|
|
| www.1001TopWords.com |
|
|
Why You Should Always Honour Your Guarantees - Even When The Customer Is In The Wrong
The Reason Why Direct Internet Marketers Have To Work So Hard To Earn Our Trust A bad attitude to customer service can literally destroy your business. So, I thought I'd share my response to what I read on an Internet Marketing Forum recently to illustrate my point. It started with a genuine request made by someone looking to do the right thing despite having a frustrating run of luck... "I've been asked for three refunds this WEEK. The product is a proven one that I've sold for 6 months and my refund rate is normally TINY. I have only been asked for four refunds ever. One of the reasons I've been given are crazy - He thought the product in question (which is about creating Income streams) was about Gardening - I kid you not! I gave the refund because I couldn't think what to say to him, but it brought up the question of refunds? Should you ALWAYS give refunds when requested or do you sometimes argue the point? So do you ALWAYS give refunds?" One response which (due to the added fact that other people agreed with it) made me livid was... "A seller on eBay was asking a similar question to yourself and the response was: 'eBay isn't a branch of Marks & Sparks, tell them to get stuffed!' Brilliant! I have actually used this response myself when dealing with timewaster buyers on eBay (minus the 'get stuffed' bit as I always try to be polite and professional) and it hasn't resulted in a tit-for-tat negative rating yet!" So here's what I wrote... "This is for all people who think it's funny to treat unhappy customers like a**holes! I always give refunds when offering an unconditional guarantee - even when the mistake was "their fault". Unconditional is exactly that - without conditions. I also suggest talking first and getting clear exactly why they want their money back - you may be able to save the sale but even if you don't then all feedback is useful, right? People who automatically assume someone who's made a mistake (or is unhappy) is a "timewaster" need to check their attitude. In fact maybe they shouldn't be in the business at all - because glib remarks, by people who should know better, telling unhappy customers (in one way or another) to "get stuffed" when they want their money back gives us all a bad name. If your product/service is good, and you've described it accurately (giving samples where possible) then the number of refunds will be low. My experience is people who have a bad attitude when customers are unhappy get it (the attitude) because they have a higher return rate than they'd like - and think the world is full of crooks and timewasters. But maybe they should take a look at how they're describing their product and the product itself (they may unkowingly look like crooks themselves) before assuming the rest of the world is wrong." So why am I so emphatic about this! Surely some people are crooks and timewasters? Well you'd be right. Some people are. But many more are not. If you recall back a few issues you'll remember I spent a lot of effort to help you hone a Bold Promise and Awesome Guarantee. Being able to offer an honest and audacious promise helps complete strangers to trust you and buy without risk of getting taken for a ride. In fact, where Internet Marketing is concerned, a guarantee is essential. People are rightly wary until they know and trust you. It's so easy to set up a website that looks like it has something of value for sale and to take payments online that there are bound to be cheats and scoundrels out there happy to take your money without giving the promised value in return. So a guarantee is a very powerful way to make prospective customers feel more secure in making the decision to buy from you. The problem is that scammers can make the same promises without having any intention of delivering on them. This sorry state of affairs is why it's still difficult to gain trust from strangers on the web. And that's why it's essential to build a relationship using the pipeline and then to continue building on that relationship (again take another look at the pipeline) even if a customer later decides to call in your guarantee. So, if we agree that our end goal is to have lots of paying customers and an army of cheerleading, evangelists telling anyone and everyone how great we are then you'll see it makes sense to be squeaky clean, to accept the odd loss and to focus on making your product and service great. If you fail to play it straight (even when you suspect your customer isn't) then you'll be certain to completely trash your reputation faster than I can say, "Bankruptcy". The reason, quite simply, is that when a customer has a good experience they'll tell a handful of people, but when a customer has a bad experience they'll tell anyone and everyone who will listen! This goes back to the fact that us humans will do a hell of a lot more to avoid pain than we will to gain pleasure. We simply focus on the bad stuff. Plus, a story of how AWFUL something was is far more dramatic than one about how NICE it was. So it's simple. If you make a promise then stick to it. If you don't bad things will happen. Let the Universal Law of "What Goes Around Comes Around" take care of customers who are genuinely cheating you. You can focus on all the good stuff, like profits, instead. In summary: * If you make a guarantee then honour it (even if you feel you're being wronged). * Always try to save the sale by asking questions - even if you still lose the sale you may learn something to make a return less likely in the future. * Don't take people calling you on your guarantee personally - that's what it's there for. Be gracious and you may even gain a new evangelist where you first thought there was a problem. 'Dangerous' Debbie Jenkins (c) Copyright 2005 www.BookShaker.com SUMMER CAN BE SLOW FOR BUSINESS I'm wondering if... You Know Other People who should be reading this too? So do us all a favour (they get 2 free books - we get a new subscriber - you get to look good) when you Pass On This link... http://www.leanmarketing.co.uk
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Are You Giving Your Customers Enough Reasons To Return To Your Business? Good customer service just isn't enough anymore in the marketplace in which we live. Times are changing and business owners are learning that they need to create such an awesome customer loyalty program that they are always at the forefront of their customers' minds on a regular basis. Customer Service Tips for Mail Order Businesses But I'm sorry to disagree with you. As small, honest and legitimate businesses - we have a tendency to place our product quality above money. While this is the "right" way of building a strong, solid business; there are customers that will try to take advantage of you. You have to learn how to notice this possibility coming and "bow out gracefully" without losing the customer. Remember that most newcomers to the world of mail order think that they are ordering from BIG companies just because we have a company name! They cannot conceive how poor and struggling a lot of us really are. They think we can absorb costs and because they are poor themselves, will often try and take advantage of people like us. (If they only knew the many times I have personally had to hold an order up for mailing because I couldn't afford to pay for the postage to mail it back, or the guy who bounced a $2 check and caused a close friend of mine to go "in the hole" $15 in bad check charges.) What Every Employee Should Know About How to Win the Loyalty of Customers Dr. Michael LeBoeuf, in his cassette album entitled, Win Customers and Keep Them for Life presents twelve principles that will transform the workplace into a customer-driven, highly motivational team. Dr. LeBoeuf's program goes like this: Customers - Hold Onto the Ones Youve Got You probably spend a great deal of your time looking for newcustomers or clients. However, are you sure your doingenough to hold onto the ones you've got. Foolproof Customer Service Strategies (That Only A Fool Would Try!) Ever notice how customer service varies from store to store? You walk into some stores, and before you can say "Buzz off!" a salesperson asks "May I help you?" Wholesale Buyers Versus Retail Customers Are wholesale buyers and retail customers really different? Frankly, there are two answers to this question: yes and no. Yes, because they are different from the buyers and those selling to buyers' point of view and no, because the principles that apply are the same for both types of buying. Writing The Book On Great Customer Service Q: One of the big chain bookstores recently opened up near my small book store. Already I can see my business starting to decline. Is there anything I can do to compete with the bigger store or should I just accept the inevitable?-- Peter Q. From Scowl to Smile: 5 Practical Steps to Instill Exceptional Customer Service Whether in a restaurant, a retail establishment, or the local post office, we have all experienced a decline in customer service. Rarely do smiling, happy employees interact with us anymore. Instead, the person we are dealing with in face-to-face relationships does not even attempt to feign a smile, but rather greets us with a scowl, completely avoids eye contact with us, and grudgingly mutters responses to our requests and questions. When did customer service cease to exist? Why is it suddenly so difficult for employees to show customers some common courtesy along with a little friendliness? Have we ventured so far from the service standards of yesteryear and become so shortsighted that we refuse to treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves? The Art of Giving Great Service Sales is tough to get right, and depends on retaining those customers, yet people do it badly and unprofessionally all the time. It's really not difficult to learn the art of good service, and if you get it perfect, you will see those rewards. How To Build Stellar Client Relationships Your opportunity to build a stellar client relationship starts with managing the gap between your perception of how things are going and your client's. Be the Customer: See Yourself as Your Customers Do What do your customers experience when they interact with your business? As a mystery shopper, I help businesses see themselves through the eyes of their customers by posing as a typical customer and evaluating their service, quality and cleanliness. Was it easy to find what I needed? Were the employees polite and helpful? Was everything neat and clean? Was I thanked for my business? What happened when I made a return? Transforming Disgruntled Customers into Your Biggest Advocates "I am writing to complain about the widget I bought from your site the other day." Empowering Customer Service Vital It never fails to amaze me how many companies have employees who are empowered to offer former customers wonderful incentives to lure them back, yet their customer service representatives have the ability to offer virtually nothing to convince an unhappy customer to stay. Making Your Contacts Work For You The best way to explain this concept is to tell you a story. While calling for lease purchasing property, I spoke with an older widowed woman. I went through my script and when I asked her why she thought her home hadn't sold, she said to me, I just don't know, I put it in the paper. I then asked her if she had a FSBO sign in her yard, or if she had posted any flyers around the neighborhood or in the nearby markets. She said, why no, I haven't. To make a long story short she said she would ask her granddaughter to help her do just that. She thanked me profusely and I told her to call me if she needed any help! Astonish your Customers With These Customer Service Tips Customer service today is getting worse. Win customers overand you build your business for life. Proven by the leaderin the industry -- Nordstrom's. Nordstrom's customerservice keeps improving and they continue to drive othersout of business because of it. Here are six ways you canthrill customers and snatch a larger market share from yourcompetitors. Add Value - And Kill Mediocrity in Customer Service There are two kinds of customer service we all experience occasionally, outstanding customer service, and bad customer service. What we experience most of the time is mediocre customer service. Client Service as a Competitive Advantage As someone who has been heavily involved facilitating strategic planning processes with organizations during the last 15+ years, I often find it somewhat amusing how people answer the questions I pose. Outsourcing: The Unspoken Costs Outsourcing seems to be the new-new thing and approximately 50% of our major corporations are doing it. What are the costs? The benefits? And what skills need to be managed in order to make it work optimally? The Reality of Customer Service in America and Best Efforts in Franchising, We Can Do Better Yesterday I went to buy a sandwich at a franchised outlet. I thought while driving up would the owner be there to help out and save some money on labor, knowing a holiday weekend is hard to get labor. As I drove up to the place a man driving an SUV made by Lexus, nice too, cut me off stealing my parking spot? He parked crooked and blocked part of the stall I wanted and part of the handicap stall, next to it. Customer Service, Italian Style Nowadays, we complain nearly all of the time about how few businesses remember how to provide quality service to their customers. But a recent trip to Italy not only reminded me that the art of service is not dead, but that providing outstanding service is the key to almost any successful business. Here are a few well-worn but important principles that I was reminded of during that trip:
|
| © Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |