Teach Soap

I must say that when it comes to customer service I strive to be like BB. Whenever I've had even the slightest inkling of something gone awry, they've done EXACTLY what I've hope for to be done.

I have had my very first customer service issue come up and I need help figuring out what the best thing to do is.... I'm going to copy & paste some email exchanges here and then give you my thoughts...

From the end customer (may or may not be important to note that this person did not purchase from me, one of my regular customers ordered it for her as a gift):

Dear Erin,
I received your shipment this afternoon in Houston. It was delivered to my door and I carefully opened it with your designated side up. The packaging is lovely. Unfortunately, however, the products were somewhat mangled in shipping. I thought you would want to know so that future shipments could be better protected. I am attaching a photo for your information. (there's more to this email that's not really relevant)

Dear Rose,

Thank you so much for letting me know about this! I know you did not write me to get replacement products, but I will be sending some. .... The gable box is hard to ship but C wanted to make sure you got one of everything! .... (a lot more here that's again not relevant)

Dear Erin,
I absolutely do not want you to send more products and incur more shipping charges. I am well aware of the strains on any small business, much less in the current economic environment. I hope to enjoy the products as much as my sister and niece do and may order my favorite fragrances myself in the future.

===

So... I shipped her one of my products not on my website yet called "the big basket" which is actually in a gable box. The gable box doesn't ship well, which is why its not up on the web site yet ... I sell a lot of them locally. She had one product that disintegrated entirely, two that looked bad but will work fine, and the other 5 products were just fine. Anyway. I want desperately to ship this woman a replacement on the 3 products that were damaged in my regular packaging which ships just fine, but I don't want to offend her either. My dh says to wait until she orders and give her some extras. But what if she doesn't order? What if she thinks shipping is always like this (this is the FIRST time I've had a problem that wasn't on a product that I was experimenting with)?

Suggestions?

_________________
Sweet bathing!
Erin
www.bathcake.com

_________________
PJ,
http://www.pjsoaps.com

I would send replacements anyway. She took the time to let you know of a problem.
Some people would just chalk it up to experience and she didnt.

So I would say she went above and beyond of what a "normal" customer would do.
If it was me I would go above and beyond to keep her happy and as a customer.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Yup. What they all said. Perhaps a little note thanking her, and many future customers will be happy because she spotted a problem in shipping in the infancy of that product.

I would totally send her something - and a hand written note thanking her for letting you know about the damage to shipping - and telling her that you hope she likes her new goodies.

Think how happy you are when you open an unexpected package. She'll be thrilled! And hopefully that will overcome any feelings she has of "Hey! I told you not to send anything!" =)