Many Internet marketing ‘gurus’ and would-be gurus advocate automating as much of your business as possible. The idea - with which I agree - is to reduce the time it takes to accomplish various tasks whilst freeing you up to spend your time on activities where you can deliver the most value.

You can, however, automate some things too much, and customer service is one of those things. Actually, I would argue that good customer service is NOT, by definition, automated.

You tell me - if someone has a problem and they’re required to visit a specific website, register at a support center, log a support ticket, and then wait a day or longer for a response… is that really ‘good’ customer service?

It may be efficient. It may be effective. It may be the only manageable type of customer service you can deliver based on your current time constraints and limited resources. It may also be acceptable to your customers. But let’s not deceive ourselves into thinking it’s ‘good’.

Contrary to much of what I see advocated in Internet marketing circles, good customer service:

• is NOT entirely automated
• does NOT make it difficult for customers to contact your business
• does NOT make customers wait for over 24 hours to get a response
• is NOT the same thing as upselling
• IS about them, not you
• IS proactive
• IS responsive
• DOES take the burden off the customer’s shoulders
• DOES give the customers the answers they seek
• DOES deliver powerful insights and feedback
• DOES turn customers into evangelists

So while a support ticket system may well be appropriate for your business right now, consider raising your standards for when your business grows. At the very least, aim to offer ‘good’ customer service by having someone dedicated to speaking with, or emailing, customers when they call or email you with a problem.

Then again, you may wish to upgrade your customer service for another good reason. I’ll explain why tomorrow…

Wow, a high profile Internet marketer - dare I say “guru” - has lashed out at what she regards as 15 Internet marketing sins.

Sylvie Fortin, president and founder of outsourcing outfit, Workaholics4Hire, and wife of renown Internet copywriter, Michel Fortin, has released a report where she unleashes her rage over a number of tactics commonly used in the Internet marketing niche and elsewhere.

There’s certainly a marketing (list building and sales) motive behind the release of Sylvie’s report. Come on, we’re all marketers, right? But I was truly surprised - and impressed - by Sylvie’s brutal honesty in the report.

Surprise, surprise, a “guru” - who no doubt rubs shoulders with some of the biggest marketing sinners - genuinely lashes out at practices she believes are undermining Internet marketing. I mean really. She even lets loose a few expletives!

Frankly, I would love to see everyone in the Internet marketing niche (and other niches) take Sylvie’s ideas to heart. Regardless of whether or not this is partly a marketing exercise (and heck, I’ve signed up as an affiliate) I agree with her when she says that the fewer people engaged in shady marketing tactics, the better it is for all of us.

Download a copy of Sylvie’s Internet Marketing Sins report here (yep, it’s an affiliate link):

==> Free copy of Sylvie Fortin’s Internet Marketing Sins report

Source: Sylvie Fortin, Internet Marketing Sins, July 2008