Is it just me, or do more people appear to be taking their angry pills? If the growing number of customers ordering gifts from The Complete Basketcase with a “We value your business, sorry we stuffed up” card attached is any indication, then I think so.
Sending gift hampers can be highly emotional for our customers. When you are sending a gift to someone for an occasion, and you want it there on a certain day and it does not get delivered, then I completely understand I may have to deal with a very cranky customer. And I am just as upset about it as they are. This is my business and there is nothing worse than a problem with a delivery.
Sometimes I have to psych myself up before calling a customer and let them know there has been a problem. It’s funny, I find the ones who I expect to rightly give me a blasting, are usually the customers that are the most understanding. “So the courier dropped my gift, and someone ran over it and then a pack of wild dogs took off with it, and a replacement gift won’t get there till next Monday, well these things happen”.
Yet if I have to ring someone and let them know that a gift won’t arrive on the day they want, because they gave us the wrong information, well that’s usually when I cop it. So now if I have a customer service problem and have to call to complain, I take a second and remember the person on the other end of the phone probably works in a completely different department and had nothing to do with the problem I am calling up about. They just happen to be the person who has to register my complaint.
Things happen. No system is perfect. Being rude to the person on the other end of the phone line is not going to solve the problem any faster. It just means that you have probably ruined someone’s day.
We are lucky here that, if for some reason something has gone wrong, we have the option of sending chocolates or wine as an apology. And it works. Just recently we had some beer’s leak in one of our gifts. We sent the recipient a new gift replacing the items that were damaged, and then sent our customer a bottle of wine. The customer was so impressed, he said he would not only use us again, but also tell everyone how awesome our service was.
Not every business has that option, so that’s where we come in. With such a large number of gifts to choose from, and many different price ranges, it’s just a matter of working out just how much your error is going to cost you. Unfortunately we don’t stock happy pills, but chocolate works just as well. If you need help in choosing that perfect apology basket, contact our friendly team today.
