Online businesses are becoming increasingly popular because people are too lazy to head out and buy what they want. With a few clicks on their mobile device, they will receive their orders. Before, deliveries took weeks to arrive. These days, everyone is competing for quick delivery. Some companies even provide the order within the same day. Therefore, if you fail to deliver on time, it will be terrible. Your customers will feel frustrated and decide to look for other choices.
Face their complaints and apologise
Tell your customers what’s going on instead of hiding from them. It’s natural for them to feel frustrated because of late delivery. Make sure that you say sorry and tell them what’s going on. If you’re still tracing the order because it got lost along the way, you need to be honest about it. They might scream at you or even threaten to look for other options. Accept their decision and don’t fight back.
Go back to your terms and conditions
Before people decide to purchase anything from a store, they need to read the terms and conditions. The problem is that not all of them do. If they end up not reading the terms and you explicitly mentioned what you would do in case of the late arrival of the order, you need to read the terms back to them. Legally speaking, they cannot do anything since you mentioned the details on that page, and they decided not to read it before agreeing.
Don’t make false promises
Avoid making false promises to end the call and move on. If the order is still missing, you can’t tell them that it’s on the way. If you tell them you’ll get back to them as soon as possible, you need to do it; otherwise, they will feel even more frustrated. You already broke their trust due to the delayed arrival of their order. You can’t do it further by not doing what you told them during the phone call.
Change the system
You need to talk to your employees to determine what went wrong, and why these issues are recurring. If you think everything is okay, perhaps the problem is with your shipping company. It might be time to consider a different fulfilment company that will ensure your orders arrive on time. Tell them about the previous issues you experienced and clarify the system in place. Let them know that you have already had problems with several customers due to delayed orders, and you don’t want it to happen again.
Allow your customers to air their concerns and even scream at you for what happened. They have the right to complain because they feel frustrated. Give them time to relax. Eventually, they will accept your apologies and remain loyal to you. If not, you can find other ways to win them back. You can also earn new customers to replace those who decided to leave you.
