Monitoring Customer Satisfaction on the Web

If you have an e-commerce site, you need to know if your customers are satisfied. Unlike a brick and mortar business, it is very hard to monitor customer satisfaction on the web. If your business is Internet only or if it is a brick and mortar business, customer satisfaction has to be a priority or else your business will fail! If you don't physically see the customer, how can you tell if they are satisfied?

One of the best methods I have found, is to use the services of Bizrate.com. After you have filled out their on-line application and your web site is approved, Bizrate.com sends you some simple HTML to paste into your receipt page. This HTML offers customers a chance to win a prize if they fill out a short survey about their shopping experience. Customers will rate your company and your web site using a 1-10 scale on the following parameters of satisfaction:

• Overall Rating
• Ease of Ordering
• Product Selection
• Product Information
• Price
• Web site Performance
• On time Delivery
• Product Representation
• Customer Support
• Order Tracking
• Shipping & Handling

Having this type of feedback is essential to continuously improving your operations. Bizrate provides you the feedback weekly in the form of a customer approved survey link that is posted on your web site. With this information your new customers, current customers and you know how your customers feel about your company, services and products. You can make the necessary corrections to your operations, by monitoring your weekly results and reviewing real customer feedback.

In summary: It is hard to tell who to do business with on the Internet these days. You can put your customers at ease by letting them know you care about their satisfaction. There isn't a better way to reduce customer apprehension and assure customers of your legitimacy, than to have "Customer Certified Ratings" posted on your web site. Do not work in the dark, let your customers light your way by allowing them to tell everyone why they should do business with you.