Whether you sell services, a physical product, or an intangible good (eg. software), you have customers. No matter how great your company is, your customers are bound to have problems along the way. The way you differentiate yourself, is how you deal with those problems.
Think about this eCommerce example: a customer receives the wrong item due to a mistake in your warehouse. The customer will have to make a trip to the post office; you will have to pay the return shipping; one of your staff will have to re-stock the returned item assuming it is still in a saleable condition and then send out the correct item. This is frustrating and time consuming for the customer and costly to your business. Your customer, would be forced to expend an hour of their valuable time returning the item to you, through no fault of their own.
Instead of viewing this as just another product return, why not view this as an opportunity to win back their trust? Let’s assume the item is say worth less than $50. You then check the customer is not a serial returner, good IT systems can help you determine this. Rather than make them return the item, a much better strategy would be to immediately ship them an express replacement, or give them a refund plus a bonus store credit. and advise them to:-
(a) keep the item for themselves,
(b) donate it to charity,
(c) give it to a family member or friend
Remember that your customer was excited to receive their order. When they opened the box and saw the wrong item inside, all they felt was disappointment and frustration. Don’t lose your customer over this transaction. You’re spending money on marketing to get new customers, so you should definitely look after existing ones. Be overly generous and win back their trust. It has been proven that a customer who has had a problem that has been resolved to their satisfaction in a timely manner, is in fact more loyal to your brand than a customer that never had a problem at all!
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