When you take a business online, customers expect to have ready access to support options. Delivering such options can put you ahead of your competition. You might think that providing great online customer service is expensive. However, with some creativity, you can give your customers excellent support at minimal cost.

Step 1:
Encourage customers to submit questions or concerns via email. Email is inexpensive, and if your business is small you may be able to answer the emails yourself. Answering these emails expeditiously will encourage customers to submit future questions by email.

Step 2:
Provide support via instant messenger. Many programs are free to download, so you and your customers won’t incur extra costs. Customers can also leave you a message if you are offline.

Step 3:
Find inexpensive phone options. Consider unlimited long distance, VoIP, and services such as Skype. See the Resources section for some instant messenger programs you can use.

Step 4:
Set up a customer forum. Customers may be able to help each other, and you can check the forum each day to resolve any issues that need your attention. Forum software is often available for free through your web hosting provider.

Step 5:
Have a chat room available to discuss customer service issues. There are support chat software solutions with many features. However, if they are beyond your budget, you still can take advantage of the convenience of chat. Just provide a way for your customers to schedule a chat, then give them the link to your chat room and meet them there at the agreed upon time.