Good Service Key to Winning Back Customers
If you’re an e-tailer sending out coupons via e-mail, thanks to friends forwarding to friends, you really never know who might end up taking you up on that offer.
Recently, I received an e-mail solicitation from a home shopping TV network to “come back” cause they missed me so very much. I had “left” because I found their selection somewhat limited, their order process burdensome, and their website hard to navigate. And it doesn’t seem much has changed.
The home shopping network’s coupon had a long disclaimer. Shame on me for going to the site without reading the disclaimer. After looking over their rather lackluster assortment, I found a dress that I thought would prove useful over the holidays and decided to order—only to discover that my new shiny coupon code wouldn’t work. If they were trying to “get me back” they weren’t doing a good job of it. But since this item was actually low priced, I set out to find an additional item that fit the stipulations of the coupon to add in so I could check out. After two hours on the site, I tried to place my order again only to get another error message to call customer service.
The customer service rep and I had a nice little chat. Seems I had to do two orders, one that accepted the code and a whole separate order that did not. Together we processed the first order —only to find out that the original item I really wanted was no longer available.
I told her to cancel the whole thing and to remove me future correspondence because they were not “winning me back.” She informed me that she couldn’t cancel the order and that I’d just have to send it back if I didn’t want the item.
Needless to say, I’ll never order from this marketer ever again.
This holiday season, if you’re going to be soliciting business from a brand new prospect, a win-back, or your best customers you can lose business just as easily as you can win it if the ordering experience is poor.
Don’t make customers work to give you their money. Make it an effortless, easy buying experience or they will go the next e-tailer who IS offering that type of transaction. During the most important part of the year whether you win customers or lose them—the choice is completely yours.
Carol Lustig is marketing director for Sonny’s Enterprises, a direct marketer of automotive aftermarket products.
