Today I'm pleased to welcome a special guest writer, illustrator extraordinaire Stephanie Fizer. She's here to share some customer service secrets from making the best first impression to how to handle whatever problems may arise. Read on, and thanks Stephanie for sharing your great advice with us!
{illustration by Stephanie- find it in her shop, along with lots more good stuff!}
Hello all! Stephanie Fizer here, dropping in to impart some customer service wisdom. Back in the day, before I quit my day job to become a fulltime illustrator, I spent several years answering customer service calls and emails for a really big internet retailer. That job turned out to be the bane of my existence, because, hey I really wanted to be drawing all day, but in the end, that job provided me with some pretty nifty customer service skills that I now use in my own little business. I’m here to share some of those tidbits, as they relate to your handmade business.
What is customer service?
The phrase customer service might conjure memories of long hold times, phone calls that don’t really resolve your problems and monster companies with hundreds of representatives just waiting to answer your call. But now that you’re on the business side of customer service, it takes on another meaning: providing a positive experience for your customers. Customers who have a positive buying experience with you are likely to be repeat customers and they are likely to spread the word about how fantastic you are—it’s practically free advertising.
How is customer service different for a handmade business?
Well, chances are that your handmade business is a one or two person operation so that makes customer service a wholly more personal experience. You get the chance to speak with your clients and customers one-on-one and build a relationship with them. Your customers get to see the person behind the brand, they get to leave feeling that they’ve made a new acquaintance.
Why is customer service important to your handmade business?
Because the more personal customer experience that you provide sets you apart from enormous retailers and it stands to set you apart from other small businesses as well. Even in the uniqueness of the handmade world, you’ll still find other people who might be doing something similar to what you are doing: you’re probably not the only person making wedding invites or nature-inspired necklaces. However, you can provide a better overall experience for your customer that will make your business stand out above the rest.
So now that we have a general idea what customer service is and how it affects our handmade businesses, let’s talk about those things that bring our customers’ experiences above and beyond the norm.
Descriptions and Photos
Your customers' experience begins the second they enter your website or shop. Not only do you need to draw them in with a great product photo or image, but you also need to answer all of their questions in your item description. How irritating is it when you find the perfect art print for your new bedroom, but the artist doesn’t list the measurements or the paper that is used for printing? How often have you just walked away from an online purchase because of inadequate information? If you’re selling online, your customer can’t pick up your item and look at it, so it’s your job to use words and pictures to provide the best impression of your work.
Policies
Again, this is a part of customer service that takes place before your customer even makes a purchase. It is oh so important to be upfront about your policies. You can do this by adding an FAQ section to your website or Etsy and most other online marketplaces allow a separate little section just for your policies. And again, if you can be proactive in answering some of your customer’s questions, they will probably feel a bit more warm and cozy about making a purchase from you. Some things to include in your policies:
- What payment methods do you accept? How soon must payment be received?
- How quickly do orders ship out and what shipping methods are used?
- What is your return/exchange policy? How does one return or exchange an item?
- Are there any special care instructions for your item?
Communication
Whether it’s before a sale or after, communication is a key to a happy customer, so it’s important to make an effort to answer any correspondence within 24 hours. If it takes you 5 days to answer a question about a product, your customer certainly isn’t going to feel confident that the product will arrive quickly.
Similarly, when you receive an order, take the time to send a quick confirmation email. Even though most online marketplaces will automatically send an order confirmation email, it adds a bit of warm and cozy to receive an additional short email from the person behind the product.
That said, we all receive too much email these days, so don’t over do it with repeated messages. Personally, I like to just send a single confirmation email that covers all of my bases:- Thank the customer for the order
- Confirm the items they ordered
- Let them know when the order will ship out
- Tell them what shipping method will be used and the average delivery time for that
- Thank them again and wish them the best
Honesty
This one is pretty simple: don’t lie. Don’t stretch the truth. Just be honest in everything from your product descriptions to your estimated shipping times. If for some reason a customer’s order won’t be shipping out on time, send a quick email to let them know of the delay. If an item your customer just ordered is actually out of stock and it will take 2 weeks to make a new one, give the customer the option of waiting or canceling their order. We all appreciate a little honesty, even if it isn’t the best news ever.
Maintain a friendly tone
Because we are the masters of our own little businesses, we have the choice to ditch the boring robotic correspondence and adopt a friendly tone. When writing customer correspondence, whether it’s an order confirmation or an answer to a product question, I like the keep it light and friendly by simply imagining that I’m writing to someone I’m already acquainted with. While I don’t recommend writing an email filled with poor capitalization and grammar errors that you would send to your best friend, you can adopt a slightly looser and relaxed writing style. This will help you build a rapport with your customers and leave them with the sense that they are dealing with a nifty person, not a spam bot.
Handling Trouble
So what happens when you’ve done everything right and something still goes wrong? What do you do when your customer just seems impossible to please?
Unfortunately things happen, whether it’s our fault, the mail carrier’s fault, the dog’s fault or just some bizarre alignment of events, sometimes you’ll end up with a not so happy customer. So what do you do?- Put on your nice face before responding to emails or phone calls from an unhappy customer. Sometimes you get a request that is just ridiculous; of course, it’s natural to get a bit upset maybe. Or perhaps you take it a bit personally when someone wants to return one of your items. Either way, if you’re feeling a bit cranky, it’s best to just walk away for a bit and find time to craft a response when you’re feeling more centered. Realize that it’s not a personal attack, it’s business.
- Be as proactive as possible. If your customer is writing to complain that a shipment is late, apologize, perhaps ask them to wait a bit longer but also just go ahead and refund the shipping charges. A small, proactive act of kindness will normally ease tensions quickly.
- Give your customer some options. If he/she is writing requesting something crazy that you just can’t do, frame your response in terms of something that you CAN do instead. Use those creative juices to come up with a creative solution to their problem. And if you can manage to come up with a couple of solutions to choose from, so much the better! By providing options, you’re giving control back to the customer who may have felt frustrated simply because they didn’t believe they were in control of a situation. For example, if someone contacts you because a package has arrived damaged, you can give them the options of either receiving a replacement item or keeping the damaged item with a 20% discount.
- Don’t be afraid to apologize and empathize. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and just imagine how you might feel. Then apologize accordingly and work together to find a solution.
- And finally, don’t be afraid to say no. If your customer is making requests that you simply cannot comply with, don’t be afraid to let them down gently with a soft no. But instead of just offering a flat no, try to elaborate with a reason for the denial. A reasoned response will most often be appreciated and you’ll probably end up with a happy customer anyway.
