We hear it over and over again. What ever happened to customer service? Sadly, I feel this transcends the B2C transaction. Maybe it trickles down from the top? In late December, I received an online order for a dog lead. When I checked my inventory, I realized the color was sold out. No problem. The manufacturer was local, so I would place an order and have it by the end of the week. I notified the customer and they were fine with waiting.A week went by and the order never arrived. I called the manufacturer and the owner answered. I asked about the order only to find out they were holding the order, without notifying me, because two other color leads (not the one I needed) were on back order. Wouldn't you call your customer if you were going to hold back a shipment? You would think. Meanwhile, my customer was still patiently waiting. I asked if he could go ahead and ship the rest of the order and send out the two leads separately when they arrived. He balked at that because of shipping costs. So I told him to send them USPS since it cost less than UPS. He continued to push back. This was all over $6.95 S/H, that I felt he should have comped for since he held the whole thing up! Fed up, I finally told him to just take the two back ordered leads off the order and send the rest of it today. He cheerfully agreed and that was that.
Now look at this from a business perspective. He lost a $25 order over $6.95. Does that make sense? No. Even worse, this is not the first time I've had trouble getting inventory from him. This became the nail in the coffin and I decided this would be my last order.
The package arrived a few days later. Via USPS. I paid $6.95 S/H for UPS. The Click-To-Ship label with the amount of the shipping was blacked out...by hand. I know it cost less. The moral of the story? Look at the bigger picture. Keeping customers happy will keep them coming back.
