December 24, 2005
Customer Service - Have We Created a Monster?
As a Christmas gift to my subscribers, I put together a special offer yesterday. 3 minutes after hitting the SEND button, the first order came in. And in 7 minutes, I received the first complaint!
It was impatient, irritable, and insulting. It seems the buyer had a problem with the download link.
I checked it out. Fixed the link. And refunded the customer.
Hold on... I can hear the crowd howling:
"But how could you do that? There WAS a problem with your link!"
Yes. And does that give a 'keyboard cowboy' reasonable excuse to vent his or her angst on me? I think NOT.
Mistakes happen. To you. To me. To everyone.
Yes, even to my angry customer.
All it takes to resolve most of them is a simple request for assistance.
But all this clapping and cheering about the customer ALWAYS being right is creating a nasty backlash - and it is NOT pleasant at all. Customers believe they can get away with anything!
Well, I don't buy that. Just as customers expect to be treated with care and respect, I believe a sincere vendor deserves no less.
Of course, this attitude assumes 2 important things:
* the seller is genuinely concerned about his/her clients and customers - I am
* the product or service being offered is of good quality - mine are
If these basics are met, then respect and consideration are mandatory in all exchanges - on BOTH sides.
So, does firing a client really work? I don't know. But any day, I'll take a polite, pleasant client over a short-tempered or impatient one. It's why I chose to ignore this email which came in a few hours later from this buyer:
"I actually wanted the product, i am just getting a little frustrated, since this has happened to me several times in the last 2 weeks. i apologize, i did not mean to be so brash."
This isn't the first time a client has written back with a note of apology - and I'm sure it won't be the last. I have refunded $9.95 purchases, as well as $997 ones, for similar reasons.
Which is why I will stick to this policy of not accepting bad behavior from my clients. That's right - My customers are NOT always right!
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Every day, several remarkable things cross my desk, my mind and my computer screen.
I love sharing them with you. When I send them by email, filters keep many of them out of your inbox.
That's why you have...
dr.mani says...
Remarkable is in the eye of the beholder. If the target market
wants to hear about it and wants to talk about it,
then it's remarkable. Then it's a
Purple Cow.
- Seth Godin
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