“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery.” – Aldous Huxley
Dear customer service,
I bought your product second hand over the weekend and it doesn’t work. It must be broken or missing parts. Please send me the parts or a new unit as soon as possible? I am going to need it next week.
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Hi There, I am sorry to hear about the issue you are having with our product. I will more than happy to help you out but will need some information first so I can determine what you need to get your product working properly. Please provide the following information.
– Model number
– Production date
– a brief description of the issue
– a few pictures of the product.
Thank you…
WOW! really? That’s alot. Way to stand by your product. I just want a new one. Please send to my address below. If you can’t help me I’m going to write a bad review on Amazon and any other site I can.
I am about to hit the 1K follower mark on Twitter, I have over 100 FaceBook friends, I belong to two mommy groups with blogs, both of which I have written posts for. I will share everywhere that your product is horrible and the customer service is worse.
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It’s not word for word but it’s the gist of an email correspondence with a customer. One of many actually. And, as you can tell, it was with a disgruntled customer. I would also add angry, annoying, entitled and maybe a few other choice adjectives I’ll leave out. Can you guess what my first thought was? I’ll keep that to myself as well to keep this as PG as possible.
My second thought was. Are you kidding me? You buy this used somewhere, it doesn’t work and you won’t even answer three simple questions, and send a picture or two? All so I can determine exactly what is needed to help you and get the product working? No, that’s asking way too much.
Instead I am threatened with negative word of mouth to be spread across her extensive social media networks if I don’t send her a brand new product. Even though I am trying to help? Really?
So what would you do? I know, I know. The customer is always right. Even when they’re not, right? You know what I say to that? I better not say that either. So what did I do? To be honest, I don’t think I ever heard back from this particular customer. This really doesn’t happen all the time, but it does more than it should. Most of the time the requested information is provided. The information is going to help me help you better. Why would anyone refuse to send this information?
In these types of cases, I usually offer to send the parts for free and just ask the customer to cover the shipping. If they actually do need a new unit I’ll often offer them a deep discount.
Hear me now! I don’t do this because they are right. I do it because it’s the right thing to do.
We absolutely live in a brave new world. It’s easy to threaten, bully, and pester. It’s easy to leave a bad review, and spread negativity from the roof tops. Truthful or not it doesn’t matter. The quiet, the shy, and the timid. The kind, the polite, and the respectful. Can flip the switch to the dark side behind their screen and with a few strokes of a keyboard and push of a button they can send, post, submit, and tweet it into cyber space for all to see.
The incident above took place a while back. FaceBook and Twitter were still in their infancy. So, in one sense the threat was real. We didn’t yet know what the impact would be. Would negative word of mouth on social media crush us? Probably not crush it but it might hurt us. What we did know is that bad Amazon reviews do hurt. That is an entirely different story. I have a lot to share about Amazon, but I’ll save that for another time.
So again, regardless if the customer really is right or not, we choose to do what’s right. That is what keeps us going. I don’t respond well to threats or negativity, but I have learned to process it before taking action. Those twenty eyes are watching, remember?
At the end of the day, I’d rather be happy than right. I’d rather have a thriving business instead of struggling every day to make a sale because Jane Doe had a bad day and took it out on us, all over the internet.
The other side? I’m a regular person like you, and that angry customer. We are not a giant conglomerate, fortune 500 company. We are regular people, and we care about our customers. Not because they make us rich but because they keep us in business. They help pay for volley ball camp for our daughter and hockey sticks for our son. And groceries for our pantry. Not a fancy car, or second home on a tropical beach.
I can’t help but think to myself “how miserable is this person’s life?” I mean is life so bad, are you so unhappy, angry, and spiteful that you need to bring others down with you? As they say, misery loves company. Nothing bonds a relationship like a common enemy.
Rant over – we can revisit deeper in another piece. The reality is this, the internet and social media has evolved beyond expectation. It has changed just about everything, but everything comes full circle. All those negative, disgruntled, wolf crying ass clowns have the same twenty eyes on them.
Customers and businesses alike live together inside the glass. A little patience, kindness, compassion, and understanding go a long way. So, how do you live behind closed doors?…
Remember, they are made of glass!
Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator
You have to leap if you want to live
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