I recently ordered this most rad t-shirt on line from cafe press:
My order was meant to arrive between these times: Estimated Arrival: Monday 6/30/08 – Monday 7/7/08. But I am still yet to receive it and I am getting worried that It will never arrive. It is now 7/13/08 so it has been nearly a month! Can you please follow up for me. I am a first time cafe press customer and so far it hasn’t been a good experience.
1st cafe press response:
Dear Steve,
Thank you for contacting CafePress.com! This note is to inform you that we have received your inquiry and are assigning it to a representative. We respond to all email messages within 24 hours. If you do not receive an answer within 24 hours please call us toll-free at 1-877-809-1659 during our customer service hours Monday – Saturday 9:00 am to 9:00 pm EST.
To help track your inquiry we have generated the following reference number LTK419015882692X. Please use this number in any further communication.
2nd ‘real person’ cafe press response:
Dear Steve, I am sorry to hear you haven’t received your order. I checked and it is past the date it should have arrived. To make sure there are no further delays please confirm back with your correct shipping address. As soon as I get this information I will replace your order at no charge. I look forward to your reply.
If there is anything else I can do for you please let me know.
Best Regards, Crystal R.
A few things for startups to notice:
- Yes, it was an automated response, but a real living, breathing person got back to me within 24 hours. ‘We want to deal with real people.’ Only real people can respond to emotion.
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They offered a toll free number for me to call on if a didn’t hear within 24 hours. All websites should have someone you can call.
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They advised they would replace the order, no questions & immediatly. They accepted fault.
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They included a link where I could rate there customer service even though, I was potentially an upset customer. No excuses, no hiding on their behalf.
In short, cafe press offered; guarantees, to fix the proble, they accepted fault, and started a feedback loop which has lead to great customer service, from a potentially negative situation. Now I’m blogging about a positive situation when it may well have been the opposite.
Webpreneurs – Be like cafe press.
Oh gotalk gives you a phone number you can call … but you think I can actually talk to someone who can help me with something simple like close an account? Unbelievably you can’t. I’m sure it’s a contravention of the TPA to not provide customers the ability to close an account … but anyway I don’t care as I’m not on a direct debit schedule so they keep sending me automated invoices and I keep throwing them away. I haven’t used the service for over 8 months now.
I like this post.
Yeah, I can see that Cafe Press turned a potential negative situation into an opportunity to show customers like you how impressive their responses are to complaints.
One thing i’ve learnt when dealing with customers….”the customer is ALWAYS right” (even though you think they aren’t)