My son recently ordered a game from Amazon. He was so excited to get this game that he paid extra money for next day delivery.
Imagine how excited he was to go to bed knowing that the next day his cherished game would arrive.
Think back in your experiences. You’ve anxiously awaited a special delivery too.
We checked the tracking information on my son’s order to see its status.
But there was no status.
The game hadn’t shipped yet.
It didn’t arrive the day after ordering. It was shipped the day after ordering.
My son was crestfallen.
“But I paid extra so it would come today!” he whimpered.
Ouch.
Guess what? You have customers just like my son.
They wait for you to deliver what you promised when you promised it.
Yes, customers expect great quality shipping.
Customers also expect that you set and fulfill delivery expectations.
This story does have a silver lining and one that you should pay attention to.
Amazon detected that our order wasn’t delivered as promised.
They emailed and apologized.
They also refunded the extra delivery charge my son had paid.
Did that make everything right? It got pretty close.
Amazon’s customer service response removed the sting of having paid extra for express shipping that wasn’t.
While it didn’t get the game into my son’s hands any sooner. It was transparent and good communication that turned around what was potentially dangerous to our long-term customer relationship.
So what should you do?
You should identify problems before your customers do. Then proactively make things right.
You might not be able to deliver the exact expectation that was made originally. However, you can apologize for any wrong doing and try to make up the gap.
Definitely don’t hide your mistake. Own it and clearly communicate it to the customer.