WhistlingBadger
Professional Cat Herder
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- Dec 18, 2011
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Morning, all! There are several well-respected members on the forum who run small businesses online, and in my limited experience they do a superb job, so this post isn't pointed at anyone. I just want to share a few observations, based on recent adventures trying to get plants from various Esty and eBay sellers. I humbly offer the following advice for gaining and retaining customers:
1. Be proactive in communication, especially when something goes wrong. Any reasonable person is going to understand that life emergencies, weather, livestock shortages, and the US Postal Service can delay shipping. But it is common courtesy to make sure your customers know what is going on and what you are doing about it. If a customer has to contact you to ask where their item is, you've already messed up. Even if things end up resolved satisfactorily, they probably aren't going to come back.
That said...
2. Enthusiasm is no substitute for competence, and communicating your intentions is no substitute for actually doing the job. Customers don't want to hear, "Great news! We'll be shipping your item today!" They want you to ship the item, then upload the tracking info so they know. Likewise, don't bother saying "Hey, sorry we messed up. We're going to go ahead and issue you a refund for your trouble." Just issue the refund; chances are the customer will know why, and they'll appreciate your diligence.
Once you've actually done the work, sure, it's nice send the customer a personal note. But don't communicate your intention to do the job when you are capable of simply doing the job. When I get one of those "Guess what! We're going to do a thing today!" messages, I can almost count on the thing not getting done that day. That annoys the customer and makes the seller seem childish. It is baffling how many times I've had this issue in the past few weeks.
3. Remember that your responsibility as a seller doesn't end when you ship; it ends when the customer receives their item in good condition. This one is probably unfair, since postal delays and lost packages aren't the seller's fault. Most reasonable customers will understand this, especially if you've done your job and uploaded the tracking info. Still, it impresses the daylights out of me when I get a note from a seller saying, "Hey, I noticed there seems to be a glitch in the tracking. Have you received your item? If not, how shall we resolve it?" When the seller is on-the-ball enough to message me before I have to message them, it greatly increases my chances of coming back, even if something goes wrong.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Carry on.
1. Be proactive in communication, especially when something goes wrong. Any reasonable person is going to understand that life emergencies, weather, livestock shortages, and the US Postal Service can delay shipping. But it is common courtesy to make sure your customers know what is going on and what you are doing about it. If a customer has to contact you to ask where their item is, you've already messed up. Even if things end up resolved satisfactorily, they probably aren't going to come back.
That said...
2. Enthusiasm is no substitute for competence, and communicating your intentions is no substitute for actually doing the job. Customers don't want to hear, "Great news! We'll be shipping your item today!" They want you to ship the item, then upload the tracking info so they know. Likewise, don't bother saying "Hey, sorry we messed up. We're going to go ahead and issue you a refund for your trouble." Just issue the refund; chances are the customer will know why, and they'll appreciate your diligence.
Once you've actually done the work, sure, it's nice send the customer a personal note. But don't communicate your intention to do the job when you are capable of simply doing the job. When I get one of those "Guess what! We're going to do a thing today!" messages, I can almost count on the thing not getting done that day. That annoys the customer and makes the seller seem childish. It is baffling how many times I've had this issue in the past few weeks.
3. Remember that your responsibility as a seller doesn't end when you ship; it ends when the customer receives their item in good condition. This one is probably unfair, since postal delays and lost packages aren't the seller's fault. Most reasonable customers will understand this, especially if you've done your job and uploaded the tracking info. Still, it impresses the daylights out of me when I get a note from a seller saying, "Hey, I noticed there seems to be a glitch in the tracking. Have you received your item? If not, how shall we resolve it?" When the seller is on-the-ball enough to message me before I have to message them, it greatly increases my chances of coming back, even if something goes wrong.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Carry on.
