The dreaded difficult customer. We’ve all had {or will have} one at some point. If you haven’t experienced this pitfall yet I’m sure you can imagine the heart-stopping moment when you spy the product review that tarnishes your perfect track record. Those 5 beautiful, golden stars are blemished for all eternity {or so you believe}. Before you throw in the towel and decide you just can’t take the critique, I’m going to share my first dance with a {ahem} difficult customer.
So, in addition to selling nursery bedding and baby gifts, I make seasonal grapevine wreaths adorned with handmade felt flowers. While these items totally detract from my shop cohesion, they have proven to be quite popular at certain times of the year; so I continue to find virtual real estate for them. The fall wreaths are some of my personal faves. It’s my favorite season and for that reason alone I have more fun making the autumn wreaths. One fall I received an order for a Thanksgiving wreath that changed how I thought about customers thereafter. Here’s how I handled a sale with a less than thrilled customer….
I thought my item descriptions were clear enough and that it was pretty obvious that I was not gathering up the grapevines and twisting them into wreaths myself, but it wasn’t clear enough for one particular customer. After the order was processed and shipped, I received an email stating that her wreath had more dried leaves on it than she cared for and she underestimated the size. It was a bit more than that I suppose. She was down right unhappy with the wreath. Not the flowers mind you, the actual wreath.
I’m pretty picky when it comes to choosing my materials. I prefer wreaths to have thicker vines and a really nice shape; so you can imagine my surprise at her complaint. After a few cleansing breaths, I replied that I do not handcraft the wreaths and that the size was stated in the description. However, in lieu of negative feedback I gave her options. I explained that I could either offer a full refund, or replace the wreath with a slightly larger version at no additional cost {and she could keep the original as a gift}.
She graciously accepted my offer and as I recall she even included a smiley face in her final email. Whew! I was making her happy again! But I wasn’t so happy. I asked friends and family to read the item description and tell me if they understood what I was selling. How could I avoid this going forward?
The answer was crystal clear to me.
As a small business owner, I live and die by my customer base. I cannot afford the domino effect of bad reviews. I decided that above all, I wanted to be known for excellent customer service. Nordstrom-like customer service. Under-promise, over-deliver, knock-your-socks-off kind of service. And I’ve not wavered from that ever since.
In the end, was my customer really difficult? Not at all. Shopping online can be a crap-shoot sometimes. As a business owner, it’s important to view your shop from the customer’s perspective. Your goal should be to provide a pleasant shopping experience from first click to package delivery.
This post was written by Whitney Surane from Madly Wish! Be sure to read our interview with her and definitely check out her lovely Etsy shop!
Have you ever dealt with a difficult customer? How did you handle the situation?
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