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There are many tactics one can employ to improve their search engine rankings.  After all improved rankings usually means increased sales and more profits for the business owner.

There are certain things that some businesses seem to neglect however.  And they usually have the biggest impact on your bottom line.

In this article I look at the most important tactic to increasing your sales from your website.

Recent studies show that more and more people are changing their buying habits.  They are feeling more comfortable with online security and are therefore spending more time online shopping and buying.

In fact, a recent study suggests that online sales over the holidays will grow by 16% this year over the same time last year – up to almost $28 billion.

It is clear that more and more businesses are moving online as they realize that compared to other forms of marketing, online is still much cheaper than TV, radio and even print.

Yet with this massive growth in online sales there is still one key concept which some businesses just can’t grasp.

They could be the best content optimizers or link builders in their industry but there could still be one area they don’t get.

That is Customer Service.

Yup, that’s right.  This is the most important aspect of any online campaign.  Because if you don’t have it, you aren’t going to sell to your potential.

Here’s a good example:  A friend of mine recently found a domain registrar who sells domains for $2.99 per year.

That’s cheap – cheaper than any place else I’ve seen.  So of course he went and registered a couple domains that he wanted.  After all, he’s basically getting 2 domains for the price of one.

You’d think this vendor of registrations would be the most popular one on the web.  But in fact, like many online retailers it doesn’t get the whole picture.

You see, my friend used his credit card to register the domains online yet he received no confirmation from the company that they were paid, even though the website said he would.

Normally you get such a confirmation so that you can then set up hosting, but he received no such confirmation.

No problem, he thought.  He’ll get a hold of them to see what’s going on.  They offered live online help via chat after all, so they must care about their customers.

So my friend initiated a conversation with one of their support staff, he got to “here’s my problem” when the person at the other end seemed to disappear.

There was no response from them even after waiting 15 minutes.

So he thought he’d try to call them, as they also have a toll free number.  He called them up and the phone was promptly answered.  Guess what?  It was the same guy he was talking to via the online support.

“Oh yeah, I remember you,” he said “hold on, I’ll put you through to customer support.”

So my friend sat on hold and waited.  And waited. And waited some more.

Finally, after another 15 minutes of waiting he gave up.

Overall my friend spent ˝ hour trying to solve this issue and didn’t even get close.

As you can guess, the customer service here was horrendous.  What type of business makes their customer wait ˝ hour and still doesn’t help them?  Sure the domain was cheap, but that’s not excuse for poor customer service.

It seems that some online businesses suffer from the same malady as brick and mortar retailers.  They think that if the price is cheap enough they can sacrifice customer service.

But that just isn’t the case.  Look at how many big box stores opened up in the 90’s.  Now look at how many are still around.  Sure there was a down turn in the economy but there are hundreds of other businesses that didn’t close up.  Do you think customer service had anything to do with it?  I do.

This is why, when you go into some stores, you are almost pounced on by customer service staff.  Because these businesses realize the value of good customer service.  I know many people who would rather pay extra to have their groceries bagged for them.  This is an example of customer service.

Sure there are those who like to shop anonymously and don’t want or need help but most of us do.

Here’s another example of bad customer service.  How many times have you gone into a store and seen every cash register open, yet there is no one at the refund counter?  You would think that the store would want to try and impress on those returning items how important their business is to them, even if they are returning something.

Online retailing has the same issues.  Have you ever tried to return something you’ve purchased online, or otherwise try to get some or all of your money back.  It can be incredibly stressful.  There are forms to fill out and sometimes you have to wait weeks for a refund, yet they can process your credit card for the purchase transaction and withdraw money instantly.  To me that just isn’t right.

Back to my friend.

He finally did get to talk to someone and get his issue resolved, after 4 phone calls – two of which they cut him off.

Will he buy from them again?  He says “maybe.  The price was good after all but the customer service sucks.”

And what did they say was the reason that he didn’t get his confirmation:

“We had lots of emails to send last night.”

What does that mean?  Are you personally writing them?

Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for Textlinkbrokers.com