I pledge to you

What is a customer pledge, and how do you develop one? A pledge to your customers is a written guideline of what they can expect when doing business with you. The pledge should be the basis of your overall customer service philosophy.

Start your customer service pledge internally, and make it something used only by you. From there, you can create an external (public) customer service pledge.

Put it in writing

How do you create a customer pledge? Here are a few simple steps you can follow to get going:

1. Answer a few general questions about how you really feel about customers (be honest!):
   • How do you view your customers? Do you know them personally or speak with them on the phone, or are they anonymous?
   • How important are customers to you and your business?
   • How important is repeat business?
   • What are you willing to do for customers every single day?
   • What are you not willing to do for your customers?
2. Define realistic parameters of how you plan to communicate with your customers every day, as shown in these two examples:

   How can customers contact you? Can they

   • Send e-mail 24 hours a day?
   • Call a toll-free phone number and leave a message 24 hours a day, or call a long-distance number during set business hours?
   • Send or post a message on any social media platform 24/7?
   • Write a letter and send it by snail mail (through the U.S. Postal Service)?

   When and how will you respond to customers?

   • Immediately when you respond by e-mail?
   • Within 24 hours (or less) when you respond by phone or e-mail; or within 30 minutes when you respond on social media?
3. Identify what, if anything, is special about the way you treat customers. For example, do you call customers personally to make sure that they received their orders? Or do you invite them to regular online sessions to discuss how your products or services could improve?
4. Draft a written document detailing your customer service pledge for your internal use. The document can consist of a short list of bullets or several paragraphs based on your previous answers. This guideline is your personal reminder of how you incorporate customers into your business every day.
5. Write a pledge to your customer. The pledge, which can be as general or specific as you choose, should reflect your internal customer service philosophy but be a written document that can be read and judged by the customer about how your business responds.

Privacy policy

A privacy policy details how you collect, treat, and use the information you receive from customers and from other people who visit your website. This policy not only covers information that customers knowingly provide but also applies to the use of cookies, or the information files that web servers create to track data about people and the online sites they visit. Your privacy policy should clearly state your commitment to customer privacy and data security. It should also include information about options or choices visitors and customers have in how their data is used. When operating a contest or any type of prize give-away, the rules of the contest would be added to your privacy policy. The Better Business Bureau offers tips for writing an effective privacy policy, and provides a sample policy to use as a template; go to www.bbb.org/dallas/for-businesses/bbb-sample-privacy-policy1.

A privacy policy is a requirement for your online business if you’re based in the United States. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) mandates this policy. The policy must be properly labeled on your website and easily accessible within your site.

Your privacy policy should include these elements as well:

• A description of how you collect information from your site visitors and customers
• Details of what information you collect
• An explanation of what you do with the information and how and where you store it
• A disclosure of with whom you might share customer information
• Instructions for how visitors or customers can change their information or remove it from your records

Your policy on how you handle a customer’s credit card data should be in line with the requirements of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). As an online retailer, you’re required to comply with certain regulations for handling and storing sensitive customer data under the PCI DSS, or else you could face a steep financial penalty. The PCI Security Standards Council provides up-to-date information for online retailers. To find out more, visit www.pcisecuritystandards.org.

User agreement or terms and conditions

Increasingly, sites are implementing user agreements. Just like a written contract, this agreement specifies terms or conditions by which you allow visitors or customers to use your site. You might choose to post on your site a static (unchanging) page that simply lists these points. A more legally binding version of this agreement, however, requires visitors to acknowledge that they have read the terms and agree to abide by them. Usually, before visitors are allowed to go to certain areas of your site, download an application, register for a service, or make a purchase, they’re forced to click a button verifying that they agree to the terms.

When you’re creating your site’s terms and conditions, you should include this information:

• How visitors or customers can or cannot use your site: Rules that apply to not only your customers but also your employees, such as posting personal information (phone numbers or physical addresses, for example) on a discussion forum
• Who is allowed to view your site: Whether visitors meet age or U.S. citizenship requirements, for example
• Which other policies are in place: Shipping, returns, or complaint procedures, for example
• Legal and liability issues: For example, details of responsibility by you and third parties for providing information and taking actions, and for specifying geographic location where legal disputes will be settled

Shipping policy

Your shipping policy should clearly explain the details of how and when customer orders are handled and shipped. Although you can determine some conditions of this policy, you must also comply with the FTC’s mail or telephone-order merchandise rule.

According to the FTC, your online site must

• Ship an order within the time frame you promised at the time of ordering or as stated in your advertising or on your website.

• Ship a product within 30 days after it’s received, unless you specify an earlier time frame.

  Most online retailers ship products within 5 to 7 business days at the longest. The exception is when a product is on back order, out of stock, or available for pre-order (in which case, an approximate shipping date is given). The FTC rule sets the maximum limits of what’s acceptable for shipping products.

• Give notice to a consumer as fast as possible whenever you cannot ship that person’s product when promised.
• Include a revised shipping date in the delay notice you send to a customer.
• Allow a customer to agree to a delay or to cancel an order and provide a description of the time required for a refund.

Return policy

Include in your return policy the conditions under which you allow customers to return a product or decline a service. Will the customer receive a full or partial refund from you? A good policy should protect both you and your customers. Be specific about your return policy so that customers clearly understand (and aren’t surprised by) your rules. Your policy should include these elements:

• Time limit: Set the maximum number of days within which a return will be accepted.
• Conditions of use: Maintain the right to reject a return if an item shows obvious signs of use, for example.
• Restock fee: Explain any fees incurred by restocking a returned item.
• Exceptions: Specify any items that cannot be returned.
• Shipping responsibility: Determine who pays for the cost of shipping when a product is returned.
• Refunds issued as cash or credit: Decide whether to issue store credit rather than give cash back.
• Third-party rules: Direct customers to consult the return policies of third-party vendors if you sell their items.

As e-commerce grows, so does the problem of customers taking advantage of online retailers. Let your return policy protect you by limiting the number of days you agree to accept returns. Customers must have enough time to evaluate products (3 to 5 days is a reasonable length of time) but not use it indefinitely before demanding their money back.

When you’re selling products through a third-party vendor, such as a storefront or an auction site (for example, Etsy.com or eBay), be sure to check whether the company has a mandated return policy. The vendor site’s policy can override your internal return policy.

Safety for young users

Whether or not you plan to sell to children, establish a policy about minors. If your site is targeted to children under 13 years old, has a separate section for kids, or is a general site but you know kids access it, your website must comply with the FTC’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. The policy was updated in 2013 to expand the definition of the types of sites and businesses that must comply. COPPA also specifies additional permissions that must be obtained from parents, especially involving the use of video, social media, and online games or apps. In 2015, the organization initiated the process to further update the parental consent requirements. As you see, COPPA is an evolving standard and it’s up to you (and it’s absolutely critical) to ensure your website continues to meet all guidelines and legal requirements. See compliance details at www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus84-childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule-six-step-compliance-plan-your-business.

Generally speaking, the COPPA rule requires you to

• Post a clear and comprehensive privacy policy on your website.
• Notify parents about how you collect information.
• Get parental consent before collecting information.
• Allow parents to see the information you collect about their children and let the parents change or delete details.
• Maintain the confidentiality, security, and integrity of the information you collect.

Other online policies

Following are other polices you may want to include on your website:

• Forum or chat room policies: In these areas of your site, visitors and customers can share their opinions, ideas, and concerns. If your site offers these communication options, set up some basic guidelines for how you operate each one. Your policy should specify such items as who can participate and whether someone must register (or sign in as a member) first. Also, indicate who is monitoring these activities and in what manner. The policy should clearly specify which type of material is inappropriate for posting, and how and when you might remove it.
• Social media: When you ask customers to engage with you through social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, or even on your blog, these external sites should be considered an extension of your business presence. After all, on these sites you might obtain information about your customers, such as contact information upon registration for contests and polls. We recommend that you develop a social media policy that explains how your customers’ personal information will or will not be used after it is collected.
• Exporting: If your site sells to customers outside the United States, you might be subject to special government regulations by the Commerce Department and Defense Department and possibly other departments. What you sell (or export) and to which countries you sell might be tightly regulated. If you believe that this is the case with your business, seek advice from your attorney about developing an exporting policy.
• Spam: Depending on your type of business, you can include a spam policy in your privacy policy. This policy states whether or not your site distributes marketing e-mail and how you respond to it.
• Endorsement and linking to other sites’ policies: Whether you sell products or services from other sites, provide links to sites not owned by you, or allow other sites to link to yours, you’re smart to notify customers about it. Your linking policy should simply state how external links are used and whether you endorse the information found on these linked sites. Provide customers with a way to notify you of problems with external sites or violations to your policy.