Recently, I bought a product online from a pretty well respected person in the Internet Marketing niche.  I bought the product because it looked like a great tool and I thought I could use it to increase my business.

I installed the product and started using it.  It worked GREAT for awhile.  After 6 months I began having some issues with it so I contacted the vendor.  (This is where the whole experience becomes and utter nightmare and where I think MANY businesses are shooting themselves in the foot.)

First, I couldn’t find a support desk anywhere for the product.  I finally found it by watching one of the guys videos where he simply mention the help desk email address.  Keep in mind I still have to write it down after watching a 16 minute video just to find that. 

So I now send an email to the help desk (on a Monday).  A few days go by and I get no answer at all.  So I send another email at this point (Hey I fully understand emails can get lost, dropped in a SPAM folder, accidentally deleted or just lost in the shuffle.)

Another 5 days go by and still, nothing. 

By this point I’ll admit I’m getting a little bit irritated. 

Finally, an email comes in.  YAY!  Except their solution is I am not using the product right and to re-watch the videos.

So I basically waited 8 days to get a two sentence email back telling me to go re-watch the videos.  So I decided, for sake of my own sanity, maybe I missed something and I went back and rewatched all the videos.

Hmmm I’d set everything up right.  So now I get to email this person again.

So I fired off another email explaining that I followed the videos again, the product was originally working and now is not working, but upon rewatching the videos I know that everything is setup right.

After only 7 days this time I got a response back.  I felt great about not having to wait until the 8th day again….

PAY ATTENTION – if you have a help support desk, support staff, sales team or are just doing things yourself in your own Internet business, this is what not to do……

The email this time simply says….  "The product works but you must have another script interfering with it.  If you can’t get the product to work we’ll send you a refund, just send us your receipt and we’ll get that taken care of for you."

Right now you should be cringing if you’re reading this.

So I sent back a message explaining I DON’T want a refund and that it would be nice if they could help trouble shoot the potential problem and help me get it working again…. I mean unless I am wrong that is what a HELP desk is for.  (Honestly, the $67 I spent on the product isn’t life changing so I’d rather have some help to get it to work.}

Now, 13 days later – still NOTHING.

So that prompted me to write a post and go over some things that if you’re doing in your business you MUST FIX now.

#1.  If you have a help desk train your staff.  Do I even need to cover this?  Just hiring a person to send emails back and forth isn’t going to help your customers.  I mean you do care about your customers, right?  Having ignorant people with your company makes you look really ignorant as well.

#2.  TIME is an issue.  I understand smaller companies might not be able to have phone support.  However, if you’re going to have a help desk make sure they respond to YOUR customers in a timely manner.  Making someone wait for 7-8 days for an initial response is BAD business.  If you’re business is so busy that, that is the fastest time they can get back to you – hire more people.

#3.  Make sure people can find your help desk.  This should be a no-brainer.  If you are selling online products make sure people can find your help desk and support area.  If you’re selling digital products this should be included on your download page and inside the product. 

Not an extremely hard list to follow is it?  You’d be surprised at how poorly managed this is online.  It can at times feel like an epidemic of poor customer service.

Keep in mind a couple things.  I fully understand that a help desk might not be able to get back with me over a weekend (between Friday night and Monday morning) and I also understand lack of support for holidays.  If your company is large enough you should include that, but if not it makes sense not to have it over the weekend.  However, all support should be done on the Monday after the weekend. 

It’s also possible for emails to not arrive at their destination.  It happens.  It’s not perfect.  However, if it keeps happening to a customer that excuse won’t fly.  Treat your customers like gold and they will keep buying.  Even if my situation gets resolved I will never buy from this person again.  Let’s face it, I’m busy and to waste time isn’t really an option.

Lastly, I’ll stress it one last time, Treat your customers like GOLD.  You may not think one person matters but each time it adds up.  The last thing you ever want to get labeled as is someone who doesn’t give a crap about their customers or that you’re only doing this for the money and you’re basically ripping people off.  They will flee and never come back.