Ever trained in retail or hospitality, only to hear your boss say 'the customer is always right'? Well, the same line of logic can be just as easily applied to online businesses.

If you work for an online company, then you are probably well-aware of the difficulty in both attracting and retaining customers amid the fierce and extensive competition in the internet. At the end of the day, the key to longevity and success lies not in the amount of products you sell, but rather, the quality of your customer service and support.

Some of the most profitable online businesses have admitted that their support services are what can be accredited with their success. Thomas Watson, Founder of IBM, has told his competition repeatedly, "Don't worry about profits; worry about service." And if you think about it reasonably, why wouldn't you want to invest in making the customer's experience at your business outstanding when it is he or she who will be paying your bills?

As for the customer, however, there are several key reasons as to why customer service and support are so important when shopping online. The first and most important is the element of safety; purchasing a product or service online means using either a credit card or online payment service, which involves providing personal and private information, such as bank-account numbers or a home address. Any problem, from the computer freezing to a site being down can cause great concern to the customers, and it will be their first impulse to contact the site and verify the issue before continuing. It is at this moment that you, the site-manager, will want to have accessible and prompt customer support services to offer them, because if they feels overlooked, they will immediately lose faith in your company and move on to the next best site. Sometimes, it is just about wanting to know that there is an actual person dealing with him and not a computer system alone.

Another crucial aspect regarding customer service and support is that of feedback. Customers using your site will generally be interested (for their own benefit) in making suggestions for improvement or even complaining. Take these as golden opportunities to rise above your competition, for it is the customers who choose where to shop online and why. Allowing for such feedback is also an effective way of getting to know your clients and the kind of demographic they represent.

And finally, like with everything, people like having options. Today it is not enough to list a single email address and expect this to satisfy; today, online businesses are expected to provide multiple communication platforms with prompt and accurate answers, from live chat functions to 24/7 toll-free phone-lines. Many sites whose product is a service provided online in real time, such as banking sites and game sites as goldrockcasino.com provide an embedded support chat right within their software, to make the service as accessible and immediate as possible.

Put yourself in the clients' shoes and consider every way of making their experience with you a comprehensive, consistent and dependable one. Or, like a good friend, just be there for them!