Customer service, electronically: How to use your web site to put customers in control and increase customer satisfaction while reducing service costs

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Jan, 2002 by Claudia H. Allen

Who owns your magazine's Web site? Many marketers complain that the editors believe it's their site. But the truth is, everyone wants a piece of the action--editors, marketers and ad sales people. It's important to remember, though, that first and foremost, a magazine's Web site belongs to the customers who use it.

Providing a variety of user-friendly online customer-service features is a hallmark of our customer-centric philosophy at Men's Health.

If you don't have customer-service features on your site, make it a priority to get them. The reason is simple: Customers want control, and online customer service puts them in control and reduces publishers' customer-service costs.

To increase the use of Men's Health's online customer-service, much effort is spent educating our customers. We print our Web address anywhere we can--in renewal and invoice notices, on the magazine folio, and in direct-mail packages.

We send out fliers inviting Men's Health's customers to renew or pay for their subscriptions online. We have a customer-service house ad in every issue, and a spread in our "Welcome" brochure to new and renewing customers.

PROMOTE ONLINE SERVICE

We even have the Web address on our 800 number response message. When you call our customer-service 800 number, it says "Welcome to Men's Health customer service. To manage your account online, go to www.menshealth.com, or choose from one of the following options."

The toll-free number was a revolution in its time; today it's the standard. We can't abandon the 800 number just yet. But in promotions, we make it subservient to customer service online. We believe the Internet has the potential to be as revolutionary as the toll-free number was years ago, and we need to create awareness about this new way to do business.

FUNCTIONALITY IS KEY

The Men's Health online customer-service system has answers to frequently asked questions, and offers the ability to send comments or suggestions to the magazine. But the basis of a good customer-service system lies in its functionality. Online customer service must have transactional capabilities--that's what savvy online users expect, and their legions are growing each day.

It's also essential to have a seamless link to your fulfillment system. When someone accesses his account online from the Men's Health site, he is actually going to the CDS fulfillment system. Customers can see on their browsers that they've gone from one site to another. However, the page is branded Men's Health, and to most users, the transition is invisible.

Finally, I would recommend electronic billing and renewals, or at least testing them to gauge response. It's another way to engage customers and provide convenient service.

None of this is possible if the customer can't get to where he or she wants to be on the site. Every page needs a clean layout and must be easy to navigate. Readers may be visiting with a specific goal in mind, and you have to help them get there.

We place a navigation panel on the left-hand side of every page so users can always find their way from one page to another. At the bottom of that navigation bar, we have links to Customer Service Home and Men's Health Home so they can easily get back to their starting point.

When we first offered online customer service about two years ago, we got a few thousand visitors per month. Now, we've seen as many as 20,000 a month, and those numbers are increasing. Two years ago, only 17 percent of customers knew about online customer service or contacted us via e-mail; today, that number is close to 30 percent. Best of all, customer-satisfaction levels are the same.

The bottom line is that online customer service provides customer control, which leads to customer satisfaction and customer retention. Providing your customers control in their transactions is an opportunity that your business cannot afford to miss.

Claudia H. Allen is the consumer marketing manager, online, for Men's Health.