Being "too" nice - is it that hard to offer good customer service?
So I was at my day time job today (where the peeps dont know im starting my own online tshirt store) and much to my fustration I find the people there have really crap customer service skills.
To quote someone who was reluctant to arrange a product pick up and swap over via courier for me on behalf of a customer I was "being too nice". Aside from being a total git I honestly felt liking turning around and saying to the lady "its called customer service you should try it some time"
I swear black and blue I am never ever going to allow my online tshirt store to stoop to such dodgey shonky customer service skills like those of my co workers.
Am I the only person who seems to get that? Shout out my fellow tshirtian comrades, Im sure theres a bunch of us that have policies and visions to provide superior customer service right?...right?
I am the biggest complainer when it comes to bad service so I like to make sure my customers are happy. Customer service costs nothing. In fact I would say it makes profit.
Although I have been screenprinting and selling t-shirts for last 4/5 years I only set up my website in January this year. I had my first customer after only two weeks I was soooo excited I despatched the t-shirt before I even emailed an acknowledgement of the order. Guess what happened? No sooner did I post it and the customer mailed to say they had ordered the wrong size! My bubble burst. I told her to send it straight back and I would exchange it for the correct size and that it was not a problem. The next day, upon receipt of her tee, she mailed to say it was ok, she had someone whom it would fit and she would now like to purchase the correct size plus another design!!!!!!!!! Good customer service.........you can't beat it!
I know where you guys are coming from.. I have worked a few jobs that the people either have poor management skills.. poor PR skills.. (poor business sense esentially) and still continue.. I just keep telling myself "Well.. at least I know how NOT to run my business!"
But, there must be a good balance between service and letting the customer run your business.
Both my sister and my fiancée work for a higher end restaurant, ANY complaint about the food and the meal is free. Guess what, the same people come in every week and get free food. They have trained people to complain because in their eyes, it is good customer service.
We provide good service here, excellent compared to other companies, but there comes a point when dealing with annoying and demanding customers that you will soon realize that the customer is not always right.
The best motto to live by: Treat your customers as you would wish to be treated.
This being said, I will fire customers that are too difficult to deal with. Now that's service.
This is one of the huge points I want to put forward with my company. Theres a clothing line here (not gonna name) - They really do treat their customers bad. They are long over due with a lot of orders + they don't reply when you email them asking for your money back, whats going on or when will it be sent.
Tbh - This lack of care was one of the reasons CandyCore was started up.
I believe business is a relationship, not an interaction.
For my business plan to succeed, i need to find 20 customers, each needing just 100 shirts per month. The same goal can be reached by multiplying the math out to need 24,000 shirts per year.
To me, it only makes good sense to build relationships rather than trying to make unit sales. Customer service should be intended to keep your customers.
fred
__________________
A day late, a dollar short, so it goes.
Re: Being "too" nice - is it that hard to offer good customer service?
Quote:
I believe business is a relationship, not an interaction.
I agree with you Fred! Our customers love it when we recognize them when they come back, they like that we remember their names, and that we remember what we did for them last time.
Quote:
Customer service should be intended to keep your customers.
This is a no-brainer.....but its amazing the folks that dont get that.
Good customer service is a money saver and invites repeat business.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mk162
...ANY complaint about the food and the meal is free. Guess what, the same people come in every week and get free food.
I have been in that situation. I'm known for saying that a customer is someone who spends money or will potentially spend money at your business. The people you describe are not customers and should just be refused service.
Re: Being "too" nice - is it that hard to offer good customer service?
I'm a HUGE customer service advocate. You should do everything REASONABLY possible to please your customers.
The key word is REASONABLY. Some customers simply can't be satisfied, because they don't WANT to be satisfied. They come into the deal wanting to be disappointed or to give you a load of crap because it makes them happy.
I will bend over backwards for you, but the minute I feel you're simply trying to take advantage of me, or are being completely unreasonable, I will drop you quicker than a hot potato.
Re: Being "too" nice - is it that hard to offer good customer service?
I had a customer who sent me his art in an ai file. I imported it into corel and something went goofy. I should have first checked it in illustrator but I did'nt. I normally send my customers a mock up proof b4 I go to put out films but he was in such a rush for the shirts that he said he trusts me and he's sure it will be fine. I printed the shirts and sent them out. They were wrong. although I could have said "too bad, you're paying for them" I ate the whole order.(about 800 beefy t's) He told me that my my making good on the deal won him over. It cost me about $2000 to fix the mistake, but he spent $25000 with me over the balance of 2007. It looks like he will now be my largest direct customer in 08. There is definitely something to customer service.
Re: Being "too" nice - is it that hard to offer good customer service?
My first job at a movie theatre under a jerk boss really taught me customer service. Then, when I actually went into telephone customer service with a catalog company, I was able to win VERY angry customers over.
Sometimes all you need to do is be sympathetic with a customer, and they're happy. Of course, most often when you have a problem, the customer wants something tangilble, but not always.
Free shipping also goes a long way a lot of the time.
But our goal is top-notch customer service. Kill-em with kindness (but not alway freebies ).
Re: Being "too" nice - is it that hard to offer good customer service?
customer service to me is golden...i strive on every customer not just the "highend" customers...i will fix or do most anything to make the job right if there is a problem in about 3 years of doing this i have only had 2 clients not happy and both were fixed no problem.....one bad customer service they will tell 1000's of people...i do have a competitor in the same town who constiently gives the worst customer service i have ever heard of and i ended up getting her clients because she doesn't care about quality and so her loss is definetly my gain...as long as my clients are happy and return for service that is what matters to me even if it is one shirt or 1000 shirts....i treat my clients with respect and as if they were the only client i had which isn't always easy to do, but we maintain that level of integrity for all....
Re: Being "too" nice - is it that hard to offer good customer service?
Quote:
Originally Posted by TripleT
It's pretty hard to be "too" nice. Customer Service is the most overlooked service of all.
I think that pretty much sums it up right there. We are right next to an Italian restaurant that was taken over recently by a man who is what I'll call an "out-of-towner". The previous owners greeted everyone with a smile and english, and made it an "everybody knows your name" type of place for the neighborhood that it sits in. They decided to move on to different things and sold it to this guy, who provides crappy service, completely different tasting food, I don't know what he cooks with, but you can only sell me a cheesesteak once that doesn't taste like a cheesesteak, and among other things, has added $0.75 to the bill of some of his patrons that wanted to pay with a credit/debit card! So, needless to say, I'm not shocked or sympathetic to the fact that he now (on a good day) has less than 5-15 customers throughout the entire day.
So you definitely get back what you put into it.
__________________
Hard labor kills, make t-shirts instead.
This is a discussion about Being "too" nice - is it that hard to offer good customer service? that was posted in the General T-Shirt Selling Discussion section of the forums.
Being "too" nice - is it that hard to offer good customer service? 
Re: Being "too" nice 
