While a company's pool of information presented on the Web can be comprehensive and its search engines helpful, clients are often lead down a number of erroneous paths. Customer satisfaction can suffer if inappropriate products are purchased. At DELL, a popular mail order computer source, Internet sales are growing but overall customer satisfaction may be suffering. According to a seasoned sales associate, this may be due to the salesperson's ability to better tailor PCs to customers' needs and interests. They can recommend less expensive ways to achieve the same performance.
Professional copywriters are more likely to put a puffed up spin on a product's benefits.
In fact, research shows that acknowledgment of product flaws and limitations can actually improve customer perception of a product. This is in part a credibility issue. Skilled and ethical salespeople steer customers away from inappropriate products and disclose product limitations, improving post purchase satisfaction. More familiar presentation and discussion formats may better meet customers' informational and emotional needs. Case in point, while working at a university specializing in worldwide on-line education, I was very satisfied when site traffic nearly quadrupled.