Customer service issue.
 

Okay: my wife has a store (wedding crap). A girl won a raffle and got a $50 gift certificate. She ordered an item from us and spent some other money as well. All good so far.

Our employee went back and forth with producers of item (there is a proofing process) but neglected to give final approve to produce item because she forgot prior to going on vacation and then forgot when she returned from vaction. Thus item was unmade for 2 weeks. We had told customer we would have item for her in two weeks. When we found out item was not approved by employee, we paid rush fee to have item made quickly. Sadly, this all happened around 4th of July and item was not made for 3 More weeks (5 week total). Customer also dropped invites off at store so we could apply item to them for her. We then paid $90 to have item overnighted (mind you the customer paid nothing for item because was won in drawing) when it was made. Unfortunately, item was still not made, and her deadline (and limits of her patience) for sending invites was reached, so she picked them back up and sent without item.

Item arrives next day and she picks it up. She has now bad mouthed our business on Facebook.

Now, initial problem was definitely our mistake. We then went above and beyond, IMO, to try to rectify issue, especially considering we were getting zero money on this transaction.

My question: just let it go? Or should we try to let the customer know the amount we spent trying to rectify situation? We've already apologized repeatedly and offered her husband some free shit when he came to pick up item, which he declined.

You should sell the customers credit card information to the highest bidder

teach them to bad mouth LMAO

really though you should try to make the customer happy. word of mouth can kill a small business

Let it go.

Let it go.

I totally agree, but I'm not sure what would make her happy at this point. I don't want to badger her with some long winded explanation (like I gave you all). We also don't really feel like extending some massive store credit or gift to her because she wasn't really a customer to begin with (she ordered her invites online instead of at our store and only came Into our store because she won the drawing).

going too far to defend our company can backfire on you. This is just one customer. How many happy customers do you have compared to that one bad apple.

Exactly. You know you did right.
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Exactly. You know you did right.
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I was going to say this too.
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I guess going the extra mile could backfire as suggested. Also letting it go would do the opposite of stoking the fire if you respond and call her a ****ing **tch

Okay. Thanks for the confirmation. We are in a small area and very active on social media, so it hurts to see the bad press there. Still, shit happens and we did our best. Our reputation is solid in the area with the people who count at this point. Still just sucks to get bad publicity.

You can't please everyone, and if it's a small area then people know who the bad customers are already.

And your employee just got put on watch. Really, that's the individual who truly screwed the pooch on this one.

From the customer's perspective, you can see how waiting for several additional weeks contributed to an already stressful situation, since some people go bat shit crazy over weddings when it's really just a ****ing party. But, whatever.

That's no shit. There is a notorious person in our town. We've had two incidents with her already, and now she's wanting us to do a major project for her. We are seriously debating turning her down. This person is so bad that we described the first incident to another store owner and the store owner immediately said "I bet that was Customer X."

People who win free shit or pay pennies on the dollar for something at a charity auction have zero concept or appreciation that the vendor did it at their own peril. Consumers suck in many cases. I would offer a very simple explanation to her bashing via social media explaining how you did your best but there were some unfortunate, isolated timing problems and then let it be. Then banish ingrates like her from your store.

give her a free dildo and tell her to go **** herself.

Yeah. We've discussed the issue with the employee and implemented some new procedures to prevent future ****ups.

And the customer's stress is absolutely understandable.

I don't even donate stuff to charity auctions any longer for this reason. I can't afford to give stuff away. It's tough enough out there without all that.

Ironically, we had an even bigger ****up about the same time (noticing a trend here? Hah) that could have ruined some people's wedding. This problem led to immense amounts of stress for us and the customers. That situation ended with these customers taking to social media to praise how far above and beyond we went to rectify the situation.

So this might be a blessing in disguise, actually. Yeah, some bullshit went on Facebook, apparently, but if that's the worst thing that happens, and as a result your business is now stronger...cool.

I have done it several times. I would rather feel bad about losing some money then losing money, adding stress, and possible murder charges.

Me too. Hell I told a guy to go elsewhere on a twelve hundred dollar job because he didn't want me to change the oil when I was done.

Said he had just changed it fifteen hundred miles and one blown head gasket ago...
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Good people understand the dynamics involved with small business. I was supposed to have an intense $7000 shower completed last Friday but some of the very high end valves inside the wall didn't arrive until just this week. Not my fault but it made me look bad. But they understand and continue to refer us and praise the business in social media. She's one of the most meticulously detailed clients I've ever had but I've done about $80k of work on their house in the past 2 years and I know how to keep her calm. They love the finished product and want it done right. The wait is painful but generally worth it.

give me her phone number
I'm creepy as ****

You've got to defend your social networking honor. Right meow.

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/6960/ta7m.jpg

Yes, you are. You actually creep me out over the internet which is quite an accomplishment.

Isn't there an Asian proverb that applies here? Something like " Those who have free seats at a play hiss first"? Is she complaining on your company's facebook page or her own? If it were my page I would just delete her comment. Comments are for paying customers.

Or you could start a rumor that she has herpes.

Isn't there a service called reputation defender? I think I heard it on the radio one time.

Ask her, tell her you want to be fair and make things right. See what she says. Maybe another $50 gift card will save the day.

Better than being blasted. JMHO

And from the sound of it, although it was beyond your ability (other than 2 weeks time) it was a pretty huge **** up.

LMAO

I'd say let it go, if she's talked shit on Facebook and you've apologized then the damage is done. Customers never want to hear sorry, all they want is free shit while they tell you they'd like to hear sorry. Working in the food industry for over a decade has taught me that if a customer is pissed, the game is already over, because either you're going to bend over backwards to help them or they'll claim to never shop in your store again and then they come back a week later. Just make sure the mistake doesn't happen again and to make sure that employee handles their shit before they go on vacation regardless of how much they can't wait to get out of there.

And how would that work?

Forget it, and sleep at night. You did right.

I think you should just apologize for the mishap and move on to other business. Any attempt to give extra stuff will just be looked at as a bribe. Probably why the extra stuff offered was declined. Any retaliatory words or actions towards the winner, who is at no fault of their own in this matter, would just look bad upon you. Just apologize and move on. If the winner still continues with the malcontent behavior, repeat the apology and note that it isn't the first time for the apology.

I haven't read the whole thread, but I would do whatever it took to make her happy. You've already admitted it was a colossal **** up. Previous customer or not, a great opportunity got squandered because of an employee's mistake. I would explain the whole situation to her, and your cost just so she knows how hard you tried to make it right. I would also fire the employee over it. It may have been one mistake, but it was one that is costing you a lot of money. In bad pub as well as out of pocket expense to make that customer happy. You can't afford having those kind of liabilities around. Just my .02.

There is a company that advertises that. I think its more them checking sites like yelp and trying to claim that negative reviews are fake and having them taken down, though. I can't imagine they could do anything about something like this.

under normal work circumstances, I'd agree with floppy, but the wedding dynamic is one you can't **** with. live & learn.

I might ask the employee to fork over company damages, just to drive it home.

That would be a terrible idea, really.

Take the high road. Apologize and move on. This is not a normal customer transaction and should not be treated as such. And it's definitely not someone trying to get money back on a McDouble after eating it. This is someone who won a prize, claimed it, spent extra money in the store that they probably didn't have to, and told a final redemption would be in 2 weeks. 5 weeks from winning and winner still not able to claim prize because not of their own doing. Whether she paid for item or not is invalid. She was promised by said time, time was broken because of lack of attention to detail by staff and ownership. What the total costs to the store is not relevant. Winner does not need to be made to feel guilty by how much money you spent to fix a situation you are responsible for. Take the ill review lumps and try to learn from it.

You could use this service for dealing with customer complaint issues

NSFW
http://foaas.com/

Yep, it isn't worth the hassle. You could probably give her a thousand dollars cash and she still wouldn't be happy. Live and learn. You tried to rectify the situation, you did everything within your power to help remedy the issue. You didn't put blame on someone else, sometimes crap like this happens, and nothing you can do will make the customer happy. Just chalk it up as experience and tighten the straps up so something like this doesn't happen again.

No way, if he has one employee (IIRC he only has one) and he trusts them and she trusts her, he will lose their trust and maybe her employment if he asks her to pay for the costs. This type of situation is the cost of doing business. A business accepts responsibility for their employees actions, lets face it, mistakes happen and they suck. All you can do is try to fix the situation, educate those involved and try to prevent it from happening again. If she did the same thing over and over again, I would fire her if she continually did it, but that isn't the case here.

Women and their wedding bullshit is serious business for sure. My ex and her mother damn near drove me crazy with that shit, and it was more her mother.

Some customers will not be happy period. It isn't worth hemorrhaging out money and firing an employee over it. If the employee doesn't learn from the mistake, by all means fire her. He would be better suited to step the customer service of their shop up a notch and make sure all his current customers are 100% happy. 10 good reviews counteract the 1 negative review. The general public isn't completely stupid, they can siphon through reviews and understand there will usually be a couple negative reviews, as long as the good outweighs the bad, he will be fine.

EXACTLY.

Has the wedding already happened? If not you might send a card maybe include a small gc for dinner somewhere with a hand written note reinforcing your apology.

These are the times and situations you look at to get great social media press.
You have to look at it as advertising and try to use a bad situation to your advantage.

After the wedding is over she may see this in a different light and come back onto facebook to say Wow look at this.

This is pretty much spot on although I have seen a rare case or two.I did a pennies on the dollar promotion with the local paper for Pyro Joe's and maybe 1 of 10 customers went over and above,for the most part the people wanted exactly the dollar amount on certificate and then got an attitude when I wouldn't honor coupons as stated in the fine print.Needless to say I don't offer such things anymore,the only promo I do is a kid's coloring contest drawing and I donate a firework assortment to one charity but the assortment is pre-picked by myself.

I do like this idea, and it fits in line with our business image (we promote hand written and classic letter writing as part of our company branding).

Mothers are the worst. They are living vicariously through their daughters at that point. Those old bitches realize their romantic lives are over at this point because they're wrinkled. So of course they want to be in control of the wedding.

Customer was told the service would be done in 2 weeks, it ended up taking 5 weeks and still wasn't completed so the customer wrote a bad review.

I don't see what the customer did wrong.

Did I say the customer had done something wrong?

No. That shit always back fires with blackmail or them blasting you anyway.

Delete her comments on your page. If she is not over it already after apology she is trying to scam something.

Do not respond to her anymore.

The customer got something for free and these fine folks spent hundreds of dollars getting it right. Even though it took longer, it was free. There's no call to trash them on the internet. It was free.

I am a online review junkie. Most every purchase I make or hotel I stay at I read reviews on, if they are available. I appreciate when the owner gets a bad review and has an explanation, it gives me a sense that they care about their image and they are willing to go above and beyond to make customers happy and keep their brand strong.

If it were my business, I would have a short courteous response about what went down, explain how it was your fault (don't blame the customer at all) and what you are doing to make sure this doesn't happen again. I use those businesses much more than someone with average to good reviews that don't comment.

You know, NewChief, you might want to look around and see if she's bad mouthing you in other sites that allow customer reviews.

As an FYI:

The only post she's made so far was only in her own Facebook feed (public, and a friend told us that she'd made it). If it were on a public review site (Yelp, google, etc..), I'd definitely reply and explain what happened.

I'm not going to go on her personal facebook feed, look like a stalker, and reply there, though.

here's a free piece of advice.

Treat every customer exactly the same, whether they used a coupon, bought a GC for pennies on the dollar at a charity event, received a GC for a present, or opened up their wallet in front of you and pulled out greenbacks.

The minute you started viewing this customer as something less than a "customer" is a problem.

It is not the customer's fault they used a coupon or a GC, YOU were the one that made it available for use....

I'm pretty sure that we treated the customer the same (as evidenced by us spending money to make it right). I'm just providing context of why it's a little galling.

That's good advice though and very hard in this line of work. You have people who are going to drop 5k on invites and others who can't afford 500. Often the lower end clients are more difficult to deal with as well because they want value for cheap.

But we constantly discuss that everyone deserves to be made to feel special for their wedding regardless if budget.

You're right. That's why I don't make those things available any longer. It's not a "win" for my business.

Outstanding contribution to the discussion. Well done.

Assuming you mean there's no call to trash the business, I have to disagree a bit here. As you stated earlier, you run into delays in your business as well, but you are not on such a hard deadline. If homeowner's have to use their guest bath for an extra few weeks, it's an inconvenience. Delays in event oriented businesses are a little more significant and may lead to unsuccessful events. You can always return to fix a problem at one of your customers. Couples can't just redo their weddings.

And regards to the "customer got something free" comment, I really dislike this line of thinking. Businesses don't give away products/services free out of the goodness of their hearts. The business is trading for publicity, marketing, customer reviews, site traffic, store traffic, etc. If the business follows through and actually provides a quality product or service, they will receive a return. If instead they reach behind them and grab some reject out of a garbage bin and hand it to the customer, they should expect a negative return. This is a chance to "show" how good you or your products are. Just because it was free the consumer is supposed to give you a mulligan and assume you are better than shown and recommend you to friends?

I'm with Boise_Chief. Simple and personal. A public response vie social media would be overboard IMO. I think you've done more than enough to attempt to resolve the issue, but a final apology/congratulations I think would be a sincere ending.

I agree with everything you've said, unlurking. But it was free. I tend to give bar owners a little more leeway on $.25 wing night because I happen to know they're selling wings at or below cost. It's a promotion to get people in the seats. Same thing here. I know Newchief's employee screwed up but he went above and beyond to try to resolve the issue. That's all I ever ask. Do your best. I rarely trash any business in public - that's just me.

this. hell I cant even talk bad about my competitors when they **** up. it would make me feel wrong

I have the same issue. LMAO


I get along pretty damn good with my competitors.

Be proactive. If you have a company blog or want to post something to YELP on her behalf, you should.

A blog post titled something like: "How to handle when you let yourself down" will make you seem human and fair minded.