This is a very simple trap which many thousands of would be online business people have fallen into, which came first, the customer or customer services? While the majority of people may say the customer, you really need to do your homework and have all of your systems in place before going “live”.

While obviously you need customers to stand any chance of making money, but making money and being successful are often two different things. To be successful you need to ensure that your customers visit you over and over again, thus increasing your income and reducing the cost of your advertising revenue compared to your income.

Imagine the scenario, your site is ready to go, you are chomping at the bit, everything is ready, then bang! You are live. You sell your first product, money in the bank, great, but then the customer comes back and asks for some help or advice, what do you do? Who can help? Is there a system in place?

Unless you are able to offer after sales care then there is every chance that customer will not return to your site, and they may pass on their concerns to others. That means that each new customer you bring, is potentially only going to buy from you once, before moving on - what a waste!

In order to be successful you need to ensure that all of your systems and procedures are in place before you go live. While you will need to adjust some elements as you go along, you need to be ready with the answers which your customers will ask, you need to be ready with some good old fashioned advice, something which will ensure that come back to you time and time again.

A non-repeat customer is a wasted customer, and very expensive to replace!