Who is to blame for the broken things?
The package goes through a long line of people before it gets to the buyer. From the factory to the stores, from the stores to the shipping, and then to the buyer.
To make sure the package is safe, there needs to be a good chain. The seller takes care of the packages and makes sure the quality is good. Once the package is with the retailer, it is their responsibility. Last but not least, the carrier is responsible if the package breaks.
How can you fix the situation?
Make sure that there are no holes in your shipping chain and that it works well. Make sure the box your product comes in is the right size, check the quality of the product, and ask that each item be wrapped separately to keep it from getting broken.
Don’t treat the customer rudely or aggressively
Customers who get a broken item may be angry or furious, which can make it hard to deal with them. But one needs to keep their cool and treat the customer with respect.
It’s important to watch your tone and language. Be clear, but also make sure the customer understands the whole process through which they will be helped.
Make the customer feel like you care about them. For example, instead of saying “you will have to call the appropriate number,” you could say “you will have to dial the appropriate number.” Try saying, “We’ll have to call the number for the right department to figure this out.”
This will help them see things more clearly. Last but not least, don’t rush through the conversation. Listen to all the details, even if they don’t seem important, to show that your company cares about its customers. In the end, a company’s legitimacy depends on how happy its customers are.
Answer the question as soon as you can
When a customer gets a broken item, they get mad and immediately file a complaint. They expect to hear back within seconds, and if you take too long, they might get even more angry.
It’s understandable that you can’t answer the questions right away, but make sure that the time frame, like “Replies within 24 hours,” is clear on your website.
But the immediate response needs to be carefully reviewed before being sent to the customer, who is already very angry. This is very important.
A simple way to do this is to keep a ready-made template for each type of complaint. This will make the process go more quickly and easily.
But the usual templates might not work in this case because the customer might think the message was made by a computer. Instead, it would be better to keep the tone of the message light.
Apologize, but no excuse
Make sure that your employees believe that the customer is always right, no matter who is at fault. When a customer has a problem, a thank-you message would make them feel better.
The message could say “thank you for your feedback” or something similar. Even if you don’t think it was your fault or the problem can’t be fixed, you should apologize to the customer for the trouble it caused.
Help the customer in any way you can so they don’t feel helpless and start badmouthing your company on social media, which could hurt your company’s reputation on other ecommerce platforms.
You can’t make an excuse. Go through all the steps to help the customer, and if that doesn’t work, pay the price. Customers would never understand how the company works and what its rules are. All you have to do is make sure they are happy. Make it worth what they gave up!
Ensure immediate replacement
Once you have all the information about the broken item, it’s your job to get a new one. Send a rider and do everything you can to help the customer.
A small cost in the short term is better than a higher cost in the long term. The word gets around like a forest fire. The main goal of a business should be to make sure its customers are happy.
Don’t charge anything to fix it
It is up to the company to decide if the cost of repair is more than the cost of replacement. If not, it would be better to fix it for free.
The best thing to do is to look for long-term benefits instead of short-term ones. If it takes too long to fix something, it’s better to just buy a new one, since the customer may not come back and word of mouth may do its job.
Refunding the money should be the last choice. If you don’t take care of the customer well, they might not buy from you again. When a company gives a customer a refund, it means they can’t help them in any way and have chosen the easiest solution.
First, try to fix or replace the item, for example. If that doesn’t work, then you can only ask for a refund.
Make sure the customer isn’t trying to steal from you
When a customer makes a purchase, the company gets all of their information, including their name, phone number, address, email address, credit card information, and more. This makes it easier for the company to find the customer in case of fraud.
But for the customer to be honest, the conversation needs to feel natural from their side. Ask the customer to send pictures and videos of the broken items when the complaint is filed.
Ask them about the small details of how the package looked when they got it and how long it was with them. The company needs to give the customer a few days to file a complaint. After that, the company can’t do anything about it.
If someone uses a different email address or name to send something to the same address, that could be a sign. Second, different credit cards are used at the same address or for purchases made by the same customer in the past. In this way, the company will be able to avoid customers who are trying to steal from them.
Check your policies often
The person working in customer service needs to know everything about the company’s rules so that they don’t promise something to a customer that they can’t keep. If they do, the situation could get worse.
To avoid situations like this, always tell the customer to give you a little time and you’ll get back to them with a solution.
In the meantime, you can either read the policy about that matter or talk about it with a colleague. This way, the problem will be solved quickly and correctly.
Make sure you have a good way for customers to reach you
When a customer files a complaint about a broken item, they expect that their problem will be fixed in the right way.
If an employee gets a complaint and doesn’t know where to send the customer or how to solve the problem, the customer will be very angry. What if your company didn’t care about the right order of things in the office?
In that case, a lack of communication and bad management will make it hard to deal with customers in the right way, which will cause the company to lose customers.
Give a refund if the product can’t be sent back
There are many ways a customer can get paid back if the broken item can’t be fixed in any other way.
There are other ways to make up for something, too, besides fixing it for free, giving a refund, or replacing it. Since the customer is already unhappy with your brand, you can make them happy again by sending them a discount coupon, a gift item, or a card to say you’re sorry.
These small actions will help your company keep its good name and make the angry customer happy.
People follow trends and believe almost anything in this day and age of social media. If a customer posts something bad about your brand, like a broken item, it could hurt your brand’s reputation in front of a million people. This is bad for your business because it could cause you to lose sales.
To avoid this, respond as soon as possible to the post or comment and let the customer know that the problem is being worked on. It will be fixed quickly, so everyone who reads that post or comment will know that the company is taking care of the problem. This will keep you from getting bad press.