There was a story of a particular company in the pet industry a few months ago. The first thing the company did was shut down their Facebook page so that people could no longer use it to complain. They reply to e-mails slowly – if at all – and often reject requests for refunds for items that aren’t ever shipped. The people being wronged have no way to get their refunds or to prevent others from shopping there – the pet website has been careful not to let anyone review their services anywhere on the web. Obviously, this is bad customer service, and should be avoided at all costs. Here are two things you should be doing to make your customers happy.
Make it Easy to Reach Your Managers
As a small company, you probably don’t have a lot of managers in between yourself and the lowest employee on the totem pole. Because of this, there’s no reason that a customer shouldn't be able to reach you if they absolutely need to talk to you, and they should be able to do it fairly quickly. Even if you can’t talk to them that day, you should aim for a few hour turn around, especially in the case of an emergency.
Be Fair with Your Time Estimates
If you think something is going to take three days, then don’t hesitate to tell your customer that that is how long it’s going to take. Always be upfront and honest about times. Then, if you take less the customer will be happier that they got their product sooner. If you take longer – especially because you purposefully underestimated – then you’ll have an angry, frustrated customer on your hands, and no one wants that. Be completely reasonable with your time estimates. People will appreciate your honesty.
