Regardless of how prosperous your company is, there is always room for improvement. And when is a better time to change than now? In honour of 2013 we have come up with a few New Year’s resolutions – regarding your customers, employees and yourself – that every ecommerce business can, and in some cases should, follow.

1. Reply to customers within 24h

Although many companies claim that’s how long it takes them to reply to their clients’ emails, the reality is quite different. If the email is about a bigger issue, at least let them know when they can expect a full reply – keeping them in the dark is far from good customer service.

2. Reward your customers

Have you had a loyal customer for years? Let them know you are grateful their support by offering them something for extra – free shipping, a freebie or a discount. It won’t make you go bankrupt and the customer will feel appreciated.

3. Take risks

If you want to play it safe, you probably won’t achieve great success. Take risks, invest in new ventures or expand to new markets – of course after appropriate analyses and business plan.

4. Listen to your employees

Your team isn’t just a bunch of 9-5 workers with clearly defined tasks. It is your staff that makes the company. Listen to their suggestions and respect their opinions. After all, they want the best for your business, as it means also the best for them.

5. Refresh your website layout

Even if you have a great layout, it’s fun to sometimes change it – whether just the colour of a sidebar or a whole new look. Remember though to make sure it looks equally good on all PCs, Macs, tablets and smartphones.

6. Make your customers’ lives easier

If you run an e-shop, put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think how you can improve its system to make the shopping experience even easier and more enjoyable. Maybe implementing single-click payments or simplifying your Terms Of Service is a good way to start?

7. Play and have fun!

It’s good to sometimes forget about spreadsheets, business meetings and deadlines, and instead just have fun. You never know what might come out of it – our recent “war” with Braintree was spotted by various marketing sites and ended up on Wykop.pl (Polish equivalent of Reddit). Something that in the beginning was just us having fun with toys, ended up as a case study that was read by almost 40,000 people.

Do you have any other New Year’s resolutions for your business? Share them with us in the comments section!

Mr Banks

Mr. Banks is actually a fictional character, but does some real work. This makes him PayLane's fictional employee of the year :)