Where's the Customer Service?

Online shoppers are looking for deals, deals, deals and the Internet is the place to find them. It doesn't take much to navigate your way to the lowest price on an item or even a laundry list of who's selling it and at what price for easy comparison. Also, a little more digging and you can almost always find a coupon code offering anything from free shipping to a % discount or $ off. Many people search for coupons and discounts even if they make the purchase offline.

You can also Twitter your daily deals, Facebook them and build your brand on social networks, over half of the major retailers are using either or both of these social media.

Certianly no one can diminish the importance of an online presence - we structure our website to have good information, pricing and special coupons. Personally, I do plenty of online shopping and I, too, compare deals and pricing, but here's the thing: I almost always have a question and need to call about it, email someone or chat online. Certain products may be easy to find online, but when you are talking technical specs and product quality you need good old fashioned customer service. It's amazing how many companies have people answering the phones who don't know a thing about their products, they are just order takers and I don't need that. I want to know that the person I'm talking with works directly with or for the items I plan on buying.

I guess because it's so important in the POS business to get the right product for the right printer I strive to make sure that my customer service "LIVE" person is the resource the caller needs. I can't afford to make mistakes, they are too costly, so I strive to get it right the first time. I ask questions, dig for information and make a connection with the customer, something the Internet still can't do.