Shoes
Storytelling

Who's in charge?

Short blog today--a good friend emailed me a horror story yesterday. She went shopping, at the mall, in a favorite store only to be denied use of the store credit card she held. The reason given--her "credit scoring" had been lowered, without her knowledge. She remembers having paid one bill late, but the credit limit on this card was only $300 (she likes it that way--it keeps her in line) so having her credit rating lowered made her card no longer valid. She paid cash for the boots (which is strange, as she had previously been at the make-up counter and received poor customer service there, and decided not to buy), but, to finish the story... She went home and called the C/S department to find out what the problem was, and was offered a new credit limit of $150!!! Their reasoning was that at some time in the past year she had made a late payment.

This was a customer who had been shopping at this store for decades! Who'd held this credit card for decades! As you can imagine, the store lost a valuable customer. She will never shop there again.

This will happen to you online if you ignore the customer service side of your business. Women don't have time to dicker or hear sorry explanations. This may be a bits and bytes millennium, but THE CUSTOMER IS STILL ALWAYS RIGHT. Offer that quick contact in an 800#, with a real voice at the end; women hate phone trees--I think men, do, too! 800#'s are cheap. That 800# tells us you're serious about your business. If you send automatic emails, make sure they go out right away in response to a customer request. Then FOLLOW UP with a phone call or another email to find out if the issue is resolved.

Your company, product, or service may be a diamond in the rough, but if you pay attention to your customers, you will polish your sales and marketing efforts into a focus on customer satisfaction. Without them, you may sparkle like a super nova, but no one will pay any attention to you.

*****On a side note**** I have an announcement: yesterday I was contacted by Marika Szoke of WSRadio.com, a strategic partner to Entrepreneur Magazine. They asked me to be interviewed, via Internet broadcasting, on their sales and marketing show this Friday, April 23rd, at 9:00 a.m. PST (which, luckily for me, is noon EST). Marika said the host, Tony Parinella, is eagerly awaiting a discussion with the writer of "Dickless Marketing." (Apparently they all got a great big kick out of my title. :-) Lots of people do....that's why I chose it.) There is also an 800# for listeners to call in, if they like. The # is: (888) 327-0061.

For those who cannot listen in, the show will be posted on the Entrepreneur Magazine site for 90 days, and will be accessible from a link on Dickless Marketing.

Wish me luck! This should be fun!

What's not to like about that?

Comments

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Wayne Hurlbert

You will do great on the interview. I will check it out for sure! Way to go!

Michele Miller

Yvonne, excellent post! What online entrenpreneurs need to remember is that a woman only has to hit the "back" button or type in a new URL to get away from bad service. No more physical act of walking out of a store. It's convenient to shop.. and convenient to stop.

Congrats on the interview! I'll make sure to check it out - you go, girl!

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