Customer service is paramount to the success of your online store. Not only does it influence the likelihood of a customer returning, it also weighs on whether that customer will tell his or her friends about your site. Following are a few guidelines to consider regarding customer service:

1.) Make your company’s contact information prominent. Display your company’s name, phone number and email address on every page of your web site and on all e-mail correspondence to your customers.

2.) Send an order confirmation email immediately after receiving your customer’s order and include a link that the customer can click on at any time to check the status of his or her order. Contemplate selecting an e-commerce solution that sends the email for you automatically.

3.) Consider using live chat or instant messaging software similar to that provided by Live Person. Such software can be a powerful tool for both pre- and post-sale communications.

4.) Respond to your customers’ emails promptly. It’s not enough to have an email auto-responder saying you will get back to your customer sometime soon.

5.) Return phone calls immediately. Unhappy customers become more so when they continuously reach a voicemail box. Also, existing or potential customers in need of assistance become more and more disgruntled if are forced to wait long for a response.

6.) Be considerate when sending promotional email out to your customers. Only send email to those customers that have opted in to your email list, and be sure to provide them with important information or a special deal. Keep in touch with your customers, but don't beat a dead horse and continue to send them an email blast every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Most importantly, provide them with a means to unsubscribe from your list.

7.) Encourage customers to provide you with feedback. Customer feedback can be invaluable in helping to continuously improve your customers’ experience.

8.) Once an order ships, send a second email to the customer and include the package tracking number. Doing so allows customers can track the package on their own, keeping them happy and saving you significant time.

9.) Take an order’s turnaround time seriously. The customer may not be able to take their order home today, but that doesn’t mean getting soon isn’t important! You’ll find that your customers will be more satisfied if they receive a ship confirmation e-mail sooner rather than later.

If you sell online, your e-commerce site no doubt includes a keyword search. Unless you sell only a very few products, you likely know that the keyword search is your customers' primary means of finding what they're looking for. So how do you ensure that relevant results are returned while steering clear of the dreaded sale stopper, "no results found"?

Your keyword search probably attempts to find matches within product names and descriptions, and perhaps a few other fields such as stock keeping unit (SKU) or part number. Often this works beautifully. However, imagine that you only sell pistachios and a customer enters "nuts" in the search field. Pistachios are nuts, but you don't include the word "nuts" in the product name or description. To avoid the "no results found" message (and likely loss of the sale) you'd need to add "nuts" to the name or description, but this would mar your meticulous store.

The solution is to add search keywords--specialized terms that do not appear in the store and are used only for search matching--to the product. This allows you to seize control of your search and ensure that no relevant terms are missed. Be proactive and think about what search terms consumers might use in your store. Better yet, record every search in your store and find out for sure. Remember to include both singular and plural versions of important terms (both "nut" and "nuts"), and don't forget common variations and even misspellings! Remember, poor spellers are customers too.

Another issue to consider is that of close substitutes. If you sell only California Merlots and someone searches for Chilean Merlots, serving up the California Merlots may be preferable to "no results found". On the other hand, this may confuse or frustrate the customer and convince him that your search feature is poor. The substitute scenario is a gray area, so think carefully about your customers before going down that road.

When used well, e-coupons can be a very powerful tool in driving online sales. Following are some tips to consider when running promotions with e-coupons:

1. Consider encouraging your customers to activate coupons with a hyperlink. This may not be possible with all e-commerce solutions, but can be especially effective when sending out e-coupons via email. Your customers should be able to simply click on a hyperlink from the email, go to your online store and see that the coupon has indeed been activated.

2. Experiment with different types of coupons to see what yields the best results among your customers. For example, some merchants find that free shipping coupons work best while others find that percentage off coupons yield a better result. A popular variation is free shipping or a percentage off when your customer spends more than a certain dollar amount.

3. Set up your online store so that you can show the coupon discount right in the shopping cart. It's important to let the customer know as soon as possible that she is saving money. It keeps the customer interested and entices her to buy more. This works well for percentage off coupons because the customer can see their discount growing in the cart with every item added.

4. Allow customers to enter the coupon code at any point in the ordering process.

5. Use an expiration date for your coupons. You’ll want to keep track of them and don’t want them floating around indefinitely.

6. Do not make any reference to coupons or promotional codes in your online store if you do not have an active promotion running. Some customers may not like paying full price knowing that a special deal is available.

7. Lastly, if you set an expiration date for your coupon, send out a reminder a day or two before the coupon expires. You'll be surprised at how quickly people order when they are reminded of a deadline for a great deal!

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