Tiny online business...want to grow...stuck on live phone support

[chrisV2]

Hi folks, newbie here. I have a very small online business that I started as an adjunct to my "corporate desk job". To give you an idea this year I will do around $30K in gross and $15K net before income taxes. I sell a catalog of about a dozen products to a niche market, average price is around $100.

I have a couple of suppliers lined up and I want to see if I can drive this business to a higher level of revenue. The next set of products I would introduce have much lower margin. I'm ok with that since I don't depend on this income and I'm really interested to see if I can grow the sales volume.

Here's where I'm stuck. To compete with other players in this space I should really have phone support. Ideally, technical support but at a minimum ordering support. There is no way I can afford a part time employee right now, and some of the "virtual receptionist" services when dealing with sales seem to be a little pricey, too.

So here are my ideas to overcome this. Let me know what you think or if you have any other ideas.

1. Keep looking for a virtual service that is affordable.
2. Put a "request callback" feature on my website, where I would personally return phone calls after I get home from my day job.
3. Make a statement on the website saying basically "I realize I don't have live phone support...we are a growing small company and hope to have this in place soon" (sounds lame!)

Another option would be to rope in a relative, or a stay-at-home mom or dad, or retiree or someone else and pay them on a 1099 for say $200 per month to be on 'standby' a few hours a day, and see how the volume goes.

What do you think...this is a hurdle for me that I would really like to figure out a way around. On the internet you are easily and instantly compared to your competitors so I don't want to look like a total joke.

[Harold Mansfield]

Welcome to the forum Chris.

The call back idea is not bad, depending on the hours. If you can't call people back during normal business hours, then this isn't really a professional option.

I like the idea of routing calls to a part time friend or relative that wants to make a few bucks from home, but you would have to insure that they are trained properly AND have the enviroment to be professional. The last thing you want is to have your business calls going to someone who doesn't understand that kids and the TV in the background while you are on a call is not professional.

They should be able to make a decision too. There's nothing worse than phone support that just reads from a mannual and can't make any decisions on your account.
Not sure $200 a month is going to cut it though, depending on the call volume and responsibility.

Are you at least offering email support?
Not sure about your industry, but most people can deal with email support that gets back to them within 24 hours.

I wouldn't put any kind of "I know we suck and we're working on it" statement on the site. I understand the honestly of it, but for now, at least give them some kind of contact option like email, until you figure out the live support thing.

[chrisV2]

thanks Harold!

Really good points. Yes, I offer email support, and could even easily drop in a "help ticket" system if I wanted to. I agree with you the "friend or family" idea would have to be carefully designed to make it work. The ideal situation would be someone who is "ok" being near their computer for say 4 hours per day -- but has another hobby or reason for being home that doesn't make me be the singular reason for their being there. The first few months there literally could be only a couple of calls to receive per week, so I wouldn't want to put someone on a $15/hr deal for 20 hours a week. I would have a gentleman's agreement that we'd review volumes at the end of each month to see if it makes sense to increase the compensation plan.

I would empower this person to make prudent decisions on sales, but for any sort of technical questions they would have to defer to me for a call-back or email followup.

I'm starting to cozy up to this idea...

[KristineS]

I'd agree with what Harold said. Whomever you hired for part time support would have to be well trained and committed to representing your business professionally. Nothing is worse than calling somewhere for help and talking to someone who knows nothing and can do nothing. So, if you got that route, make sure you vet the person you hire carefully.

I also agree that putting up a notice that says "we don't have this but we're working on it" isn't the right way to go. If you do choose not to offer phone support, then phrase whatever explanation you give so that it sounds like whatever option you elect to offer is a better option than phone support. (Can you tell I'm in marketing?). There are ways to phrase almost everything.

I would also make multiple forms of contact available. I'm assuming whatever phone service person you hired in the beginning would not be available for the entire business day, so I'd specify customer service hours. I'd also have and e-mail address available and possibly online chat hours. The more options you give people and the more quickly you respond to them, the better their perception of your company will be.

[billbenson]

For now I'd take the phone off the web site forcing them to email support. It will definitely cost you sales because a lot of people want to talk to a real person. What it will do, though is allow you to keep building your site to a point where you can add a phone number and make a real business out of it.

The call back button is also a good idea if you can call them during business hours. If you do this, present them with a form describing the question. I'd also ask for an email in that form. You can play around with that being a required field or not. I'd start with making email a required field. That way if you can't call them during regular hours you can always email them in the evening.

[chrisV2]

thanks...yeah I talked to a friend of mine who I bounce these sort of ideas off and he didn't like the live person idea. Reason was that given the arrangement, my business will not be this person's primary priority in life and I will end up paying someone $200 to maybe answer a phone call a couple of times a week...with likely spotty performance.

So I'm still weighing the alternatives. My goal was not to have a 'support' person, but simply an 'order taker' person. If someone wants to call to place an order with credit card in hand, I wanted to be able to close that sale. Also, I think human nature is to look for a toll-free number on any ecommerce site - and if there isn't one there it automatically makes the site look "cheap" or worse.

What do you guys think about this combination:

a. Toll free number that goes to my cell phone or iPad (e.g. the Line2 app). During the evening I can answer. During the day it would go to a well-formed message and voice mailbox, for later call-back.
b. "contact us" form that could be filled out, to ask any sort of question (I already have this).
c. "live chat", which I can cover during the evening hours as well...and if I'm not online it would default over to the "contact us" form.

I know there is nothing better than a live person if I am worried about taking phone orders. I also think phone orders will be less than 10% of my sales so maybe the other ideas will be "ok" for now...

[Harold Mansfield]

When I see a phone number, I expect someone to answer the phone M-F 9-5. If evening is the only time that you can handle support calls, then I'd stick with email support for now.

[Pack-Secure]

Perhaps if you have the ability to have a support system with texting, that you can respond throughout the day??? Might be a good idea.

[MyITGuy]

I would personally look into an answering service. Mind sharing what type of product a person would order or need support for? We might be able to point you in the right direction there.

I.E. For IT needs, I know of companies that can provide support in blocks of minutes which is extremely reasonable considering my billable rate.

[Steve B]

I think you can make it work with a live person answering your call during business hours. Here is how.

Find a Virtual Assistant. This is someone that is a full-time professional admin. person that works for themself and works for more than one company. They will be near their computer and their phone all day and will be professional when they answer your phone. If they live near you, you can just get them a cell phone so they will always know when it's one of your phone calls. The trick is to pay them per phone call answered. I would give them $10 for each time they answer your phone (assuming it's a legitimate call). Maybe give them $5 if they pick up your phone and it's a solicitation or a wrong number. This way they're motivated to drop what they're doing when your phone rings and you will get off cheaper than $200 per month if you're only getting a couple calls a week. Who wouldn't pick up a ringing phone if they could make a quick $5 or $10? Maybe the amount is higher if your average phone call is longer than 10 or 15 minutes. The point is to pay them for each time they answer the phone. Once the volume of calls goes up - you can think about hiring someone directly (by the hour).