| Customer service is a critical part of any vendor | | | | already fifteen minutes til five eastern time. What do |
| relationship. A fulfillment house may offer any or all of | | | | you do? |
| the following means of customer support: | | | | Can you pick up the phone and call someone or are |
| Telephone Support | | | | you forced to send an email or submit a support |
| Email Support | | | | ticket and wait for a response? |
| Ticket-based Support System | | | | Obviously, you'll need to decide for yourself what |
| Video Tutorials | | | | level of customer service best fits your needs. Some |
| Online Chat | | | | companies boast of specifically being only "production |
| Website Support | | | | machines" and make it very clear you will never, ever |
| In most cases support is provided free of charge | | | | talk to a real person. If you want to be able to talk |
| with purchase of a product or service. But that's not | | | | with someone if you have a question then you |
| always the case and you'll want to know what you're | | | | probably want to avoid this type of service. If the |
| getting into before you commit to a relationship. This | | | | ability to talk by phone isn't important to you then |
| is particularly true in the software market. To the | | | | that type of service may be a perfect fit for you. |
| best of our knowledge no fulfillment companies | | | | The questions you should ask: |
| presently charge for customer service. | | | | What methods of customer support do you |
| The critical question, in our opinion, is "How do I get a | | | | offer? |
| hold of someone in the event of an emergency?" For | | | | Is support free or is there a cost involved? |
| example, let's say you land a prospective last minute | | | | On what days and during what hours is |
| joint venture partner just before your new product | | | | customer support available? |
| launch, but they say they need to see the actual | | | | What are your response times? |
| product first before they'll do a promotion. It's | | | | |