More consumers today are finding it easier and easier to shop online, thus bypassing the traditional brick-and-mortar stores.  Ecommerce is a great revenue stream for companies and gives companies the ability to enter and play in the social media arena as well. At the same time ecommerce can create a different set of challenges to companies as well. The task of comparison shopping is now much easier for your customers who no longer have to drive all over town to compare your price against your competitor’s price.  Price has been and will continue to be at the top or at least near the top of buying motives for online shoppers. However, companies cannot be fooled into thinking that price is the only concern for the consumer.  Consumers today have three main concerns outside of price when buying online:
1.       Shipping Cost
2.       Delivery Time
3.       Return Policy

How you handle these three buyer concerns can and most likely will be the difference as to whether customers purchase from your site or your competitors.  Now let’s dive a little deeper into these three concerns.

Shipping Cost- Forrester Research, an independent technology and market research company did a study on how shipping costs affect consumer buying decisions.  They found that 61% of the people they surveyed would buy online more often from retailers that offered Free Shipping.  More and more companies are capitalizing on this and either creating or expanding their Free Shipping program.  Consumers are smart enough to understand that nothing is necessarily free and when companies offer Free Shipping, they may already be factoring it into the price of the product.  Additionally, companies that have successful Free Shipping programs often utilize lower-cost shipping options available to ensure they are using the most economical option available.  Transportation and Supply Chain companies can often provide some assistance with benchmarking what other companies are doing. 
Are you utilizing Free Shipping to drive top line revenue?
How often do you review your shipping program?

Delivery Time- A second question consumers buying online often have is how soon will my shipment arrive? There is often great anticipation for the order to arrive and having an accurate delivery window is a great way to satisfy your customers and ensure they become repeat customers. Studies show that consumers do prefer faster shipping but at the point that shipping cost more, their priorities may change. Amazon Prime is a great success story in terms of offering a transit speed upgrade program. It is a shipping program that Amazon.com launched that gives their customer’s unlimited fast shipping for an annual fee. Amazon has noticed that the growth as a result of this program was not in attracting more consumers to the site but getting them to come more often to purchase. Their Sr. VP and CFO Thomas Szkutak said“We're seeing customers do a lot more cross shopping than they have previously.”
Do you provide your customers with an accurate expected delivery window? How often do you review this?
Do you give your customers options to upgrade to a faster delivery?

Return Policy- A no-hassle returns process is critical for both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. In addition there is a strong relationship between return policies and customer purchasing behavior.  When consumers first started shopping online, returns was a very big concern.  Many people did not feel comfortable buying someone without first having touched it.  Although companies have come a long way since then, companies often struggle to provide just the right return policy that is not to stringent to prevent customers from buying from them while at the same time not motivating their customers to return their products.  A fairly recent survey found that 69% of consumers would not likely shop again with an online retailer if the returns process was inconvenient.  Returns can also be a big headache for a company as well as there is money tied up not only in the inventory but in the labor to handle the returns as well.  The more automated and easier you make the return process the more satisfaction your customers will enjoy and will get you a better chance to turn them into a repeat customer.
How convenient is your Return Policy?
How often do you review your Return Policy?

One of the worst mistakes a salesperson can make is forgetting that it’s always and only about the customer and his or her needs and feelings. When you are interacting with a customer your feelings, needs and desires are to be placed on the back burner. In reality, what you feel or need doesn’t matter. Nor should emotions such as guilt ever be used for negotiation when a customer is making a business decision.  If you are looking for a quick way to lose credibility and ruin a relationship with your customer, this is definitely one way to do it!  If you have ever had a customer tell you “to not take it personal, it’s just business” you know this is a pride swallowing moment but then again if you don’t have thick skin, you probably need to look for a different line of work.

Recently I heard a real-life story about a salesperson that recently lost a large client’s business and made the fatal mistake of trying to make his customer feel guilty by telling the customer “you are taking bread off my table”. I’m sorry, when was it the customer’s problem or responsibility to make sure the salesperson’s bills were paid?  The salespersons job is to build a relationship with the customer, earn their trust and then consistently bring them ideas and solutions to help their business run better. Not only does this ruin any trust the salesperson may have built with the customer but it shows the customer clearly what this person’s focus was really on.  The reality of sales is that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.  However, I haven’t known many salespeople that have been successful in sales by using “guilt trips” on their customers.

At the end of the day, who would you rather do business with? A salesperson who is concerned primarily with how your business impacts his or her bottom line or one that is focused on you and your needs and concerns?

If your customers were to give you a report card after each transaction, would you be anxious to see it or cringe at what grades they might give you? A customer survey is very similar to the report card you use to receive in school.  It is a real time snapshot of the value you brought to your customers and the potential areas you need to improve upon.  The question then is how easy do you make it for your customers to provide you with feedback and when do you ask them for their feedback?  If you wait too long after the sale not only with you most likely not get an accurate representation of your service, but chances are most people will not take the time to complete it.  If you want the most impact and the most accurate info, you need to ask for feedback right after a sale is complete.

I recently had a new furnace and water heater installed in my house and the heating company (Bel Red Energy Solutions) has a great policy of asking for customer feedback prior to the technicians leaving the house. When the installation was done, the technician handed me a customer survey and took the time to explain the importance of why they are asking for the feedback and how they use it to provide the very best service they can, each and every time. By the technician taking just a few moments to explain the survey (instead of just handing it to me and asking me to complete) it diffused any feeling of being put on the spot to provide instant feedback.  They could have just as easier sent a survey in the mail or emailed one to me.  However by doing it before they left, this insured that I not only completed the survey (which many people never complete) but allowed them the opportunity to receive instant feedback on the service they provided.  This type of immediate feedback is beneficial for both the company and the customer.  For instance, if the customer receives less than stellar service, it provides the company the ability to either resolve the issue on the spot or follow up quickly after the sale. For the customer, it gives them another way to thank them for their good service and leaves them with a good feeling about the service they just received.

What kind of grades are you receiving from your customers? If you are waiting for your report cards to arrive in the mail, it may already be too late or they may never arrive at all.