Providing excellent online customer service can be challenging because of the impersonal nature of the internet. Anyone who has ever had any customer service training knows that providing personalized service is central to building good, long lasting, mutually beneficial customer relationships.

However, when you take the face-to-face (or at least voice-to- voice) interactions out of the customer service equation, how do you provide that top-notch, high-quality customer service in an online business atmosphere?

The question of providing quality online customer service is something that many internet-based business owners struggle with. No offense to the men, but I have found that women in business are much more inclined to be concerned about providing quality online customer service, and it is a very valid concern.

Many business women I have talked to have been inspired by W. Edwards Deming's philosophy of continuous quality improvement when it comes to providing quality customer service. Unfortunately, Dr. Deming passed away in 1993, so we are not privy to his view regarding online customer service, though some of his philosophies are certainly applicable in the internet business frontier and to issues regarding online customer service.

Dr. Deming advocated a systems approach to improving quality with attention to continual improvement of products, services, processes, people, and communication. Not only is the satisfaction of the customer and communication with the customer in the spotlight in Deming's philosophy. He also considered relationships between individuals within an organization and with suppliers and emphasized the necessity of using facts and data for decision making.

Though the online business environment differs greatly from the manufacturing sectors that Dr. Deming consulted for, his philosophies regarding quality improvement and customer service are certainly applicable to online customer service. Basing decisions on data in the form of feedback from customers, suppliers and individuals within an organization is something that is often overlooked in regard to online customer service.

Sure, internet business operators use facts and data for the purposes of internet marketing - selecting keywords, choosing topics for information products, and so forth. However, they rarely, if ever, actively engage in obtaining feedback for the purpose of improving their online customer service.

Before you go on a tangent, making changes to the way that you provide online customer service, why not survey your customers and ask them what they think? Here are some questions you may want to ask to obtain feedback from your customers that can be used to improve your processes of providing online customer service:

1. How do you feel about the impersonal nature of online customer service?

2. Which of the following methods would you prefer for obtaining customer service from our company? (please rank the choices from 1 to 5, 1 being the most desirable and 5 being the least desirable).

_____ Email

_____ Telephone

_____ Live online chat sessions

_____ Online forums

_____ Teleconferencing

3. Please indicate your level of satisfaction with the online customer service you have received from our company.

_____ Extremely Satisfied

_____ Somewhat Satisfied

_____ Satisfied

_____ Somewhat Unsatisfied

_____ Extremely Unsatisfied

4. Please share your comments and suggestions regarding how we might improve our online customer service.

This is a simple example of a survey for the purpose of improving online customer service. Of course, you can formulate your own survey that is more customized to your particular business. However, when considering making changes or improvements to online customer service processes and systems, it is a very good idea to obtain feedback from your customers.

Also consider suggestions from suppliers in regard to improving communications and online customer service. Receiving such input prior to revamping your online customer service system will ensure that you meet true needs and desires without incurring unnecessary expenses that won't make a difference in the customers' perception of your online customer services.