There isn’t much in this world that I hate. I mean I can think of a few things. Wet shoes, hairless cats, anchovies on pizza, you know… the normal stuff. But there is one thing in particular that can really cream my corn, so to speak, when it happens. And that is when I order something from a company and I’m all excited about it, but then when it finally arrives, it’s damaged. And the reason it’s damaged is because the box got damaged. Now, I know sometimes accidents happen. I’m not saying they don’t. But when your box that used to be a square is not a lopsided rectangle, it’s not a huge stress to realize a problem had to occur. Now, where that problem happened, that’s the mystery. One I may never solve. But I do have a few recommendations for any other business owner, like myself, who would like to avoid these types of situations with their own customers.
First things first, we need to have an honest conversation about your shipping supplies and the quality of materials you are using. Of course, a lot of this will depend on the products you are selling, but it is always a good idea to splurge where you can on quality boxes and envelopes in order to ensure your products arrive to your customers in the same way they left your store or warehouse. And contrary to popular belief, not all packaging supplies are made the same. Unfortunately, figuring out which are superior is a matter of trial and error.
Another important aspect to making sure your customers have a good experience with shipping, is the carrier you choose to use. And I won’t name specific names, but just like packaging materials, not all shipping carries are the same either. In fact, you will find that there are some that are far superior to the others, but again, some of this is dependent upon your shipping needs and what the carrier can accomplish for the best price possible.
All that to say, you can be as careful as a whisper in a china shop and have the best quality shipping supplies and the best mail carries, and things can still go wrong. It happens. But thankfully there’s shipping insurance for that, you just need to make sure that you have the customer service covered on your end, because you can surely expect an angry phone call or two from a customer who is less than pleased with how their package arrived.
Now of course, you can always get those crazies who see one little nick or dent and want a refund because they’re convinced that their package is now ruined. And as a good business owner I recommend catering to them, because one bad review can spread like wildfire, whereas a happy customer rarely says anything. (But as the saying goes, sometimes no news is good news.) Just make sure you have them send the original package back. (Maybe at their expense…just kidding…but not really.)
In summation, if you want an all-around good experience from start to finish with your ecommerce customers, no detail is too small to go unnoticed, especially when it comes to your packaging and shipping quality. Because you can have the best products in the world, but if it never reaches your customers intact, well, that’s really not good for business.
