In this week's episode of Quick Tip Wednesday, I talk you through how to handle tough customer service situations that are bound to happen to us from time to time
- a negative review from a customer who wasn't satisfied with your product, how to handle an item that arrived broken to your customer, and how to handle the dreaded package that was marked "Delivered" but your customer reached out because they DON'T have it.
You'll learn how to step into the CEO role and handle all of these customer service situations with specific next steps.
When you finish listening, I'd love to hear your biggest takeaway from today’s episode. Take a screenshot of the episode you're listening to, share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @monicalittlecoaching - or send me a DM!
While you're there, make sure you follow meso you can see behind the scenes of how I grew my handmade organic skincare small business to multiple six-figures... and how you can grow and scale your business, too.
LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website:www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
My small business: www.shopplantbasedbeauty.com
In this week's episode of Quick Tip Wednesday, I talk you through how to handle tough customer service situations that are bound to happen to us from time to time
- a negative review from a customer who wasn't satisfied with your product, how to handle an item that arrived broken to your customer, and how to handle the dreaded package that was marked "Delivered" but your customer reached out because they DON'T have it.
You'll learn how to step into the CEO role and handle all of these customer service situations with specific next steps.
When you finish listening, I'd love to hear your biggest takeaway from today’s episode. Take a screenshot of the episode you're listening to, share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @monicalittlecoaching - or send me a DM!
While you're there, make sure you follow meso you can see behind the scenes of how I grew my handmade organic skincare small business to multiple six-figures... and how you can grow and scale your business, too.
LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website:www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
My small business: www.shopplantbasedbeauty.com
00:00
Hello, and welcome to the product based podcast. My name is Monica little. And I'm your host and today on episode number 28, we are talking about what to do if you get a negative review.
00:15
So this is part of our Quick Tip Wednesday series where I am giving you actionable quick 15 Minutes or Less insights on how to overcome certain obstacles or how to implement certain tactics in your business. So you can show up, listen really quickly and actually have something to go and implement with your specific business. Today we're talking about what happens and what you can do, when you get a bad review. Just to level set the stage, it's going to happen. These types of reviews where customers aren't happy, for whatever reason are bound to happen. It's part of running a business as much as we want to have every single one of our customers happy and excited and loving what we have. Sometimes situations happen. It can be something related to our actual product where a customer just didn't happen to like it and it wasn't a good fit. It could be potentially a review about an external situation like shipping that got lost. And now your customers angry, there can be so many specific reasons that lead to a review that we just aren't so happy to see, right. It's the name of the game and happens as being a small business owner. So I definitely want to level set with that. I also want to mention to you that I totally get what it's like to have this anxious feeling whenever a review comes up. Before you even know if it's a good or bad review. I remember when I first started selling on Etsy, whenever I got that notification that there was a new review, I would kind of go into a panic. I'd be like, Oh my god, is this gonna be a good review? What if someone's not happy? What if it's a better view? What if they hate my products? What if they hate me, and I would have this visceral actual reaction that my body would tense up, I'd be really stressed, I would just feel a little overwhelmed before I even know knew if it was a good review or a bad review. So I want to start with that and acknowledge
02:16
potential bad reviews will happen. But we can't let them mean something about us. Because in that instance, when I would get so worked up, before I even read the review, what was happening is I was making these reviews mean something about me or about my business. If I got a bad review, then that means I won't be successful. If I got a bad review, then that means I'm going to fail. If I got a bad review, then it means oh my god, my other customers might not like my product either. I'm not good enough, my products aren't good enough, something is wrong. All of these thoughts can really spiral when you get a bad review. I remember my first bad review that I got on Etsy, it affected me for about a week, I was so stressed. So anxious, my body was just so tightly wound up, I was questioning everything, doubting everything. Not sure what I was doing with my life, because I just got this bad review from a customer for something that I put my heart and soul into, right. And I'm sure you can relate to that. So first what I want to mention, which is a little off topic, but that's okay. Make sure that the reviews that you get, you aren't internalizing them as it's something about you or something about your business. Every single company, no matter who they are has bad reviews, you can think of Apple everyone's love. Everyone loves the Apple iPhone, I guarantee there's some bad reviews out there about the Apple iPhone, you can think of any single product out there, there will be people who it wasn't a good fit with it. So they left a bad review is going to happen. It doesn't mean anything about you or your business. So making sure we have discipline of the mind to know that when I get a review, it doesn't mean anything about me if it's good, or if it's bad. It works the same way, right? When we get good reviews, we should feel great about ourselves. But we shouldn't need that to feel worthy to run our business. So I just wanted to level set a little bit on the mindset side. Now let's talk about more strategically and specifically, what do you do if you happen to get a negative review?
04:20
Like I mentioned earlier, it's bound to happen. But what matters is how you handle it. We are in the business of customer service. I mentioned this in the last Quick Tip Wednesday. We are We are here to serve our customers. So we have to make sure that in our business, we approach our customers in that mindset of I'm here to serve you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to give you an awesome product. I am here to make your experience as good as possible. Now if someone has an experience that they weren't a fan of, it's your job in this customer service industry, in your specific customer service department if you wear that hat in your business
05:00
To make the situation right no matter what the situation is is. So let's talk through a couple examples. Specifically, I want to talk about one where someone actually didn't like your product. And what did you do in that case, I have quite a few examples of these specifically for the eczema, soothing balm with plant based beauty where it's meant to help soothe eczema and really nourish the skin for people who have eczema or struggling with some sort of really dry, itchy, inflamed skin condition. Sometimes when people use this product, they don't see the results that they wanted. They said that it didn't help them to the fullest extent, they weren't as satisfied with it, whatever potential review that they may have specifically about the product, what I always always always do in those situations is reach out to the customer. And I will say, thank you so much for your feedback, you always want to approach this from a place of gratitude, even if they are maybe not the happiest customer. Remember, you are the customer service department. And don't internalize it. It's not anything about you, it's just you being a customer service department, thank them for their feedback, explain the product to them a little bit more, and try to rectify the situation, give them some advice on how to use it in a better way. So in this example, I would make sure that the customer is only using it during the daytime. Because the eczema, soothing balm at nighttime can trap in too much moisture when the skin actually needs to breathe. So I will reach out to them. Give them that advice. See if they potentially want to try a different product or another product? Or what unique ways what resourceful ways can you rectify the situation for this customer?
06:47
So if they didn't like your product, how can you reach out to them? Thank them. Explain your product, maybe in another way, let them know how to use it in a better way if maybe they're using it incorrectly. And if it makes sense to potentially send them a different product. In this case, I could say oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. The ex was so involved in it work, right? Have you been using it how it's intended only during the day, or have you been using it at night, we noticed that nighttime isn't the best time to use it because the skin is to breathe. If you'd like I'd love to send you our healing glow facial serum, which is a really lightweight serum that a lot of people who struggle with eczema find relief from by using this serum over their eczema, dry skin as well.
07:31
So you can see a couple things I did there, I thank them for their feedback, I educated a little bit more about the product, and I offer to send them a different product to try to rectify the situation. The goal here is for the customer to come back. If they had a negative experience, you can make it right. And if you do make it right, that will be a loyal customer that comes back over and over and over and over again. So know that that is your goal, whenever you get a negative review is to fix the situation. Let's talk about another example of potentially getting a negative review because the item arrived broken. This is 100% your responsibility to send a new one. And I know sometimes people are not happy because it broke during shipping and it wasn't your fault. So why do you have to send a new one, now you're setting a new product and now you have to pay for shipping again, now it's a cost that you're accumulating? Well, a couple of things to level set on is number one, the cost that you incur is the cost of running a business reshipping products that arrived broken is part of doing business. And you should have some sort of buffer in your pricing to accommodate for re ships and things like that, where you do have to go above and beyond and ship another product to your customers. So this one is pretty simple. If it arrives broken, we're in the customer service business to make it right. We have to send them a new one. And yes, we cover the cost of the shipping and the new product and everything in between in that situation.
09:05
Third situation, which I think is the one that's the most controversial is what if it gets lost in the mail, and the customer isn't happy and leaves a bad review that it was lost in the mail. And I see this happen a lot and it gets even more controversial if the tracking number says it's delivered. So you have this instance where you ship the product on time it says it was delivered, but the customer reaches out to you and says hey, I never got this product.
09:38
Obviously we want to right away say well, you know what the tracking says it was delivered so says it was delivered, right? But that is probably one of the worst things you can do in this situation. When you have an opportunity to make it right with your customer. There are times where USPS specifically will mark things as delivered when it's
10:00
Actually not delivered. It happens. I've seen it happen to myself as a recipient of a package. And I've also seen it happen with my customers. Obviously, there's the potential of your customer, maybe just reaching out and trying to milk it and saying, Hey, I didn't get it. But they did. Unfortunately, we hope and have to give our customers the benefit of the doubt that they're not lying, that they're not trying to take us out of money that they're not doing this out of deceit, we have to give them the benefit of the doubt that we're trusting them with what they're saying. And unfortunately, there's no way to prove it, yes or no if they did, or didn't actually get it, because there are instances when USPS will mark it as delivered, but it's not there. So, as much as we want to 100% believe USPS, there is sometimes issues that come up there to where their tracking isn't right. So what I do on these situations, if a customer leaves a negative review, because it says it arrived, but they didn't get it. Or if they reach out to you and say, hey, it says it was delivered, but I can't find this package. What I want you to do is get back to that customer and make sure that they checked with their neighbors. They checked in their front yard, they checked with their package doorman, they checked with their packaging facility, wherever they live, depending on their situation, if it's an apartment, if it's at home, you want to make sure that you reach out and say, Hey, I'm so sorry, this happened. Did you check all potential places where it could be?
11:30
If they say yes, they did, their neighbors don't have it. They checked the mailbox, they checked the parcel package room, they checked the front yard, they checked every single place that they potentially could, and they still don't have it. Then usually by the time you hear back from them, it's been about a day or two since it says it's been delivered, right? Sometimes what happens with USPS is a market as delivered, but it shows up the next day. So when you ask them to check with their neighbors and check other places, you are also given yourself a little bit of buffer time, where they may say oh my gosh, I checked with everyone. They didn't have it, but it just arrived, which is awesome. That's a great situation right there. Or you may have an example, which has happened to me where they're like, oh, my gosh, I just asked my husband, and he actually did pick it up. So he has it I'm sorry, I thought I didn't have it. But the fact that you're reaching out and asking them and giving them some ideas of places to check is number one, having them investigate. And number two, giving yourself a little bit of extra time in case it does show up the next day. Now let's say hypothetically, they don't have it still. Now, what is the best case situation here is to send them a new one. Because it is so much more important. I've said this a couple times. But Repetition is key, right? It's so much more important to have a happy customer and eat the cost of shipping a new one, which means yes, you are paying for the shipping, you are sending them a new product, you are making it right. Because if they turn around then and are so grateful and excited. And if then then they change their review. And they say oh my god, my package was delivered. But I didn't have it. I reached out to the shop owner and they sent me a new one. You just turn that situation 100 degrees, or what's the saying? 360 degrees from a bad situation to an awesome situation. I know a lot of people when USPS says it was delivered. And the customer says they didn't get it. They want to say well, sorry. They want to say well, it's your problem with USPS. They want to say well, it was delivered. So I did my part that is absolute worst case scenario of how you can handle that situation. Now imagine if this happened to you. I know we all have examples on Amazon where we bought stuff on Amazon and it says it was delivered and it wasn't delivered. What do we do we go to Amazon and they send us a new one. And how happy are we because of that. Imagine if you bought something on Amazon and it says it was delivered, but you didn't get it. And you reached out to Amazon. And they said sorry, there's nothing I can do about it. I would guarantee after a few instances of that. I know Amazon is pretty pretty big. But after a few instances of that you may be fed up that you would cancel your Amazon membership. That was a bad experience of where they weren't there to support you. When you ordered something and they didn't and you didn't get it is going to make you never want to purchase from them again. And it's going to make you depending on how you are want to tell everyone about how bad the experience was right? So you don't want that to happen with your customers. Because if you get a customer who's really vocal, and it's going to drag your name through the mud, who's going to post on social media who's going to leave you a bad Google review a bad Etsy review a bad website review, who's going to give you so much stress? Isn't it so much easier to send them another item and make sure they're happy? Get that stress off your back and also
15:00
So turn it into an awesome situation for that customer.
15:04
Similar to what I said about if you have to reship items because it arrived broken, we as business owners pay for the shipping, cover the cost of the product. In this situation, if it says it was delivered, and they didn't receive it, and they reached out to you, it's our responsibility to cover the shipping cost and cover the cost of the product and send it to them again.
15:27
We are business owners, we have to act like we are running an awesome business. And we have to support our customers. And this type of resending should be built into your cost, then if you have to resend a couple a year, it's not going to make or break you. And if you are sending really expensive pieces like goldfill jewelry, or something really expensive that people are buying online, this is where you can think through, it doesn't make sense to pay for the more advanced shipping options that actually have signature required or some sort of insurance tied to them. If your products are that valuable, that you can't ship out another one because that is going to make or break you well. Number one, your pricing is wrong. Number two, let's talk about if it's really that serious, increasing the type of shipping that you use to have the signature or insurance on it. But this is never the customer's problem. And we never want to assume the customer is lying assume the customer has bad intent. We don't want to enter any sort of customer situation with that regard, we want to give them the benefit of the doubt that yes, this unfortunate situation actually happened. And my job as a business owner, as a CEO, as the head of the customer service department, because we're wearing all the hats. Our job is to make the situation right. So I want to level that with you. Because I've seen this actually come up quite a few times inside product Academy where people aren't sure how to handle that situation. And this is the exact advice that I give them. I hope it gives you some direction in case this happens to you. But to summarize, we want to always reach out to the customer. We want to educate them if it's something that they weren't aware of which will lead to a negative review. We want to potentially offer them to try another product if the one that they got they weren't happy with.
17:22
If they are unsatisfied because an item arrived broken, we send them a new one. If they are unsatisfied because it says it was delivered, but they never got their product, we send them a new one in that case to
17:34
this is the frame of mind that we have to build our business from we are here to serve our customers. And that will make or break your business how you handle these types of situations. So I'm over the 15 minutes on this Quick Tip Wednesday. Were a little bit longer here. But I hope that gives you some direction on how to handle potential negative reviews to turn it into an awesome experience. So you get a loyal customer. And I hope you also walk away with knowing that negative reviews are bound to happen doesn't mean anything about you doesn't mean anything about your products. We are not meant for everyone and people will potentially leave less than great reviews every so often. Just know that you still have an awesome business you still have an awesome product keep showing up keep putting yourself out there and keep supporting your customers to the best way that you can. So with that I just want to end this episode of their product. This podcast is Quick Tip Wednesday episode. Thank you so much for being here. And I'm so excited to see you next week as we have another awesome guest on the product biz podcast.
18:42
Thank you so much for hanging out with me here inside the product biz podcast. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe and to leave a five star review. And if you're interested in learning more about product biz Academy my signature group coaching program for handmade small business owners like you who are looking to create consistent online sales with their business, then go to the product biz podcast.com to join the waitlist. Doors are currently closed but you'll be first notified when they reopen. Thank you so much and I'll see you on the next episode of the product base podcast.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
customer, product, review, situation, delivered, reach, usps, eczema, checked, shipping, business, happy, happen, give, broken, instances, arrived, small business owner, biz, bad