Customer Service

Customer Service will Never Fail You.

Customer Service

Customers are your lifelines; they are the blood that keeps you alive.
This world is declining in customer service, and there is no reason for
it. If I walk into a place and get treated rudely or without care, I’m gone.
I am convinced of that more and more as I get older. There is too much
competition not to care.

Table sets

It was two weeks before Christmas and I was selling a gorgeous table
set. In fact it was probably the nicest one to come out of the shop yet. I
did not notice until the day it closed that I forgot to put a reserve price
on the auction. So it closed for $81 when it should have sold for $150.
Ok so I swallowed my pride and stuck with the integrity issue. After all
people come to Ebay for deals and everybody gets lucky once in a
while. So this turns out to be a gift for a man’s children and off the set
goes to Texas. A couple of days later I get an email stating that Fed EX
smashed the chairs boxes and they both needed to be replaced. I sat
and thought about that for a moment. Generally the opinion exists that
once it leaves here (insured) its up to the customer to get a claim filed
with the shipper. After all, the customer pays for the shipping and it’s
the seller’s good faith to make arrangements to get it shipped. The man
said in his email that he wanted me to replace the chairs immediately
and that it’s basically my problem. I think he was stressing a little. I
know a lot of sellers that would tell this guy that it is now their problem.
But I was thinking about the little girls Christmas. (violin’s please) So I
made a huge effort and built two more and shipped them out in time for
Christmas. I filed a claim with Fed EX and the two new chairs arrived
safely. So now I paid for those additional chairs and I said I would file
the claim with the shipper. To make a long story short, it took three
months to get Fed Ex to pay up (they are really bad about that) and I
basically made zero on the table set. What’s my point? The guy thinks I
am the next best thing to sliced bread. You can bet I will get his
referrals. How many companies’s do you know that will take care of
you? Not many we would bet, especially online.

Tool accessories

I sold a part of a router table and it was a smooth transaction. The only
problem is the USPS lost the package. (It will happen) Instead of
emailing me with the dilemma, my buyer files a Paypal complaint. So
now Paypal is involved. This particular time I forgot to get a tracking
number. (always always get one!!!) We had just had a major snowstorm
on the east coast, so I emailed the buyer to give it another day or two.
Still no package, so I sent him another part right away. I really wanted to
smack this guy or at least tell him that he is a clueless bozo. You don’t
file the complaint then ask for help, you ask for help first. A couple of
days later he got his part and withdrew the complaint, the transaction
was now over. The point here is sometimes it does not go smoothly,
and not everyone thinks clearly.

The key to success in the customer service department is having a plan
for failures. Think through what you’re going to do when the US Mail
loses your stuff. Think through the shipping company that smashes a
box. Think through a customer that is not satisfied with their purchase.
These things will happen.
When they do happen, have some resources handy to make it as easy
as possible. I will say right off the bat that if you need to contact Ebay, it’
s a very frustrating event. Ebay’s site is so large and expansive that it
can be difficult to find exactly where you’re suppose to go to contact
them. Just think if everyone could ask Ebay any type of question or
present every type of problem to them on a daily basis. They would be
swamped. Still they have a lousy interface to make it simple to find out
what to do. I have found a couple of simpler solutions to it. Ebay uses
an interface called Safe Harbor. It allows you to solve some problems
and attempts to give you some basic answers.

Here is the link.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/index_popup.html?policies=topics.
html&ssPageName=STRK:SRVC:029

This is under the “Services” tab, which you must click first and then
scroll down.
I have gone there and been unable to just click to a link to contact
Ebay. I found an easier solution. Ebay advertises”Live Help” chat
interface that you can access a live person via chat box. I think they
designed it for beginner’s questions such as registering or common
questions. I have found them to be the most helpful, giving quick links in
what to do. You would be amazed at how much aggravation they can
save you. There is more detailed information in the Ebay links section
of this manual.

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