I’m sure you can all recall a time when you’ve had bad customer service. Did you tell your friends about it? The “OMG, you won’t believe this…” conversation with your girlfriends or guy-friends or the snarky Facebook post retelling the poor service you received for all your friends and acquaintances to read. Did you shop there again or at least think twice about it?

Bad customer service can end the customer relationship before it even has a fighting chance. However, exceptional (great just doesn’t cut if for me any more as an adjective so I opted for exceptional) customer service can propel that relationship into a full-on love affair if you are prepared. We all have products/brands we “love” – or at least I have my fair share. Why do we “love” them? Because the products are high quality, the price is right, and the sales person or seller was friendly and responsive.

Exceptional Customer Service = Loyal, Happy Customers!

My point: determining how you are going to handle the customer relationship is a vitally important part of earning repeat sales and loyal customers.

Here are some questions to think about as you develop a customer service plan of action:
1) Will you send thank you’s or something to show your appreciation for the sale?
2) What will your response time be for product questions and comments?
3) How will you handle defective products?
4) How will you respond to customer complaints?

I got an answer to #3 before I had really prepared to think about customer service – hence my reason for this post. My office has a staff craft fair before the holidays so staff members can do Christmas shopping during their lunch hour without having to leave and brave the somewhat treacherous lunch hour traffic. This year I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to test out some of our Simply Sassy inventory. Great news – our items sold like hot cakes, especially our pleated flower pins. Bad news – the self-adhesive pin backings were a bust. Here I thought I was saving myself one extra step in having to hassle with a hot glue gun, but instead the pin backs didn’t quite have the sticking power they claimed (example of a not-satisfied-customer).

On the brighter side (I am a glass half full kind of gal on most days – one who has used far too many parenthesis in this post), I was able to discover this defect on my own. While wearing a pleated flower pin as a form of product marketing, I ended up spending more time picking it up off the floor than I did wearing it. Immediately, I panicked knowing my fellow staffers had just purchased this product. Luckily, I knew who had made the purchases because as items sold I collected names along with what they bought so I could send them thank you’s (my answer to item #1 above). I emailed my customers informing them of the potential product defect and asked them to bring their pins into the office so I could fix them. I brought the tried and true hot glue gun into work rather than inconvenience my customers more and fixed the pins within a few minutes. By being proactive versus reactive and addressing a possible issue before it even was an issue for my customers, I helped save myself from unhappy complaints and hopefully will earn a second sale from them.

Two lessons can be learned here:
1) Don’t take shortcuts if it will sacrifice quality in the end. Just stick with what you know will work and don’t take chances.
2) Be proactive and have a plan for handling customer service. Customers want to know they are getting a high-quality product for a fair price and this includes the customer service behind it.

Have questions? Want some help on setting up your customer service plan? Contact me and I’d be happy to help!

Kelli- Kelli@Goodsmiths.com