Although spring is typically a season brimming with hope, there’s a big black economic cloud hovering over us this year that is threatening to deliver, among other things, astronomical gas prices, thousands more home foreclosures and profound sticker shock at the grocery store. Consumers are understandably reluctant to part with their hard-earned money because they fear tougher times ahead.

The bright spot in all this is that ecommerce is the one area that continues to enjoy growth despite the economic monsters hiding in the trees. And you, brilliant reader, had the foresight to select the perfect web hosting provider and launch your online business years ago, offering you some level of immunity from the financial crunch facing our nation.

Online and off, customer service is the single most important tool you have to differentiate yourself from your competitors in a tight economy – web hosting provider explains. A recent survey conducted by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) showed that customer satisfaction has declined in every area except one: Ecommerce. On the 100 point ACSI scale, ecommerce scored 81.6 this year, up 1.6 points from last year.

“Against a backdrop of weakening customer spending and talk about recession, ecommerce will continue to be a bright spot for multi-channel marketers,” wrote Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, a research firm that helped conduct the ACSI survey. “Companies have to excel at their online channel. Survival in this economy depends on customer satisfaction because an alternative is just a mouse click away. It is essential to find out exactly what a customer is thinking before, during and after the purchase.”

Since customer satisfaction is the key to success in a lagging economy, how can you be sure that your customers are happy with you? Ask them. And how do you go about doing that? A lot depends on your type of product or service.

Web hosting provider offers tips on collecting customer feedback:

• Post a feedback form on your website. Focus on your customers’ buying experience and service. Make it short, easy to find and easy to use. If it takes a customer more than a couple of minutes to complete a feedback form they are less likely to do it.
• Track comments from appropriate message boards, forums and rating sites. Look for trends, both positive and negative. Ask your web hosting provider about the tracking services that best serve your needs.
• Invite your customers to write reviews of your products and services to post on your site. Posting customers’ views on your website will guide other potential buyers in making an informed choice of your products and services.
• Provide an interactive online chat support so that customers can get questions answered and also offer their opinions in real time. Your web hosting provider can help you make this happen.

Some ecommerce owners prefer to use formal surveys to get feedback. When you send a customer a survey you are saying “You matter to me.”  Sending a brief survey following a sales transaction, event or interaction gets immediate feedback while the experience is still fresh in customers’ minds. This type of survey gets the customer’s “gut” reaction. Linda Keefe, CEO of Shared Results International offers the following tips for businesses that want to leverage online surveys:

• Pretest your survey to a small cross-section of your mailing list. Call them in advance and personally ask them to take the survey
• Always ask yourself the question: “If I get this kind of information, what am I going to do with it?”
• Write the survey questions in such a way that they measure a degree of force. For example, ask your customers to rate your product or service on a scale of 1 to 10. If they don’t rate your service a 10, find out what would have made it so.

The lack of face to face interaction can be a challenge for ecommerce owners who want to gauge the satisfaction level of customers. That is why customer feedback systems are critical for survival. Work with your web hosting provider to make sure you are constantly exceeding your customers’ expectations. It all boils down to one thing: Keep your customers happy or someone else will.