Quote:
Originally Posted by Blaine Moore
I don't know how you will plan on accepting money from your customers, but if you get a merchant account through Visa or Mastercard, they require that you have a valid and working phone number and postal address on your site.
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That's exactly what I was thinking. It sounds like it might be a paypal-only store, though?... A few clients I've had in the past have done pretty well operating only like that.
The other point here I'll underscore is that I think a good advanced voicemail service is a nice middle ground between 100% "live service" and only e-communication. With automated voicemail you can receive orders by phone, too, if you set it up like that, and deal with customer service more promptly.
Plus, customers seem to like the security of a phone number -- the company I'm currently working for starting using gotvmail a month ago and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. The combination of an 800 number and professional automated answering (with extensions, etc) makes the company seem a lot larger than it really is...(makes their pockets seem deeper, too)
But, it all depends on your particular business model and how you'll be operating.