Applying The Active Greeting Customer Service Standard To E-Commerce

 After my two two recents posts on the Active Greeting Standard (Jos A Bank Flunks The Active Greeting Customer Service Standard and More On The Active Greeting Customer Service Standard) I received an e-mail from Renee who asked:

I have a question after reading your articles. I just wonder how would you define greeting parts if the business is an E-commerce(online shop)? Do you have any suggestions for this part? I am dealing in this field and I want to learn more from you.

Great question, Renee. Speaking for myself only, here's what I like to see when I go to an online shop. First, if I've registered with your site I want to quickly see that I am correctly logged in. At one end of the spectrum you have LinkedIn which lets you know that you can "sign out." At the other end of the spectrum, you have Flickr, which greets you in a different language each time you log in. Somewhere near Flickr is Amazon.com which greets you in an easily seen font. You might consider greeting each customer in one of the standard greetings of his or her home country. You could incorporate seasonal greetings as well.

Second, if you use a double opt-in as many sites do, make the text personable by using a friendly tone and adding  two or three sentences. Perhaps you can provide me with a lagniappe. That's a gift given by a merchant to a customer when the customer doesn't expect it. For example, you might give me an additional discount or free shipping if I purchase something in the next 72 hours.

Third, if you capture my birthday, send me an e-mail a day or so in advance wishing me well. Again, consider giving me a window of several days to purchase something at a better discount. (This may be off-putting to some, perhaps it's just as well to wish me a happy birthday and leave it at that. (But cheap SOB and impulsive buyer that I am, I just might take you up on your offer.)

Finally, personalize the language on your invoices and other communications with me.

There may be better ideas out there and I encourage other readers and bloggers to post a comment here or send me an e-mail. Unfortunately, we don't except trackbacks here (not my choice) but you can put it in a comment or send me an e-mail with the link. I'll include it in an update or a future post.

Regards,

Glenn

Update: Service Untitled extends the discussion.