The following excerpt is from Jill Schiefelbein’s book Dynamic Communication. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
In today’s digital world, there’s no such thing as business hours because a business can never be truly “closed” anymore. That’s not to say your physical office space doesn’t shut down, but your customers and your potential customers expect access to you 24/7. Whether that comes in the form of locating information on your website, engagement and interaction on and with your social media channels or leaving a review on a third-party site, your business is always “open.” You can never stop paying attention.
With the technology available today, it’s easier than ever to do this. The appearance of 24/7 availability communicates to your customers that they’re your number-one priority. Here are some tenets of 24/7-style service:
The ability to communicate at all times
Offering your customers open communication channels with your company at all hours is important. This means having a current web presence with easily accessible contact information, and a support team.
If customers are using your product, they should be able to ask for and get help, no matter what time of day it is. Even if it’s only an automated response that tells them your service and support hours, and provides links to possible interim solutions, that’s better than leaving them in the dark, not knowing when they’ll receive a response. For websites that have live chat features, the best ones let users know where they…
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