Here is a great example of how not to provide customer service, courtesy of www.*****.com: This morning I bought a [product] for $99 from their site. I wrote to Ron (site owner) about shipping: "Hi Ron I just ordered a [product] for my wife who is getting very alergenic and is not able to take anything because she is pregnant. We live in Japan, and I was just wondering about the method of shipping you will use. The site just said "free internet shipping", and I am hoping that does not mean surface mail, because that will take ages to get to us. Please ship it by airmail and then she will be able to have it in a week or so. On a different subject, I think you could increase your site conversion rate by changing the "Checkout" text on your shopping cart page and instead having a large "Proceed to checkout" or "Buy Now" button instead. I have researched improving conversion rates a lot for my website (www.japanese-name-translation.com) and this definitely would help you a lot. I have been shopping online since 1996, and it took me several tries before I realized that I had to click that small text to buy the product. Other customers might have given up by this point. Have a great day. Stephen" I thought that was pretty friendly. I thought he was also a friendly guy when he replied like this. (Although I think he should have thought about the fact that I could be a Christian before he wrote this): "Hi Stephen, Just returned from an outing with my family and found your email. You have a very nice web site, I'm impressed and I know there's work to be done on mine that would help it out, but I've had some difficulties with my web designer who is too busy to work on it, and takes forever to make any changes, you might have noticed that it still says "Spring Specials" and I've been on him for 3 months to change it to something generic, or at least "Flu Season Special," I had paid him to work on a new site for me and after $400 and 6 weeks, he bailed out on me telling me he couldn't work on it anymore as it was in too great a conflict with his fundamental Christian views (It was an astrology site featuring my book "The Greatest Story NEVER Told", on the roots of Judaeo-Christian Religion as it formed itself from the myths of Saturn (Satan) and Jezeus, Zeus and Jesus. The astrological ages, etc. Anyway, I'm sitting with a half done site on this subject and trying to get some action on my Pentex site, its' quite frustrating. Bye the way, the product is usually shipped UPS ground in the US only, we do not ship free to Japan. I would have to charge $30.00 for AirMail, insured to Japan. Let me know if you want to pay the additional shipping costs, or not, and we'll go from there. Thanks for your input, Ron" Hmmm. An extra $30 (or about 1/3 of the cost of the product) for shipping that was not mentioned on the site... "Dear Ron Could you send me a link to show me where on your website it says that free shipping is only in the US? Could you also tell me where that appears on your shopping cart page to qualify the statement "Free Internet Shipping"? The only references to shipping I saw said "Free Internet Shipping". Although the cart allows users to choose from a range of countries, selecting a country outside the US does not change the shipping rate displayed to the customer, nor the overall charge. I ordered your product from your website, because it seemed to be the best product of its type from the official manufacture. I ordered in good faith under the conditions presented to me. Your site completed the charge on my credit card, completing the contract under the same conditions. I am, therefore, looking forward to you shipping the product as agreed when I made the purchase. I am sorry if this eats into your profit margin, but this is something you could have rectified by setting different shipping charges in your shopping cart at the outset. Furthermore, since the free advice on improving conversion rate I just gave you could easily be worth literally hundreds of dollars in extra sales per month even, and certainly at least that over a year, I am surprised that you are trying to charge me additional "hidden" costs to complete my order. Best wishes, Stephen" To which Ron replied: "Stephen, If you look at the home page on the bottom of the page, it says "FREE SHIPPING IN THE U.S. WITH EVERY ON-LINE ORDER!" It is directly under the box that says "SECURE PROTECTION FOR FLU SEASON" You'll find it on the page with the lady wearing the [product] . I'm sorry you think we have "hidden costs", we offer the product for $50.00 off retail and are the lowest price available anywhere. We offer the product at $10.00 over our wholesale dealer price and if we absorbed shipping to other countries we would not have a very profitable business. We always contact out of country buyers before we ship to inform them of the charges, there's no way of knowing what to charge until we know the country to be shipped to. That's why we don't have arrangements for our shopping cart setup on line. If we had shipped to the Florida address it would have been free. I really thought this would be a small issue, and it has never been one before this. If you feel that we are not doing business with integrity, or honesty, then I would suggest you purchase the product somewhere else. We never completed your order on your credit card, as we do not do this until it is received and approved for shipping. Your order was sent to us via a service we pay for the have secure information sent to us. We process the orders here after they go through our service, your credit card was never charged. It's unfortunate that this seemingly simple transaction became so much of an issue and I don't really feel the need to do conversions on my web site, but I politely responded to your suggestion, personally sharing my frustration over my web designer. This was done in a friendly way, never suspecting that the response would be so bitter and demanding of us. Please be advised that we haven't and wont charge your credit card for this purchase. Best of luck Ron" First a point of information: Nowhere is this product on sale for $50 more, and I have found at least one more site where I can get it for the same price. But anyway, maybe I was just too pushy in asking him to do what we had agreed for the price agreed... "Dear Ron I did not see the text in the middle of your top page. Being an eager customer, I headed straight for the purchase page. Unfortunately, shipping costs were not mentioned anywhere near where I was making my purchase, and there was no other page with that information. Although, just one line on the checkout page saying, "If you are outside the US, please contact us here for details about shipping costs before placing your order." I was not suggesting that you absorb the shipping costs for overseas customers, simply stating that since I had completed my purchase on the basis of the figures shown in your shopping cart, it would be reasonable for you to follow through on that contractual agreement. I did not realize that following the normal conventions of capitalism would be classified as "bitter" and "demanding". It seems that we have a different approach to customer service. When one of my customers complains, I immediately attempt to rectify it, and then offer them an additional free item to apologize for the trouble they have experienced. This is a very small price for me to pay for three reasons: Firstly, these customers often give me the best testimonials, and become positive advocates for my site and products. Secondly, wining them over means that they do not damage my site's reputation by telling their friends about the bad experience they had. Finally, and most importantly, the insight I gain into how my customers experience my site is incredibly valuable. If one person tells me about a problem, I know there are probably 100 or more who have a similar experience, but just give up and leave without placing an order. One customer complaint can help get me hundreds or thousands of dollars of orders later down the line. I am not suggesting that you offer me a free product. Simply that a more sympathetic attitude to your customers would help your business a lot. Please do not charge my credit card and delete all information connected with my card and my order from your system. I'm sad that I now have such a negative impression of a company whose product I was so impressed with. Yours, Stephen" I won't add anything to my email, because I think it speaks for itself. There are some good lessons we etailers can learn from this customer service debacle.
I happened on this email message a year and a half after it was posted and therefore such a tardy reply. I agree that my response was not very patient, nor considerate to this customers issues. I could have been more understanding and tactful. Some days are more stressful than others and some days I'm more patient than others, but this is part of being human. They say to err is human, but to forgive is divine, I hope for the latter response in this regard. I apologize to this customer for any offense, or insensitivity I displayed. Hopefully, he can accept my apology and if I can do anything to correct or express my sincere desire to this customer to make amends I will do so. Sorry for being impatient and insensitive to your issues. Sincerely, Ron Watson, Pentex