Q&A: What's the best way for online booksellers to cover mistakes?
QUESTION: Steve, you often say that when you're unable to ship a book due to an inventory mistake, sometimes you source another copy and pay for it yourself.
Do you let the customer know this? It seems the customer would be really grateful to know you've gone to the trouble. But if things go wrong, you'll be the one who bears the brunt of the customer's dissatisfaction.
ANSWER: Great questions. How you handle this depends on your own philosophy, I guess, but here's the way I usually approach it:
The overarching principle is preventing problems and keeping the customer happy. This means less time spent handling complaints, and fewer negative feedbacks.
Generally I try to cover my screwups as transparently as possible to the customer. Doing this can save time for the buyer and seller. For example, sometimes when I can't fulfill an order, I'll buy a new copy of the book from Amazon and have it shipped to the customer. And I usually don't tell the customer about this.
The reason I don't explain everything to the customer: It saves me from having to spend 10 minutes writing out this big explanation to someone who perhaps would only get confused. Maybe the customer didn't understand he was buying from a third party instead of Amazon itself to begin with. Many of our customers are in this category, believe me. They're not necessarily stupid, they just don't read the fine print.
Here's another reason: Some people -- you can never be certain who -- are going to totally misinterpret whatever you say. It's the idea of a "little bit of information" being dangerous. For example, one time when I bought a new book for somebody, I wrote to him beforehand, saying I was out of stock of the book, but I'd purchased one for him on Amazon and he should get it shortly. He writes back outraged, asking why he's getting "double-billed for my mistake." Some people will just assume the worst about everything.
Most of the time, though, I'm able to find a replacement copy from another Marketplace seller with good feedback, so I only lose a nominal amount of money while protecting my feedback.
And having said all this, I still get really nice comments from customers who do find out somehow that I went out of my way. So that's nice, but my main focus is just preventing problems to the extent possible.
And one other thing, I've had at least 25 instances since I've been selling where I was unable to fulfill an order for an out-of-print book and there wasn't a suitable replacement I could find. In these cases, of course, I refund and apologize as soon as possible. My point is, I've never once received bad feedback from this, even though I've always expected it. So it makes you wonder -- when you see certain inept or drop-shipping sellers who have awful feedback -- how many more of their customers are getting the shaft, and just don't bother to complain and leave bad feedback?
posted by Steve Weber at 9/04/2006
4 Comments:
I agree with Steve. If you make amistake and can't cover it, refund and apologize immediately. No bull, just the facts. Even when you have the best inventory sytem in the world, stuff is going to get lost. So if you screw up, admit it and go on. I almost never get negative feedback because I am honest.
The vast majority of buyers are good people and understand mistakes. Therefore I am always honest. A small minority are flakes or just plain malicious. Somehow I have not encountered one of these types yet (knock on wood).
I have not had an item in stock twice. I got lucky both times and was able to find new copies at a local bookstore. The buyers ended up getting a much better book than they paid for.
I sold an item on Ebay once, where the buyer paid for insurance and I forgot to insure it. I realized it later in the day after I mailed it. I immediately refunded the the insurance end, and wrote an email guaranteeing the items personally. The buyer was very nice about it and left me positive feedback not even mentioning my mistake.
Sometimes we all need a little luck I guess.
Firstly, I'm the originator of the question that Steve posted. I'm very flattered that Steve chose it to publish here. I will also admit to not following Steve's advice! That's not because I don't think he's right, but because when I posted the question, I didn't think he'd respond in person so quickly! So, I made a judgement call.
I knew that the right thing to do was to obtain another copy of the book for my buyer. My problem was whether or not to let the buyer know what was going on.
I decided to be completely up-front (I said to Steve in my original e-mail message that this is what I was inclined to do), to say that I'd screwed up, and that I had located a copy in better condition than the one I had, was sending it to him and had eaten the difference in cost (plus expedited shipping) myself. I did this because I imagined being in the same shoes as the buyer myself, and would personally appreciate learning that the seller had gone out of their way to make good.
Steve made some excellent points in his reponse (which are repeated in his blog post), and I might handle it differently if it happened again. My fear was that the seller I located (not an Amazon seller but a seller I located via Alibris) might have misrepresented the book or packed the book badly or similar, and it would reflect poorly on me.
The proof of the pudding's in the eating, I guess, and here's the scoop: I received absolutely no response from my buyer to my e-mail explaining what had happened and what I was going to do. The buyer should either had received the book by now or will receive it very soon, and I've not received any feedback. Maybe that's a good thing! I'll post back here if anything changes.
You can always throw in a freebie of some sort. I've an MBA student who's taking a class called CONSUMER BEHAVIOR. In it we're taught all about the power of Reciprocity. It's why you feel compelled to give a homeless money after he's "cleaned" your windshield. It doesn't matter that you didn't want him to touch your windshield, it's the fact he went out of his way for you. So, give the buyer a free book, something you weren't able to sell, and tell him it's a free bonus for your mistake. If it's relevant, great. If not, doesn't matter. He'll appreciate the gesture, even if he doesn't care about the book. A little consumer psychology for you.
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