What do you do about Customer Satisfaction?

Hi

I was wondering, what do you guys/gals do about customer satisfaction? Let's say you have a shop and are selling stuff you imported from China or from a supplier in the US. What kind of warranty can we provide our customers? What are your return / exchange policies? How do you handle customer complaints about a product? It's something I am curious about.

Thanks
JH

For me, if the customer is not happy for any reason I try to make them happy always or if the product is damage because of any reason I offer a 14 day return or exchange with receipt, I always offer optional insurance for the item I am selling because if something happen during the transit time with the ups or FedEx carrier they are responsible for the damage.

Try to give the best polices and customer service to the customer to maintain them happy, you always want them to come back to your store.

I am not saying to be a happy face all the times, just be a fair with customers and with you.

Just my opinion

I have a 30 day no questions asked return policy for all items that I sell. It's always best policy to do whatever it takes to make your customer happy even if it involves loosing money on that sale. This is always a good rule especially if you are a eBay seller! Remember that one unsatisfied customer could leave you negative feedback and in return that can hurt any future sales.

Thanks for the responses. I have a brick and mortar store in NYC. And it's sometimes hard to provide a 30 day no questions asked policy. I am in the video game business. It would be highly costly for me to provide that since there are customers that will just purchase a new game, play it, and come back and say they don't like it. Or that it isn't working on their console (and when tested on mine it works). Or if they purchase a used game and play it and come back and tell me they don't like it and what not. Money is lost very time that happens. The cost for the new games/consoles are waaay too high. Only giving a 5-10 dollar profit on each item. So I normally provide an exchange only policy on games within a 2 week period if it's opened (for new games, and thinking of exchanging for same game only). And a 1 week refund on unopened new games. Used games carry a 3 day exchange only. For consoles they will have to contact the manufacturer only. Since manufacturers like Sony do not allow retailers to perform RMAs for defective units. Since I am not an authorized retailer for these items I do not get the red carpet treatment like the big chain outlets do. Where they can afford to take back units that do not work or break down.

Now should I revise that? Or should I keep that policy? What's your opinions on that?

Thanks again.

I was thinking you were selling on eBay. If you have a brick and mortar store and selling video games then I think what your doing now is more than fair. I personally would not offer a refund on a opened video game at all simply because of what you said. They can buy the game, go home and play it and bring it back when their done or if they don't like it. If the game had never been opened or played then I would do a refund or exchange. I feel there needs to be some type of refund on the consoles because they are expensive and there can be incidents where they just don't work or break when the customer gets them home. That would be a sure way to loose a customer by sticking them with a $400 broken game console.

I always have an unconditional guarantee on anything I sell on ebay. Yes I do loose money sometimes this way but that is a part of doing business.And even my guarantees don't guarantee a happy customer. Everybody is different. This depends on the business your into. I sell liquidations too and that can be anything from new stuff to broken stuff. I cant really throw a guarantee with it because of the type of sale it is. I sell it the way it comes to me. I keep a much lower price then my competitors and that about all I can do.

If your low volume do everything you can and spend as much time as you can on customer service. If you get high volume like me just do the best you can. But you really cant be a master at customer service. I do my best but I know im not the greatest. I would say if you can please 80% of your buyers your average with every company in the world.

I was thinking you were selling on eBay. If you have a brick and mortar store and selling video games then I think what your doing now is more than fair. I personally would not offer a refund on a opened video game at all simply because of what you said. They can buy the game, go home and play it and bring it back when their done or if they don't like it. If the game had never been opened or played then I would do a refund or exchange. I feel there needs to be some type of refund on the consoles because they are expensive and there can be incidents where they just don't work or break when the customer gets them home. That would be a sure way to loose a customer by sticking them with a $400 broken game console.

I agree. You should try the Refund Policy that GameStop has and it seems to work for them, a Game cannot be returned if its opened .Period. If it is, it can only be exchanged with in store credit for another game within one week.

I agree. You should try the Refund Policy that GameStop has and it seems to work for them, a Game cannot be returned if its opened .Period. If it is, it can only be exchanged with in store credit for another game within one week.

I would like to agree with what you guys are suggesting. But my suppliers will not accept returns on systems that end up broken. The customers have to go through the RMA/repair channel provided by the manufacturer. Returning it back to me would make ME lose the $400 if I were to replace it. Since we are not authorized distributors or authorized retailers for these systems, we are not given the opportunities given to big chain stores like GameStop and BestBuy. Where they can replace the system and return the defective unit to the manufacturer to get replaced or refurbished. Even if I sell online. It would definitely not be profitable to replace anything a customer returns back. Unless of course we are doing enough business to cover for the returns/exchanges.

Doing business offline gives you far more options to provide a range of customer service options.

As long as your policy covers you, covers genuine and sensible claims, and makes it quite clear that anything outside of those well defined borders will not be entertained, and explains why, then I think most customers will be happy to accept it.

A certain amount of flexibility where it is available always goes a long way as well, and is one of those great offline customer service options that you have available to you when the situation allows.

Offline or online, never going to keep everyone happy, but you can certainly provide a policy that is fair and suits most.

You can try to offer squaretrade extended warranty. That way, you can earn commissions everytime your customer buy warranty through them. For more info, visit squaretrade.com

I have sold LCD TV's and other electronics offline (Craigslist - you got to love local buyers because no fees whatsoever) and I just tell them to visit squaretrade.com to buy extended warranties. That way, your customers have the ease just in case the product fails in months where they are not covered with your return policy anymore. Even if you're not an authorized dealer for such company, squaretrade will take care of the repairs.

You can try to offer squaretrade extended warranty. That way, you can earn commissions everytime your customer buy warranty through them. For more info, visit squaretrade.com

I have sold LCD TV's and other electronics offline (Craigslist - you got to love local buyers because no fees whatsoever) and I just tell them to visit squaretrade.com to buy extended warranties. That way, your customers have the ease just in case the product fails in months where they are not covered with your return policy anymore. Even if you're not an authorized dealer for such company, squaretrade will take care of the repairs.

Excellent idea

That sounds like a better idea GRBoutique. I did not know Squaretrade offered that type of service. Thank you. I'll have to look into it.

If you sell on your own website, make sure you add this service. It's a win win situation for both parties. Of course, offline too =). As long as your buyer has their receipt for proof, squaretrade will honor that warranty (US Based).