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I want to say 98% of our customers are like the chillest people ever. I’m pretty sure our drivers could forget part of the order, need to return later in the day to deliver, and these people will open the door and crack a joke like “Realized you couldn’t keep it, huh?” or “Looks like I did order it!” Like as long as the issue is resolved, they don’t care. But that 2% is just….I just wish I could just cancel their accounts out of sheer pettiness, because NOTHING satisfies them.
And one of those people called and emailed today. Something was wrong with the order, we handled it. Then there was something else wrong, so they emailed. And I got that email. I wrote this very apologetic email, issued a discount for their next order, gave a credit for the damaged item, let my team know another product in the same order arrived slightly damaged. Easy-peasy, right? WRONG! She replied within an hour saying “I appreciate the response. But there has been so many issues with your company. And none of these issues have yet to be addressed. I mean, how are you in business? Sounds like bad management to me. I don’t think I want to be a customer anymore. ”
That got me a bit, because this company is amazing. And my boss has been commenting on how sales are a bit low and how every sale matters right now. So I thought “I should try to keep her as a customer.” So I looked over the email history to see what all the issues were recently. There hadn’t been a single issue in a good while. And she placed many more orders between the last issue and now, so I thought we were all good.
I replied with another apologetic email, but included that we haven’t had any recent complaints and how we’re really working hard to make things right and will continue to do so. And I upped the coupon (manually adjusted in her account), as a show of good faith and hopefully she decides to stay.
She replied with DATES OF ALL THE TIMES SHE EMAILED US WITH AN ISSUE. 6 in total over the course of TWO YEARS. TWO YEARS! She places so many orders with us and only mentioned 6 MINOR issues!
I read back over my email and failed to indicate “Recent.” So, my email that meant to say “I don’t see any recent complaints” read “I don’t see any complaints.” Oh, we had complaints, but not RECENT ONES. So…dummy me replied again going, essentially “Whoops, clumsy me. I said that wrong. All your past issues were addressed and resolved. And we’ll make sure your issues are resolved moving forward.”
To which she replied “Well, it looks like everyone at that company needs more training. I don’t think I’ll order until I’m sure everyone’s had more training.” And that’s what pushed me over. I don’t know if it’s the weather or the personal stress or what, BUT that made me fume! Like, how dare you! I’ve been doing this for a long time!
And my boss just heard me furiously typing and looked at me going “Are you okay?” and all I could do was point at the email. “Oh….oh no she didn’t…I say this with love: You’re getting defensive and need a break.” I took a 10, came back and my boss helped me put my email together to essentially say “I am actually the senior representative in my team. It was an honest mistake, anyone can make. And I do still appreciate your feedback.”
AND THE ASSHOLE REPLIED BACK WITH “Your company definitely needs more training.” My boss saw my face, saw the email, and went “We should have just left it alone.”
We both had a bad judgement because we were both riled up by this customer’s stupid comment, and we let that get the better of us.
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