Customer service issue.

[NewChief]

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.

[Boise_Chief]

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.

[Nzoner]

Originally Posted by Phobia

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.

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.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Boise_Chief

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.

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).

[Al Bundy]

Originally Posted by Consistent1

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.

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.

[WhawhaWhat]

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.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by WhawhaWhat

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?

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

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.

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.

Originally Posted by WhawhaWhat

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.

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.

[1moreTRich]

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.

[blaise]

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

[NewChief]

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.

[mikeyis4dcats.]

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....

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by mikeyis4dcats.

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.

Originally Posted by mikeyis4dcats.

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....

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

Originally Posted by 1moreTRich

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.

Outstanding contribution to the discussion. Well done.