I'm going to go out on a limb here and declare that everything old is new again when it comes to customer service. For years now, many companies have been removing a personal touch from their customer service, particularly their online customer service. Automated phone menus and call routing, outsourcing / off-shoring and even the advent of the internet have moved customer service from a friendly person on the phone to a web page or an automated voice. But that trend is changing and many companies (Register.com included) have learned that personal service is the best way to build strong relationships with customers.

This is not to say service over the web is a bad thing – quite the contrary – but at Register.com we practice giving customers options and we've found that our customers really appreciate having a choice for service. Here is some small business advice regarding service options that we use here at Register.com and that you might want to employ to give a personal touch to your own online customer service.

Offer Live Chat – giving customers an option to reach out directly from your website and ask a quick question is particularly effective for product usability questions.

Dedicate a Service Inquires Email – many customers find it easier to ask a status or account question via email but if you use this option, be sure to set up one dedicated mailbox for customer inquires that is monitored regularly. You could also set up an automatic response email that tells customers what sort of response time to expect.

Answer the Phone – even if you are a web based company, sometimes customers just want to talk to a real person – particularly when they have a detailed or technical question. At Register.com we encourage customers to call us and we are committed to answering the phone with a real person – not an automated call routing system. To us, it's one more way we show our commitment to being there for our customers.

Post FAQ's – post frequently asked questions on your website and as long as you have search functionality on the page, this will be an easy way for customers to find answers to their simplest questions.