TallTayl Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 Why is it when a customer email or etsy convo appears we all fear the worst? They are usually very few and far between, but stick out like a sore thumb and can completely ruin a perfectly fine day. (The TLDR below the story opened my eyes. Skip to there if you don’t want the story) The story. Got one of “those” emails a few days ago. Apparently I picked the wrong scent of a deodorant a few weeks back, and for some reason Monday was “THE DAY” someone chose to be very angry. The person was a repeat customer had been using the product for several weeks and liked it, it was just the wrong scent. The wording was scathing, and way out of proportion for the situation. I take customer service very seriously and once I figured out my mistake, I immediately sent out a new one in the scent the customer ordered. The customer was thrilled, and has since reached back out twice thanking me. lessons learned: 1) I have been too lax in new product photos. Since rebranding I have not kept up with the monumental task of reshooting hundreds of photos. Those photos are on my packing slips, so super easy to rush picking and make that mistake. Easy to solve, I just need to make it a #1 priority. I picked that order by the photo and not the “words” on the picking slip. 2) wear glasses when packing, lol. The print on the pick/pack slip is tiny. I make checkmarks, circle details, and write personal notes on the slip. That is not enough to eliminate my own mistakes. This was 100% my fault by simply not reading carefully. 3) not every angry customer hates you. Don’t take things personally. How you handle the situation is actually more important than doing things “correctly” the first time. 4) for every negative convo, there are hundreds of thrilled customers. Focus on the positive energy. the TLDR A 2020 resolution is to use mindless time better to learn something new. A quick way to fit in self-improvement is listening to podcasts while doing chores. Chores take at a minimum an hour to complete every morning, this is ample time for at least one podcast. A few weeks ago a podcast by Jenna Kutcher of Goal Digger opened my eyes. The crux of the message is not getting any complaints is a bad thing. Why? You probably have not cast your net wide enough. While you don’t want hundreds of complaints, a few here and there create opportunities to correct and strengthen your line and brand. You can’t please everyone, so expect a few to be displeased. if everyone is perfectly happy, you might want to consider expanding a bit to reach more potential customers. what do you think? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chevcher Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 I've always been somewhat of a "People Pleaser", so naturally customer complaints was something that made me a bit fearful. In recent years I've changed my mindset on that fear and accepted it as a way to keep me grounded, because we're all human and mistakes happen. Since most of my business is done at festivals , I've had to deal with complaints face to face. Thankfully, they've been few and far between and those customers were very gracious in their approach. I agree, it does create opportunities to improve as well as potentially grow your business by learning from those mistakes. I've been creating candles & scented wax products for 24 years now, I'm still learning new things and enjoying all that comes along with it. Now ,if I could just get motivated enough to put together a website , maybe cast my net a little wider 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted March 5, 2020 Author Share Posted March 5, 2020 @chevcher I loved working with WordPress to build a site for an artist friend. Woo commerce made a great cart with lots of power. personally I LOVE bigcommerce. Equally easy to set up and powerful features. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chevcher Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 14 hours ago, TallTayl said: @chevcher I loved working with WordPress to build a site for an artist friend. Woo commerce made a great cart with lots of power. personally I LOVE bigcommerce. Equally easy to set up and powerful features. @TallTayl thanks ,I will definitely check into that. I started to build one last year on WIX, then I got really overwhelmed with everything and aborted the mission. I'm thinking that I need to watch some tutorials to get over my fear of screwing things up . The hardest part for me is figuring out shipping costs. I don't want to gouge people but I also don't want to lose money. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewtonAgency Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Believe it or not... not all bad reviews or complaints are bad for business. If you have thousands of reviews and never had a complaint a normal person will start to wonder because everbody knows it's not humanly possible to please everyone all the time. The key to "Good" bad reviews or complaints is your followup as the business owner. 9 out of 10 times if you make it right by the customer they will respond and put the positive under the negative and that shows potential customers that although your not perfect you do genuinely care and you are human just like them. Many times the person who was negative will now tell people "they screwed up my order but after i posted they went above and beyond" and will actually recommend your business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilosCandles Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 (edited) I gave a full range of reviews. 99% positive, but always happy to figure out a way to satisfy some of the people complaining. Few Samples Had some email that they never received their package (candle). While I was checking the tracking info, they also posted a 1 star review claiming they never received their package. The package said delivered. At that point I did not bother responding after the negative review. Normally I gladly send another candle to them. Someone on my FB "Doesn't Recommend Me", with an crazy explanation. I clicked on his name, and all of his comments across FB are negative. I had a problem for a bit that customer thought changing the scent also changed the can it was it. I quickly learned that if it doesn't make sense I just reach out to them to confirm, after reaching out twice and no response I just cancel the order. Generally if anyone reaches out to me directly I offer a refund, or a new candle and hope they buy again. Edited June 2, 2020 by MilosCandles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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