Creating a Positive Customer Service Experience Amidst Uncontrollable Delays
Episode 536: Show Notes
If you are in the small business space as a buyer or a seller, you might have noticed a wave of disgruntled online shoppers that don’t necessarily fit the stereotype that wants to speak to the manager! In today’s episode, we want to talk about what we are dubbing the Digital Karen. Since the start of the pandemic, Emylee and Abagail have noticed more and more conversations between makers, shoppers, and sellers who are having a difficult time dealing with the increase in customer service issues that have been popping up in their inboxes and DMs, from unrealistic custom order requests to one-star reviews for reasons that are beyond their control.
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There has been a growing need for customer education regarding what is and what isn’t within the control of shop owners and business owners. For a long time, buyers have convoluted the experience of buying from big companies like Amazon or Nordstrom and tied that same level of expectation to shops on Etsy and Shopify, for example. In today’s episode, Emylee and Abagail talk about how sellers can emotionally and mentally deal with the age of the Digital Karen and continue to create a positive customer service experience amidst uncontrollable delays, as well as what buyers and shoppers can do to make the experience better for business owners!
Transparency is Key
Whether you’re getting hundreds of unreasonable customer queries per day or your inbox is relatively manageable often depends on how you run and market your business. A big part of what sets Emylee apart as a small business owner, especially when shipping physical products like jewelry, is the fact that she is constantly sharing her process with her audience on her social media channels. She shows and illustrates that it takes a long time to produce a product, she continually reminds her audience about restocks, shipping updates, and how long customers can expect to wait to receive their purchases, which ultimately means that they are more understanding and have more realistic expectations. The lesson to be learned here is that transparency is key! Keeping customers in the dark is a recipe for disaster because it only leaves them feeling helpless and like they are being taken advantage of, so make sure to loop them in every step of the way.
The Perils of Shopping Blindly
Sometimes, even when shop owners are abundantly clear about turnaround times, shipping information, measurements, and materials there are still some next-level misunderstandings from the customer’s perspective. Uh oh! This is where the Digital Karen steps in. How can customers avoid becoming Digital Karens and blaming shop owners for their own misunderstandings? Well, it starts with not shopping blindly. It seems obvious, but the first step is reading all the information available about a specific product. For example, with Abagail’s digital art print business, she is very careful to disclaim that she sells vintage reproductions. This means that the products customers purchase often contain scratches or smudges unique to the original piece that Abagail believes only add to their authenticity. Similarly, she includes a disclaimer in every product listing that she doesn’t ship physical prints and that she doesn’t include a frame. Unfortunately, these are also the things that customers are most likely to complain about if they didn’t read the product description! Spelling things out as clearly as possible on the frontend can help eliminate some of these misunderstandings but, if you find your customers are reading less and making more assumptions, a useful tip is to try simplifying your product image. A crisp white background with a single product in the foreground certainly leaves less room for error!
Setting Clear Boundaries, Regardless of What you are Selling
There is a fine line between being accessible as a shop owner and giving too much of yourself. Remember, you dictate how you are treated by clearly demonstrating how people can treat you. If you are overly apologetic when it comes to responding to customer complaints, you might be portraying yourself as a pushover, which only invites further provocation! If you stand your ground and refuse to budge on your policies, it sends a clearer message about your boundaries and the no nonsense way you run your business. Setting boundaries, regardless of what you are selling, is so important. It could be when you answer emails or how quickly you get back to people or the kinds of questions that you will spend time on answering yourself. Consider using an auto-responder, which we find answers eight out of 10 customer queries without us even having to get involved manually! Keeping customers updated regularly and sharing as much information upfront as possible regarding order processing and shipping also tends to alleviate the need for a lot of queries in the first place.
Accepting That Shipping Delays are Beyond Your Control
The reason that a product is taking a long time to reach the customer often has nothing to do with the shop owner. As we saw recently with the Ever Given blocking the Suez Canal for nearly a week, there are circumstances beyond anyone’s control that impact the entire system and cause delays across the world. In a deeply interconnected global economy, anything and everything can cause shipping delays including, for example, a certain global pandemic, and our best advice is to exercise patience and accept that these things are often beyond your control. Abagail reminds us that we are all so conditioned as consumers to expect instant gratification and receiving everything on-demand. Remember how that affects your interactions with small businesses who generally don’t have the budget or the resources to offer such immediacy but, trust us; for a bespoke product and the satisfaction of shopping small, it’s worth the wait.
Taking Responsibility for your Mess Ups
There will likely come a time that you bite off more than you can chew as a shop owner or make promises you can’t keep. How do you handle a PR crisis? Well, sometimes, you just have to take responsibility for your mistakes. Firstly, don’t block your customers when you have done something to frustrate them. That is Small Business 101! Secondly, know what you are capable of fulfilling and don’t overcommit yourself. If you are running a sell-out model and taking pre-orders, you have to know what is reasonable for you to deliver in a set amount of time. Mistakes happen! You can’t run away from them, so make sure to own them without being overly apologetic and compromising on your business values.
Quote This
The more transparent you are, the more people tend to understand. It’s when people are left in the dark that they feel helpless and like they are being taken advantage of.
Highlights
Transparency is Key. [0:08:30]
The Perils of Shopping Blindly. [0:11:31]
Setting Clear Boundaries, Regardless of What you are Selling. [0:16:07]
Accepting That Shipping Delays are Beyond Your Control. [0:24:59]
Taking Responsibility for your Mess Ups. [0:35:49]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
KEY TOPICS
Transparency, Over communicating, Setting boundaries, Accepting what you can’t control, Taking responsibility
