3 Customer Service Tactics to Help Increase Sales

• Overly complicated paths? Crawl your site.
• Too many broken links? Check your 404 error messages.
• Are your big customers still satisfied? Take a look at your accounts receivable. If they're not satisfied, more than likely they're late with payment.
• How can you determine which pages are failing? Take a look at your exit rates.

3. Ask them. Surveys only tell what responding customers think, said Holstein. Another reason why he's not a fan of surveys? You risk hassling everyone on your list for low response rates, and the results are rarely actionable. If you must use a survey, make sure not to ask for respondents’ names — it'll help drive up response.

Holstein prefers usability studies as a tool to learn more about your customers. Don't use random people, but find people in your industry. And every department in your organization should track these studies, he said. In addition to usability studies, eye-tracking software may be worth the investment as a feedback-generating tool. Here are a couple of other ideas Holstein suggested retailers trying:

• When attending trade shows, don't give away tchotchkes for free. Create a landing page and ask for contact information in exchange for a free gift.
• Ask for suggestions with a suggestion page on your website.