Stock market beginners learn one thing quick when learning how to invest online: online brokers never call, and they never write. The fact is that it’s investing 101 to know online stock brokers are more interested in taking commission fees than taking your calls.

Truly, that can be a good thing for investors who are used to making their own decisions and don’t want to be hassled with sales pitches.

After all, that’s why you choose an online broker in the first place, isn’t it?

But what about when you need your online stockbroker? When you have an important question, or you want to move money, and the web site isn’t working for you?

You want to know your online broker will be there for you, right?

According to a recent J.D. Power and Associates survey of online brokers, customer service is one of the five most important things investors look for when choosing an online broker.

“It isn’t always going to be the cheapest trade that’s going to get you the business,” says David Lo, director of the J.D. Power and Associates survey. “The sensitivity between $7 a trade and $10 a trade isn’t much. If you’re providing the premium experience, there’s less sensitivity to the price per trade.”

The Premium Online Stock Broker Experience

So what exactly is the “premium experience?” According to Lo, research tools are key. So is the web site interface (how easy it is to use, how fast, etc.), and of course, price. And customer service ranks right up in the top four.

In fact, Scottrade, the top broker in J.D. Power’s survey, was the only one of two brokers to score top marks on customer service (Vanguard was the other).

Scottrade Spokesperson Kelly Doria attributes the high marks to the firm’s recent investments in beefing up customer service.

“Certainly cost is important,” Doria says. “But everyone in the industry is looking at what more can we offer our customers than low-cost trades. It comes down to overall experience. We’ve hung our hat on having tremendous customer service.”

Scottrade currently has 358 branch offices, and is adding a new branch office about once a week.

Signs of Good Service From Your Online Broker

Beyond branch access, other signs of good customer service include…

…fast email response times, live chat that works well, the ability to execute trades in ways other than online, and extended customer service hours.

TradeKing earned high marks in customer service from a recent Smart Money survey of online brokers. TradeKing CEO Don Montanaro advises investors to test-drive a broker’s customer service before opening up an account.

Send an email, and see how long it takes to get a response. Call. Try out the live chat feature. Pay close attention to how quickly the representative responds, as well as how satisfied you are with the response.

TradeKing offers customer service by phone and email from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time, on weekdays, plus email support on nights and weekends. Fidelity goes one step further: The firm has telephone customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Does Your Online Broker Have a Community?

But it may be more than speed of response, availability of customer service reps or number of branch offices that sets one online broker apart from another.

In this era of social networking, online discount brokers are increasingly adding features like blogs, online communities and forums, where investors can ask questions of each other, share trading advice and even make their own trades and results public.

Although these features aren’t typically thought of as customer service in the traditional sense, they play a role.

If you can get your questions answered in minutes at an online forum, or even get advice or investing ideas—something customer service reps can’t offer—there’s no need to call the company.

TradeKing is a leader in offering these vibrant, social networking features. But the firm is well aware that having that kind of transparency among customers can be a double-edged sword.

If customers aren’t happy, they complain instantaneously and publicly. And if those complaints aren’t addressed, there may be a backlash.

For investors, that’s good news. Even if you never use the blogs or forums, just knowing a broker has that kind of functionality can reassure you they’ll be on top of customer service.

More Than One Way to Execute Trades

Finally, make sure your online broker has a way to execute trades other than just online. Web sites go down. Technical difficulties are a fact of life.

When something happens, you should be able to contact your online broker and get the issue addressed or the trade executed, even if the typical online means aren’t currently available.

Most online brokers also offer automated touch-tone telephone trading and/or broker-assisted trading. The commission structure might be different for these trades, though, so ask before you act.

Louis Navellier’s Secret Sell-Off Weapon – This secret weapon is called Portfolio Grader, and it analyzes nearly every stock on Wall Street — including those you’re holding in your portfolio right now. This one-of-a-kind tool provides bottom-line analysis in simple letter-grade ratings from A (strong buy) to F (strong sell) — not only helping you sidestep troubled companies that could take your portfolio by surprise, but it also identifies market-beating stocks that will help boost your portfolio’s performance. Access Portfolio Grader online now — FREE!