Your affiliate marketing business is all about your customers. You may think it's about your product but it's really about connecting with customers so they buy your product. What's the best way to form that customer connection? Well, there's more than one way. You can use them all to your advantage to ensure long-term growth for your internet business.



Customer service is the best way to connect with customers. Customer service begins with the initial encounter with your affiliate product and continues after a sale. Customer service is not something to get a sale; customer service is not getting at all. Customer service is giving top-notch care to customers on a continual basis. Customers are the ones doing the getting from your giving. Your job as an affiliate marketer is to make sure they get it in spades.

With customer service, you want to go beyond the norm. You want to offer more than customers expect. When you do this, it encourages loyalty. Loyalty to you and your affiliate product means you're going to be in business for a long time. Customer service is being there when customers need you. Are your customers able to get in touch with you by phone, e-mail, or even snail mail? In other words, do your customers know where you are and when?

Customer service is more than niceties and pleasant e-mails saying, "Thanks for buying." It is dealing with complaints swiftly and properly to satisfy customers. It is articulating your customers' concerns about your affiliate product to those up the chain of command. Do you stand behind your affiliate product and go to bat for your customers in any disputes with the affiliate parent?

Another way to connect with your customers' is through giving them information. Do you offer knowledge bases for your customers' use? This could be in the form of live chat with trained agents. It could be online manuals, spec sheets, how-to reference material, whether in hard copy or online format. Your affiliate site can provide links to other websites that offer information and data on your affiliate product. You can also provide contact names of others who specialize in the information your customers require.

Think of how often you use an FAQ page. Provide the same for your customers. Most of the time customers' want a quick answer to a quick question. They are happy when you provide them the answer and make it easy for them to get it. If they can go to your site and receive the answer with one or two mouse clicks you have provided satisfaction. They will visit your website again. They move closer to buying from you when you give them information and service they need in an efficient way.

Having the person your affiliate customer talks to equipped with a well thought out script pays dividends as well. With scripts, a customer converses with an affiliate agent who has information readily at hand to answer their questions. Scripts mean you and your customer service agents are prepared. You will not waste your customers' time trying to find the right answers and conveying it in the right way. Scripts allow you to present the right information with the right words so you can communicate with your customers clearly. When a customer has a productive, insightful conversation with a customer service agent, they are happier. With their questions and concerns answered, they can move on to the buying decision.

Connect with your customers by using some or all of the above methods. Knowledge bases, FAQ's, and scripts all really fall under the broader umbrella of customer service when you think of it. Affiliate marketing is customer service. The sooner you employ quality customer service the sooner you achieve your affiliate marketing goals.