About a year or ago I was selling rare casino chips on eBay. Now when I say rare, I mean rare – some of these chips could only have been bought from me or my supplier.
Some of these chips were from casinos that never opened their doors to the public; some were “end-of-run” uncompleted chips from the manufacturing companies.
So you get the picture, they were rare;O)
I would scan these chips and post the picture on eBay with a brief description. Because of the light weight of the items I would offer worldwide shipping at a flat rate (this was before eBay was swamped with 1 cent and 1 dollar items with 10 dollar shipping charges).
There were also a few warnings such as “PayPal Only” and “don’t ask for a shipping discount if you win multiple items, even if you live next door to me”.
Now this worked very well in terms of pre-qualifying people for the sale: you had to pay by PayPal and I would not field any enquires about shipping rates – if you could do this I was more than happy to pop these rarities in the post.
Now of course eBay is some kind of super-magnet for crazy people and a few did slip through, there was one guy that won and asked if he could send cash in an envelope (from the US!), I said it was PayPal Only, but he doesn’t have a PayPal account (he didn’t see the big orange letters – PAYPAL ONLY, he opens a PayPal account, then send me a nasty email blaming me for the hassle it’s caused him, he sends the money via PayPal, I return the money (via PayPal) tell him I don’t want to sell to him then ban him from all of my auctions
Another guy bids an item way up then asks if he can send me a money order, erm no… it’s “PayPal Only” I loose the sale, he tries to bid on another auction but can’t and wants to know why I’ve blocked his bidding, so I block his email… etc… etc…
I have maybe a small handful of stories like this, nothing new to people that use eBay regularly. Maybe these people aren’t crazy, maybe it’s a communication thing or a language thing, anyway I still managed to keep my 100% positive feedback rating to date.
Back to the theme…
Something that was never in my description was bonus chips, for every person that bought chips from me on eBay I would send them a bonus chip or two, equally as rare as the paid-for item. I would even keep a record of who got what so as not to send a duplicate chip, you would only get a chip you had not yet purchased or been given free.
So one guy buys some chips from me in the US and I post them from the UK. About a week letter I get a complaint (it was curt at best) regarding the non-delivery of the item. I check when I sent the item (I keep all postal receipts) it was a day or two after I received the money, from then, it’s about five days.
Now airmail to the US from the UK can take 5 – 7 days easily, even 10 is not uncommon.
What do I do?
First-up I log into my PayPal account and refund the full amount including postage, I then write an email explicitly apologising for the delay, I explain when I received payment, when I physically posted the item and speculated that it could still be on route. I inform the bidder that I have made a full refund and that I have sent a replacement item and ask him to accept it as a gesture of goodwill on my part.
What happens?
The very next day the original items arrive (with the bonus), the bidder sends me an email and is clearly flawed, he apologies for his hasty email and goes on to explain that he has had a string of eBay sellers either send items late or not-at-all.
I go from eBay zero to eBay hero, the buyer cannot thank me enough and escalates his praise in my feedback.
THIS is customer service, customer service is fixing the things that go wrong. If your operation runs smoothly 90% of the time that is not customer service, that is basic service, that is your job, that is what you are paid to do. Customer service is the 5-10% of the time when things go wrong, this is your opportunity to gain a life-long customer whether it was your fault or not.
People won’t remember the times things went smoothly, they will remember the times something went wrong and what you did about it.
I recently ordered some boxes for a promotion I was running, the items were sent to me via a company called Parcel Force, I have had many things sent to me via this courier and have always been in to receive the item and have never had a problem.
Until… the day I wasn’t in. Once I fell outside the loop it was a disaster. I called the premium rate phone number: 5, 10, 15 minutes no answer, I visit the website it says I can reschedule but gives no option for AM or PM. I call the next day get through (eventually) they say the parcel is at my local post office, I go there, it’s not there, I phone back they say they will get the depot to ring me, they don’t ring me…
On and on… it’s a customer service disaster.
What’s even worse is that the box supplier did a superb job wrapping the items and sent them in a reasonably timely fashion, and probably has no idea about the problems I had trying to receive the items. The next time I need to re-order, well I don’t know, I might look elseware the boxes weren’t unique to this supplier.
So your customer service even extends to the 3rd party vendors you use.
If you want to master customer service (and you do!) just look at the poor customer service you receive from others, find a parallel in your own business and commit to mastering this area, put a system in place, have a back-up plan, make it sooooo outstandingly good that you can even incorporate a marketing effort into it.
Your customer needs to FEEL that you did something, that you went the extra mile, that you ACTUALLY value them, their feelings, their business.
No one will champion your business more than a customer who experienced you putting something right.
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This article is FREE to republish as long as you:
a) Publish the article in full
b) Include the following information with a “clickable” link back to the blog:
Author: Noel Byrne
http://sitesforbusiness.blogspot.com/
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