Everyone has their own idea of how to run a successful website. Some of their advice seems like a lot of junk, but others seem to give old advice which mysteriously always makes sense. Have you ever heard the “back in my day” speech? You know the one…my parents used to give it to me all the time and I would simply laugh and say that “times have changed and things are different”. That seemed to be a logical explanation for my teenage mind but now that I’m older I’ve realized that maybe my parents had it right all along. They used to say things about businesses too, like, “back in my day, we used to talk to real people when we called customer service”.


I’ve been thinking about this over the years since I got a lot more involved with businesses and how they are run. It seems like if you go to a brick and mortar establishment, you can speak with a real person and get their opinion on a purchase, funny, you can actually see and hold what you’re purchasing too, what a novel idea. However, when we go online to make a purchase, sometimes we’re not exactly sure what we’re purchasing and there are no humans to speak to. I can’t help but wonder how these kinds of online businesses actually stay in business for any long period of time.


Here’s a trick that I have found to work for me, time and time again. In essence, you will probably be going up against several other websites which are selling the same products you are selling. You need to stand out from all the rest, right? Well, if you need to stand out, why not use some good old fashioned customer service? In other words, along with selling them your product, you’re trying to sell them on your company and on your ability to provide service.


To help make my point, think back to a time you have been in a store and asked for customer assistance. Has there ever been a time customer assistance never came? If so, did you stay in the store very long, were you frustrated? Just last weekend my friend went to purchase a Wii at a popular retail chain store. After waiting way too long for customer assistance, she finally decided she would go purchase the product elsewhere, even if it meant paying an extra $50. You may think that this has nothing to do with online stores but it does. A couple months ago a coworker of mine started up a business of his own, a small niche website. So far, nearly all his orders have been made via the 1-800 number they placed on their site. It’s been proven time and time again, people simply want the opportunity to speak with a real person instead of having the communication process take place with artificial intelligence. I wonder if they would have had any sales had they not given their potential customers this ability.


Long story short, “back in my day”, we used to be able to speak to real people and we used to be able to trust what we read. Be honest with your customers, serve them and choose to sell something that you love so you can provide the best service. I wonder what would happen if we went back to that? I wonder what would happen if we had a return to customer service in the true sense of service.