead a profitable one through building trust (through your emails, blogs, or what tools you may find) and then securing more repeat sales.

Unfortunately, many choose to cut off that line.

I take one of my refunds as an example. It was my first occasion refunding a product which I bought through ClickBank, so I didn’t know the procedures. I sent the merchant an email, indicating my request for a refund, and all I got back was a one liner, saying:

Please just email clickbank with your receipt number and reason for refunding

He obviously didn’t want me to be involved in his other products.

On another occasion, I emailed to ask questions regarding a package, and once again, I got a one liner (this is after THREE days!):

You can access that at www.(his site).com.

I don’t know, but I don’t think that sounded like he is interested to help.

You can be assured I won’t be transacting with any of these merchants any more.

Well crafted email replies are worth the time.

When you want to even mention that you have a “support team” to provide assistance to queries, be sure to take time to support, not just reply. One liners are arguable to be okay when you are already in a conversation, but they are a big no-no when you are replying for the first time.

At the bare minimum, include a greeting and a proper sign off! Is that too tough a request to fulfil?

In actual fact, replying with elegance is simple. Apart from proper grammer and spelling, it needs to include these five elements:

1. Start with a proper greeting
2. Empathize what the troubled customer is going through
3. Provide the solution
4. Assure the customers that further support is available
5. Sign off with a name (at the bare minimum)

Instead of the one liner “You can access that at www.(his site).com.” I felt that they could have responded something like:

Hi Kian Ann,

Thank you for your support request. It must have been frustrating for you having trouble finding that file which was supposed to be in the package.

You can access the file at www.(your-site).com.

I hope I have helped to clarify your questions. Do feel free to drop a reply to this email should you have any further queries.

Regards,
John Doe
Customer Support Officer

Actually, you could have realised by now that this can effectively be a template that can be used again and again, for any other support request, isn’t it? Should there be any reason for one liners?

Saying is easy, but doing is tough. Its easy to slip and throw back a one liner as we handle hundreds of support request emails a day, but have you considered that the party at the other end is also a human, and that very email is an opportunity to either establish or severe a relationship - which may earn you whatever the life value of a customer is worth?

Start giving support, not replies.

Tags: building-relationships, clickbank, crafting-emails, repeat-sales