1416: [Part 1] Customer Service Skills: How Would You Handle These Awkward Situations by Steve Chou of MyWifeQuitHerJob

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[00:00:29] [SPEAKER_01]: This is Optimal Work Daily, Episode 1416.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Customer Service Skills.

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_01]: How Would You Handle These Awkward Situations?

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Part 1 by Steve Chou of MyWifeQuitHerJob.com

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And welcome to OWD for this Friday.

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Dan, your host and narrator here.

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_01]: And the post today is a little bit on the longer side, so I'm going to read the first half right now

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_01]: and then wrap up for you tomorrow.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's get to part one and start optimizing your life.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Customer Service Skills.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_01]: How Would You Handle These Awkward Situations?

[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Part 1 by Steve Chou of MyWifeQuitHerJob.com

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_01]: If you've been selling physical products online for any length of time, chances are you've hit

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_01]: a few snafus along the way where good customer service skills have come in handy.

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Even if you run a robust operation, processing large volumes of orders inevitably results in

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_01]: mistakes and situations that are beyond your control.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_01]: For example, most online stores rely on third-party shippers to deliver their products to the end

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_01]: customer.

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, what happens when there's a breakdown with your shipper?

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_01]: When something doesn't get delivered, is it the shipper's fault or yours?

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_01]: When a customer makes a complaint, do you trust that they're telling the truth?

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_01]: With a holiday selling season right around the corner,

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_01]: these problems only get amplified.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_01]: For example, you have to deal with customers wanting to make returns.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_01]: You have to interact with frustrated people trying to make last-minute purchases for their

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_01]: friends and loved ones.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_01]: And you have to deal with fraudulent orders.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_01]: In this post, I'm going to present some of the major customer service dilemmas that we've

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_01]: faced over the years and how we resolve them.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Did we do the right thing?

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_01]: You be the judge.

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Customer Service Dilemma Number 1, Order Not Complete

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Several months ago, a customer purchased several dozen linen napkins from our store and

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_01]: she needed them shipped immediately via UPS next-day air.

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't a huge order, but it was large enough that we marked her as a possible

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_01]: long-term B2B customer in our database.

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_01]: As a result, we paid extra attention.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, the linens were delivered on time and everything seemed to be okay,

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_01]: but the following day, she called to complain that we shortchanged her on her order.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_01]: She ordered four dozen napkins but claimed to have only received three dozen.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Now, it's entirely possible that we screwed up.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_01]: But here's the thing.

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_01]: One, we processed her order with extra care since she was a potential repeat customer.

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Two, each set of napkins weighs 1.2 pounds and her package weighed over 5 pounds.

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_01]: It's highly unlikely that we didn't pack her order correctly

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and we were fairly confident that she was lying to get free product.

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_01]: How would you deal with this issue?

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Would you denounce her as a no-good lying cheater or would you ship her another

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_01]: dozen napkins?

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Customer service dilemma number two, package lost in the mail.

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_01]: This particular customer ordered some handkerchiefs from us three weeks before her wedding day.

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Under normal circumstances, her order should have been delivered within

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_01]: two to five business days through the United States Postal Service,

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_01]: but for some reason her package was delayed in transit.

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_01]: In any case, this customer called us inquiring why it was taking so long

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_01]: for her order to be delivered and after checking the tracking number,

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_01]: her order appeared to be in transit but two weeks had already passed.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Based on the delivery confirmation, she had not received her order yet

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and it was starting to look like her order was either lost in the mail or severely delayed.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Seeing as her wedding date was rapidly approaching, we had a hard decision to make.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Do we ask her to wait and jeopardize her not getting her order on time?

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Do we send her another package and have her mail the duplicate shipment back to us?

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_01]: What would you do?

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Customer service dilemma number three, package marked as delivered but not received.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_01]: This particular customer contacted us about an order she placed over a month ago

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_01]: and when we checked her tracking number, it indicated that her package was successfully

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_01]: delivered. But even though tracking indicated otherwise, the customer claimed that she never

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_01]: received it and demanded a refund. Because the package was marked as delivered,

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_01]: do we trust the customer or the United States Postal Service?

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Is the customer lying?

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_01]: What would you do and would the dollar amount of the order affect your decision?

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Customer service dilemma number four, accepting personal checks.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Some of our customers don't feel comfortable paying by credit card.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_01]: As a result, we also accept cashier's checks and money orders as payment methods.

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_01]: One time, a customer placed an order and opted to pay by cashier's check but she sent us a

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_01]: personal check instead. And to make things more complicated, she paid extra for overnight

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_01]: delivery. Not normally we don't accept personal checks but this was a fairly large

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_01]: purchase and I didn't want to lose out on the extra money. Plus, the lady came across as really

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_01]: sweet over the phone. Now the safest way to accept a personal check is to wait a full five

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_01]: days for the check to completely clear prior to sending out the package. But this lady was in

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_01]: a rush so her order needed to be shipped immediately. Would you go through with this

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_01]: transaction or avoid the order? And customer service dilemma number five,

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_01]: incorrect personalization. One of the key value propositions for our store is that we

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_01]: offer custom personalization. For example, customers have the option of adding a three-letter

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_01]: monogram to their wedding handkerchiefs. But while personalization is a huge profit center for us,

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_01]: it causes one major problem. Customers often make mistakes and blame you for it.

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_01]: One time we had a customer spend hundreds of dollars on monogrammed handkerchiefs

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_01]: only to complain that we embroidered the initials in the wrong order.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_01]: You would think pretty straightforward right? Long story short she mixed up the letters

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and as a result all of the monogrammed handkerchiefs in her order were stitched out incorrectly.

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Then she got angry and demanded that everything be redone despite the fact that it was her mistake.

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_01]: What would you do here? You can hear our responses in tomorrow's episode.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_01]: You just listened to part one of the post titled Customer Service Skills. How would

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_01]: you handle these awkward situations by Steve Chu of mywifequitterjob.com.

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_01]: This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. We all have non-negotiables.

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[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_01]: workdaily today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp.

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_01]: And thank you so much to our author today, Steve Chu. When his wife became pregnant and she had

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_01]: plans to stay home with the baby, the couple knew that they would need to find more income.

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_01]: So they started a little online store that they called Bumblebee Linnons.

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And it went pretty well because in just a year, they were able to replace Steve's wife's

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_01]: salary of $100,000 per year. And they started my wife quit her job to document all of it,

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_01]: including income reports. And now as you heard, he was able to leave his job too. So it's not

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_01]: just his wife who quit her job. And also like you heard, he started the Sellers Summit and

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_01]: you can learn a lot more about that at SellersSummit.com. All right, that's going to wrap up

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_01]: our episode today, but it's not the end of this post because as I mentioned,

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_01]: it's a two-parter. So come on back tomorrow for part two where your optimal life awaits.