It’s every business owner’s nightmare – you get a call or email from a disgruntled customer who’s angrily telling you their order hasn’t arrived. They ordered it online two weeks ago, it said it would arrive within a few days, and there’s still no sign of it.
This puts you in a very precarious position as you need to handle the situation correctly. Mess this up, and you could lose a loyal customer forever, get a terrible review for your business, and possibly miss out on future customers as a result. To ensure this doesn’t happen, here’s what you need to do next:
Getting an angry customer email can be very troubling.
Figure Out The Reason For The Non-Delivery
First thing’s first, apologize to the customer and tell them you’ll look into it right away. Here, you need to look through the system and make some calls to find out why a package wasn’t delivered. It’s possible that it was lost in transit – this happens to many packages that are shipped overseas. However, there could’ve been an accident that meant the delivery truck carrying the order was put out of action. Talk to any truck accident lawyers out there, and they’ll admit these types of accident are highly frequent. Or, it could be a case of the wrong delivery address being entered by the customer, or the delivery company accidentally taking it to the wrong place.
Regardless of the reason, figure it out, and this helps you track the package and see if you can re-deliver it right away.
Explain What Went Wrong And Offer Multiple Options
Once you know what went wrong, you have to explain it to the customer, so they know why their package wasn’t delivered. Then, give them different options for the next steps to take. If you were able to track the package, then let them know that you could get the exact same one picked up and re-delivered.
Alternatively, you could ship off the same product from your inventory again. They have the choice, and it will depend on which method is quickest for them. Thirdly, you may be in a position where the product they ordered is no longer in stock. So, ask if they want a different item for the same price, or if they’re willing to wait until it’s in stock.
If customers are returning items then it is vital that this is dealt with accordingly and with professionalism. If you sell overseas, you may want to look at a multi currency account to ensure that you can deal with transactions and any kind of refunds that may occur to make life much simpler for the customer and for you. Iis true that the client is always right, because what they tell you is the most valuable information that you will have to improve your product or service. Much better than market research. When a customer is dissatisfied, it shows you what you are doing wrong, and it gives you a chance to correct it. If the customer is not satisfied, they will not buy from you again, they will not recommend you to their friends, and they may even harm your business by spreading negative information about their experience. But we must go further in the analysis. If a client is not satisfied, it is very likely that others are not in the same conditions either. So it’s not just about finding a solution for that customer, but for all future customers. Successful businesses are successful because they satisfy their customers and charge enough for their value proposition to make the activity profitable. And how do you satisfy the customer? In situations such as these highlighted in this article, you must always be sure to try and give them something back.
Find the missing package and get it shipped out right away. Source
Give Them Something For Their Troubles
Finally, we have the most important thing of all; compensating your customer. If the non-delivery was their fault and they put the wrong address in, then they’re not entitled to anything, and they can’t blame you for it. But, in most cases, it’s your fault because you’re responsible for getting the package to them.
So, give them something for their troubles. If the product isn’t in stock anymore, give them a full refund and send out the same product for free as soon as it arrives. Even if you can send them the same item, you should still give them a discount code as a way of saying sorry for the inconvenience.
Hopefully, doing all of this will help solve the issue and keep your customer happy. They end up with their product, and they get something extra in return for their troubles!