Having people on both sides of the counter can help

So it's good to understand your customers; This, I agree with. Full and proper understanding of the people you're serving involves a lot more than demographics and statistics and yes/no purchase decisions. Not that those are unmistakable observations, but I think one would accept them as being fairly cornerstone.

It's all about the little nuances when it comes to properly serving people; if you've ever worked in a sales position, you know what I mean – being able calibrate people's interest in a purchase and act accordingly to those little things that go left unsaid; things like body language and tone speaks volumes.

It's tough to see what isn't said when an endless expansive space lies between you and them. I don't know why e-commerce has been made void of all human interaction, with live customers interacting with – code? (unless, and I stress from experience, it's a matter or damage control "oh, you're right that's not what you ordered")

Those little nuances are the make or break, and if you can't react properly, then your toast.

With hoards of students running businesses online, what can they do in order to better gauge those little customer nuances; when to pounce, offer a discount, put on the hard sell, back off or not approach the customer at all (not everyone is worth your time)?

There are some big leaps in helping online entrepreneurs better serve (and understand their customers) in the online space. Live salespeople is one new one, but not too extraordinary. There are some other really interesting tools, which I find a bit more impressive.

One is chat analyzers that detect that which is not said, taking into a consideration a huge variety of factors that simpletons (i.e. non-robots) like you and I just don't grasp. What's more is that these puppies actually learn over time.

If a customer arrives at your online jewelery store from an affluent area, then they'll take the live online sales-person's precedence over the window shopper from another, less-affluent geographical region.

Is it worth it? Absolutely, when you're dealing with large numbers of customers. Not to mention that I think a program like this would really compliment an entrepreneur's decision to serve a niche market. So be proactive. Hire a live salesperson! Anyone know companies that specialize in this?

What if you can't afford this, you aren't dealing with high customer traffic and it's just not reasonable to set something up like this?