Customer service software is often sold as a component of a much larger enterprise-wide customer relationship management solution for medium to large companies. This is frequently out of the range of the budget for the small internet business owner.While consumer service is a vital issue, it needs to be handled in different ways for different organizations. One extremely effective method is to combine a customer support service with a web trust seal. This is ideal for the online business who also wants to give proof of his trustworthiness.The very fact that a business is operating an after-sales support program demonstrates that they take consumer service seriously and deserve the trust seal.By adding on to the trust seal, an automated support mechanism for the vendor and a publicly viewable “outstanding issues” log for any poor performers and you have a system that practically guarantees excellent customer support.Customer support software can run into tens of thousands of dollars for license fees and implementation. The trust seal approach is a monthly subscription service that can be started for around twenty dollars a month.This method of providing first class customer support also does away with any difficult technical problems. As all the software programming for the service is on the service providers servers, all that is required is the simple copy and pasting of some html code for the trust seal to be visible and the service to be available.The trust seal is usually placed on the home page and sales pages of the website and this makes it easy for the customer to find and use the feedback forms.Provided that all support issues are answered fairly and promptly, the vendor keeps his “Excellent” support rating. Should he fail to do so, potential new customers will see that his status is less than adequate.This method of providing consumer care provides clear focus on building better and more sustainable customer relationships for both small and medium sized businesses.