Guest Post: Customer Service by Cindy Evanier of KiX

I was asked to write a guest piece for this wonderful designer resource blog and decided to cover customer service as I think it is a very important part of being a designer selling your products.

It can be a big part of how your brand is perceived and also in my experience a great advertising tool to build up a rapport with a customer, and they are likely to return, tell friends and word will spread. One story that always sticks with me is checking my phone in the at 3am and seeing an offline from someone with a query about a product. I tried to go back to sleep but as we advertised we would answer all queries within 8 hours, I decided to get up and deal with it instead. This led to a very lucrative deal with a customer to provide thousands of L$ worth of furniture for a club they were building and had I not followed it through so fast they may have approached someone else. 
 
Sometimes it can be something as small as teaching someone how to actually rez something and sometimes it's actually an issue you have missed in your product which needs fixing for this customer and for all customers who buy that product in the future. If you do have to fix a bug make sure you send out the fix to all previous customers too as this will help retain a customer, keep your brand in their mind and promote a positive experience.
  
You should make it clear in your profile and anywhere else you maintain a presence such as blog, social media etc, how a customer can reach you be it by IM, notecard or a customer service rep you have hired and trust enough to help. I am sure hiring trusted staff will be a post of its own covered in the future, so I won't say more on that now other than it is my opinion customer support is one of the most important if not the most important as it is a direct connection between you and your customer. 
 
In conclusion, offering good customer support will serve you well even if sometimes it can make you tear your hair out.

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