A tale of two deliveries (with apologies to Charles Dickens)
OK, confession time: I’m a fan of internet shopping. A big fan, actually. Who wouldn’t want to go shopping in their pyjamas?
Despite that enthusiasm, my purchase must be accompanied by good service. I guess my first full-time job in customer service many years ago left me a stickler for good service - if not great service!
We all have daily experiences with service organisations or staff, and they vary widely.
Two shopping experiences I had ended late last week with two very different deliveries to my home.
The first delivery — of two bowls, from a retailer whose wares I had only bought in-store up to now — was disappointing from the start: as soon as the delivery person handed me the box, I could hear the clinking of ceramic. I was sure at least one item was broken. Well, both were!
The box contained a single piece of brown paper loosely placed on top of two individual boxes, each holding a broken bowl, wrapped in a single layer of bubble wrap.
The warehouse had clearly skimped on protective material between those small boxes and the larger one, meaning my money has been wasted, even if delivery was free!
That carelessness means I now either need to send the broken bowls back where they came from (free for me, but obviously not for the retailer), or take them to the retailer’s store. Either way, I need to do something in order to get my money back or exchange my goods. Exactly why I need to return a broken product is beyond me.
A quick look at the retailer’s social media page shows that other customers have had the same experience: fragile products poorly packed and arriving broken.
Then I received a second delivery from a seller I’ve used before and will again due to their consistently great service. My purchases were safely packed in a box clearly marked 'fragile’, and arrived with a thank you note and a free product sample.
Guess which retailer I'll be using again?
Surely good customer service is cheaper than bad (getting things right the first time means fewer refunds), AND brings in repeat business. So are retailers simply taking us for a ride when they’re repeatedly careless?
It beggars belief how they stay in business.
I always vote with my feet when I comes to service quality, environmental impact, and so on.
Even as our freedom to shop in person increases, in a post-pandemic world — or simply a world where convenience is king — retailers can’t afford to treat internet shoppers poorly.
