Communicating with Shoppers – Damage Control

HandmadeMarketing.org reader Krystal Hosmer recently shared a blog article with our editors.  This article focuses on damage control and how to handle a disaster.

Krystal has been selling handmade online since the middle of 2008.   She sells on both Etsy and ArtFire.

“I like Etsy.com for the traffic numbers,” Krystal told us when asked to review and compare the two selling platforms.  “However, I don’t like how they handle a lot of snags in their operations, as well as their seeming “deafness” to repeated requests from sellers for a whole catalog of improvements/policy changes.”

Krystal shares that ArtFire.com is much more responsive to handmade sellers’ needs and wishes.  “They also offer much better seller support and seem to incorporate seller suggestions much more frequently. If they could get traffic numbers up and attract more quality artisans, I’d switch my main focus to Artfire,” she said.

Krystal writes on her blog that she received a newsletter in her email inbox from another handmade artisan.  “I’ve removed the identifying information,” she writes.  “I share it with you to illustrate a very important point in handmade marketing – damage control and how to handle a disaster.”

Below is the text in the e-newsletter:

(name removed) & I are closing our online doors!

We have gotten behind and had too many negative feedbacks, subsequently Ebay has suspended our account and we can no longer get our order information.

If you have placed an order with us within 45 days, PLEASE got to paypal and open a dispute, it will be decided in your favor and you will get your money back.

If you paid by check please contact us through our web site within the next 48 hours so we can get your information and get your (item we make) to you.

If you placed an order and it has been OVER 45 days, you will not be able to get your money back so PLEASE contact us through our web site – we have orders written down just not the shipping addresses, so we can still get your (item we make) to you, but will need you to give us your shipping info.

We are so sorry! We may open our web site up again someday for custom work once we have made all of our (item we make) in waiting and paid off paypal (you will get your refunds regardless, just wait the obligatory 7 days I believe).

Best to all and thanks for your support through the years- (names removed, business name removed)

Krysal tells her blog readers this example of correspondence to potential buyers is “a stunning example of how not to talk to your customers.”

“Let’s face it, life happens and we all screw up in business at some point or another,” she writes in her blog article.  “The order gets misplaced and we forget about it or we get unmotivated and we miss the deadline on a custom order. How you recover from these kinds of mistakes is a measure of not only your integrity, but also your commitment to customer service.”

“Remember, if you do a good job, people might tell their friends. If you do a bad job, people will tell everyone!” she warns handmade sellers.

In fact, in a recent study reported by the ICR (International Communications Research) is a vital part of having a successful business.

“More than 20 percent of customers walk out without making a purchase and an equal number stop shopping at a store altogether where they experience bad customer service, according to a national telephone survey of more than 1,000 consumers sponsored by MOHR Learning, the retail training unit of Provant, Inc.   Moreover, 26 percent tell their friends about the experience and urge them not to shop at the store.”

“While the content of this email is glaringly honest, the phrasing leaves a terrible taste in my mouth as a potential customer of this business,” Krystal continues.  “When I got this, I was forcefully reminded of my mother’s propensity when I was growing up to blissfully ignore the pointed nasty looks from us kids and go on happily telling to the grocery checker or waitress every embarrassing personal detail of our lives. Thankfully, she has gotten much better about this as we have gotten older!”

“It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion and having no power to stop it,” Krystal writes.  “From a customer’s standpoint, I’d never trust these people with my money ever again. They just admitted they are incompetent slackers who can’t manage to fill orders or ship goods in a timely fashion.”

“Not only that, they just told us they couldn’t be proactive and tell their customers what was going on. I don’t know about you, but I can forgive a screw up if someone apologizes and makes it right. But if I got stone silence followed by this? Hello, keep your items and give me a refund!!” she writes on her blog.

Now, compare it to the following rewrite which says the same thing, but phrases it very differently:

Dear Customers,

(Name and I) have decided we need to take a breather from our online store. It has become clear that we need to focus on filling our current backlog of orders, so we are regretfully closing our store for the time being. Thank you for all your business and faith in us.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have placed an order with us that has not been delivered, we cannot access your customer information and may not have a shipping address for you. We intend to either issue a prompt refund or fill your order as requested, but in order to do that, we need to hear from you right away. Please contact us at (email address) so we can make individual arrangements.

If you wish to be contacted when our store reopens, please drop us a line at ( email address).

Best Wishes,

Names

Krystals says the lesson to be learned in this example is honesty can cross a line.  “There is such a thing as too much honesty!” she tells other sellers.

“There are many ways to say the same thing,” she writes.  “While you should always be honest in any communication to your customers, you don’t have to make yourself look irresponsible and untrustworthy by baring your mistakes like this. It is not necessary (not to mention, deeply harmful) to share with them with information they should not know about your internal operations.”

Krystal says that if she had received the rewritten message instead of the first example, she would feel a lot differently about this artisan’s online business.

“I would be much more understanding and probably be willing to take the personal gesture of apology and contact them to work out my order (had I placed one). Even if I didn’t have an order pending, I’d be much more likely not to write them off completely, as the first email has caused me to do,” she said.

“If the worst happens, you don’t need to go into your whole tragic story and frankly, do you really want your customers to know that you have screwed up on such a massive scale that Ebay suspended your account?” she writes in the article.  “People don’t want to hear excuses, they want to know what’s going to happen now. Just address their concerns and remain professional and polite.”

When communicating with potential buyers, Krystal suggests stepping into your customers’ shoes.

“Think about what would attract them to your items instead of another seller’s items,” she suggests.  “What need can your item fill in their life? Is there a story behind your creation that they can feel good about telling over and over again?  Try to incorporate these things into your item descriptions as well as using the words “you” and “yours” to make them feel as if they already possess this sought-after item.”

“Remember we are bombarded with information every second, so keep the description focused and short!” she recommends.

Krystal also shared what she believes are the biggest challenges to running a successful online craft business.

“It’s learning how to actually sell things. You cannot be successful if you do not understand what makes your customer buy your item as opposed to someone else’s item,” she told HandmadeMarketing.org.

She recomments The Artists Center blog.  “It has a great series of articles addressing this very thing,” Krystal said.

“I think running a business that is both satisfying and profitable is a huge challenge for a lot of artists,” Krystal said.  “So many artisans undervalue their time! I won’t work for $5 an hour but I’ve seen artisans work for less! This leads to underpricing their goods and “giving away the farm” as it were. Unrealistically low prices in the art/handmade universe equals cheap quality & unskilled workmanship in just about every buyer’s mind.”

Do you like Krystal’s ideas about communicating with buyers?  Learn more about her marketing tips for handmade sellers by checking out her blog or following her on Twitter.

Do you have tips for communicating with buyers?  What role does effective communication play in selling handmade online?  What are some lessons you have learned while trying to perfect your e-newsletters?

Share your ideas with HandmadeMarketing.org!  Tell us how you communicate with your online shoppers.  If we feature your tips in a future HandmadeMarketing.org, we’ll link back to your shop, site, or blog.  Submit your ideas under our “Join” tab to receive the extra press for your shop!