How to Delight Customers in your Etsy Handmade Small Business: Create your Tribe | Alisha Jemelian | Skillshare

Playback Speed


1.0x


  • 0.5x
  • 0.75x
  • 1x (Normal)
  • 1.25x
  • 1.5x
  • 1.75x
  • 2x

How to Delight Customers in your Etsy Handmade Small Business: Create your Tribe

teacher avatar Alisha Jemelian, Small Business Owner & Designer

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Intro to Etsy Communication Strategies

      1:41

    • 2.

      How to Communicate with Customers Online

      9:43

    • 3.

      Brainstorming how to Personalize

      8:12

    • 4.

      Creating Memorable Moments

      9:19

    • 5.

      Rule of Reciprocity

      4:44

    • 6.

      What to do with Negative Feedback

      7:26

    • 7.

      Final thoughts

      7:26

  • --
  • Beginner level
  • Intermediate level
  • Advanced level
  • All levels

Community Generated

The level is determined by a majority opinion of students who have reviewed this class. The teacher's recommendation is shown until at least 5 student responses are collected.

8

Students

--

Projects

About This Class

  • Description: Learn easy, practical tools and tips to delight your customers and deliver excellent customer service that will create your tribe of faithful followers. You will find out how you can implement small touches that take your client’s experience from good to great and that will help you build a brand of excellence.
  • Who is it for? 
    • if you have a small business or you dream of having one and you aren’t sure how to stand out among the crowd and delight your customers in the crowded marketplace. Everyone is talking about brands but you’re not sure what this means for you and your business. 
    • This class is geared towards handmade businesses where people are creating their own products and art. But, the concepts can be applied to service-based businesses as well as physical brick and mortar locations.
  • End Goal
    • You will brainstorm ways to turn your customers into raving fans, creating excellent reviews!

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Alisha Jemelian

Small Business Owner & Designer

Teacher
Level: Beginner

Class Ratings

Expectations Met?
    Exceeded!
  • 0%
  • Yes
  • 0%
  • Somewhat
  • 0%
  • Not really
  • 0%

Why Join Skillshare?

Take award-winning Skillshare Original Classes

Each class has short lessons, hands-on projects

Your membership supports Skillshare teachers

Learn From Anywhere

Take classes on the go with the Skillshare app. Stream or download to watch on the plane, the subway, or wherever you learn best.

Transcripts

1. Intro to Etsy Communication Strategies: Hi, my name is Alicia and you are joining my class on how to build and drive business by creating exceptional customer service. I am a small business owner. By providing exceptional customer service, I have been able to create more of a buzz and more referrals, more word of mouth business. If you follow these steps, you will increase your traffic and create a more steady business. Is this class for you? Well, it is for you if you meet three criteria. Number one, are you a small business owner or are you looking to become a small business owner one day? If this describes you, then that's great. A lot of the concepts that I will be covering are tailor made for e commerce online businesses, but they can be applied to brick and mortar stores as well. Number two, are you looking to build a brand of excellence and high quality? If so, keep listening. Number three, it's really only for you if you're looking to get more business. If you're looking to get more, then continue listening. Okay. Your class project is to brainstorm three ways that you can delight your customers and create raving fans. Just three. Post your ideas under the Project tab and I'll take a look and we will continue brainstorming together. Thank you. 2. How to Communicate with Customers Online: Welcome back. We are going to start with the basics and cover the importance of proactive communication. This is essential because as the business owner, it is your responsibility to make sure that you are managing the customer's expectations and that you are proactively reaching out to them to make sure that you are on the same page. It is never the client's responsibility to reach out to you. You need to proactively reach out to them and make sure that you're good through every step of the process. Now, I have four. Do you guys like how I'm doing this? I have four basic rules or suggestions that I want you to follow for this proactive communication. Number one is that I want you to realize that there is no such thing as too much communication. You can never overcommunicate. I have had as many as 150 individual E mail responses back and forth to brides when we're trying to finalize the details of her wedding day. Look, now hopefully all of your clients won't require this much back and forth, because that would be quite expensive for you to do. But from time to time, for your very high end clients or people who are investing a lot of money in something that you're giving, you will need to have that extra detail and that extra level of communication. I also think that this is especially important for an online e commerce space store. Because if you think about it with a regular purchase that you make from a retailer, somebody has a physical address that they know is there. And if they're not happy with the product, they can just come back in and return it. They have a place that they can go to, but when you're doing business online, you don't have this built in guarantee. The fear in the back of the customer's head is always that you're going to run off with their money and it's a valid fear, right? You have to go above and beyond to make sure that you are proactively communicating with the customer. You can communicate via E mails, you can communicate via text, phone calls. Photos are another really great way, especially for creative, handmade businesses or something where you're doing a commissioned piece, Send photos of progress, or take a short video of the product along the way, and send it to the customer to get their feedback. At that point, they're able to make changes if needed, tell you what they like, tell you what they don't like. Also, make sure to send an e mail after somebody makes a purchase with you. It doesn't have to be a boring thank you for your business e mail. You can jazz it up a little bit by adding little bits about your business and about how they are supporting a small business and what makes their product unique. You can make it more interesting than just the standard canned responses that you see a lot of times. Okay, that was number one. No such thing as too much communication. Number two is I want you to have policies in place. Shop policies are essential to building trust because once again, people have this fear that you're going to run off their money. But if you have policies in place, you're able to answer a lot of the questions that people have. Like what happens if I don't like the piece that I bought from you? How do returns work? How do exchanges work? How do I care for this product? If it's a custom piece of jewelry, how do I care for this piece? You need to answer some of these common concerns that people are already thinking about in your policy. This really is a great way to build trust with your clients. Okay. Number three, I really want you to be prompt your responses. I'm going to give you a rule of thumb that might seem unachievable, but I promise you it is achievable. Try your best to respond to customers within one to 2 hours of their inquiry if they're sending it to you within normal business hours, sometime 9-5 Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday, whatever your business hours are, this is totally possible. And once again, it builds that trust because they realize that their message is important to you, that you value it, that you are jumping on it to make sure that their questions are answered. This is a great way to build trust. You might be thinking, I can't do this if I have to stop. Every time a customer sends me a message, I'm not going to get anything done. Well, you can set up systems in place that help you with this. For example, on my Facebook page, I have an auto responder set up that automatically replies to anyone who has an inquiry. And it says, thank you for your message. I want to let you know that I received it. I got it. And I will get back to you within 24 hours or something. I make sure to respond within that time frame that I've given them. You can also set this up, like sometimes I'll be on a business buying trip or maybe I'll be with my family And I'm just not at a place where I can go into depth and respond in detail to a customer. Say a customer reaches out to meet on Es, which is an online platform. You can just have a canned response that's one or two sentences that says, hey Jessica, I got your message. I want to let you know that I got it. I'm not in my studio right now, but I'm going to get back to you within such and such a time frame. That way you're letting them know that you got it, taking the pressure off yourself, you're buying yourself some more time and letting them know that you're going to take a closer look at it later. Number four. This is my final tip. That seems like an obvious one, but it is something that you can always improve. You are in charge of managing your customer's expectations. This starts from the moment that they see your website, or the moment that they hear about you all the way past to when they order something from you and they're wearing it or they have questions. It's managing the customer expectations is throughout this whole process and I can't emphasize how important that is. You can't get inside of your customer's head. There are so many times when I want to, but you can't. If you're sensing that you're on a different page somehow, then it's important for you to call that out until you can figure out and make sure that you are both on the same page. This comes up a lot in regards to budget for custom work. Brides will want to commission a custom veil that is really elaborate and they'll say they want beating and Soski crystals and French lace. They want everything. They want genuine pearls and they need it all within a $200 budget. It is up to me to then respond to the client by saying, I can make you something beautiful within $200 budget. We will have to simplify in a bit to keep it within that budget, But I will work with you to make sure that it's something beautiful and elaborate and one of a kind up a lot in regards to money and budget. And it's important to manage these expectations on the front end before you've invested a lot of time going back and forth with a person. Because if they have expectations where you're not going to be able to fulfill those expectations, it's better to figure that out sooner rather than later. To sum everything up, this lesson, we talked about the importance of proactive communication. The points were, number one, there is no such thing as too much communication. Number two, set firm shop policies. And even if you have policies in place right now, take 5 minutes, go through them, make sure that they're all up to date and they're accurate. It's worth that time. Number three, be prompt in your responses. Always get back to customers, hopefully within one to 2 hours, but if you can't, let them know, number four, manage your customer expectations. All right. Thank you. 3. Brainstorming how to Personalize: Welcome back. Let's talk about personalization, the importance of making the experience personal and customized to that individual client. Now, why is this important? Why is it necessary to personalize the experience? Well, in an online experience, if you have an online store, it is especially essential to personalize the experience because they can't see you, they can't hear you, they can't see your face, They can't sense your emotions. So you need to go out of the way to create that personalization. Your customer needs to realize that you are a real person. And I'm telling you, it seems like in my experience, the more personalization that I can do, the less rudeness you get in return, if that makes sense. Have you ever noticed that people who are in a strictly online setting, like an online forum or Facebook or something, have a much higher likelihood of being rude. I have found that this is so true because people feel anonymous. Whereas if a person sees you face to face, it's a little harder for them to be rude by creating this personalization. You also have the double benefit, not only of making that person feel valued and important and seen, but you also cut down on the risk of really negative customer interactions if for whatever reason they're unhappy with the product. And that's always a plus. Well, I'm going to have five tips for you on how you can help build this personalization into your process. Number one, always call your customers by. This is so important, especially when you are dealing with e mail or some sort of electronic communication, Whether it's text, they can't see you, they can't hear emotion. I mean, you can have emoticons and that sort of thing, but those get old after a while and they don't seem very professional. But whenever you are reaching out to a client, address them by name. Hi, Mary. Hi, Stephen. Hi, Stephanie. Whatever their name is, have it in every single communication back and forth. Now, when you're face to face with a person, you actually can go overboard with this. If you keep using a person's name over and over, it can actually seem a little bit sleazy, a little bit salesperson like you're trying to get into their good graces. But it's almost impossible to go overboard on this when you're dealing with electronic communication. Always put their name in there. It's really easy. It's simple. Number two is what I'm calling the importance of box in every communication with your clients. You are not just going to get down to business at some point in that e mail message. You need to build that no like and trust factor. Because people do not buy from people that they do not know like and trust. So you need to ask a personal question about them. You need to somehow tie in something that you know about them that expresses your genuine interest in them as a person. This can be really simple because sometimes you don't know who your customers are, you don't know a whole lot about them. Say it's coming up on Christmas, just say, I'm hoping that you and your loved ones are having a very merry Christmas. Say that you know that the woman you're talking to is a mom. Say, wishing you a happy Mother's Day. Now, if you know a little bit more about the clients and you've been talking for a period of time, this can be easier to add in the box A because you know more about them. So for example, say that you know that the person is a student and that they had final exams. Well, in your next message to them, say a couple of weeks later, say how was the final exam, you know, how did you do? And then get onto the business aspect of it. The way you have to think about it is if you were to reach out to a close friend or to a family member, would you just immediately get down to business and be like, boom, boom, boom, we have to cover these topics? No, you never would. Instead, you would find out how that person is doing and you'd say, how were the kids? You would bring in some sort of element that personalizes the experience so that you're building that no like and trust factor number three is I want you to find a me to moment. Now maybe you're asking what is a me to moment? Basically, that is where you're pointing out that the two of you are similar in some aspect. Why is this important? Well, people like people that are like them. It creates a sense of trust. If the client mentioned something that's similar to you, maybe you both went to the same school, You both had the same degree, you studied the same thing in school. Maybe you both live in a similar area. I want you to bring this up. A way that I do this a lot with clients that I don't know well is I'll be shipping them samples and I'll find out that, hey, they live in Orange County, too, and I live in Orange County. I will point that out and I'll be like, I'm right down the street from you. Literally 10 minutes. We're practically neighbors. I don't want you to fake this me to moment because I want you to be authentic and I want you to only express it if it's actually accurate, so you don't lie about it. It's not worth it. But what you can do is if a me to moment presents itself, I want you to call it out. Number four, you have to have a handwritten note. This era of electronic communication. A handwritten note that you put in with each order that goes out goes such a far away. Handwritten notes are few and far between these days. It is a dying art. I want you just to spend 3 minutes max, on a handwritten note that you're sending out with every order in it includes some of the box A that we talked about in our previous message where you are mentioning something that's personal. Wishing you the best on your exams, I hope it's heated up over there in New Zealand or wherever this person is from. You're mentioning something that you've already discussed in your previous conversation and you're personalizing it to them. This is a really cost effective way of creating that emotional connection and personalization experience. Last one is number five. You can always hop on a ten minute phone call, a ten minute Skype message, and let your customers know this is an option. That you are willing to go the extra mile and Skype with them so that you can make sure you're both on the same page. If you don't feel comfortable giving out your phone number, get a Google voice number so that everything is anonymous. But this can really help you when a person sees you face to face and you talk via phone, it can smooth out a lot of the miscommunications and it makes that person feel valued, love and like they're not just one of 1 million. They are important to you and they really are. They are helping you grow your business. They should feel important. Thank you. 4. Creating Memorable Moments: Welcome back. Let's talk about creating memorable moments or defining moments in your customer's experience. The funny thing is your customers are going to remember these little moments in their experience with you, rather than the end product or the end service that you provide. Now of course, they're going to expect that the product or service that they buy from you meets a certain quality. But the thing that they are really going to remember are the individual defining moments that you provide throughout this experience. This is backed up by research actually. There's this great book called Power of Moments by Heath. In it they talk about a hotel, real hotel. This is true. It's called the Magic Castle Hotel. Apparently, it's not the best hotel. It doesn't have the most amazing accommodations, average, average. But this hotel has really excelled at creating defining moments. What they do is guests at this hotel can go to the pool, and they have a big red phone there by the pool. At any moment during the day, guests can go over to this big red phone. They can pick it up, and on the other end they'll hear hello, Popsicle hot line. How can I help you? At that point, the guests can put in their order for any flavor of popsicle that they'd like, whatever is their favorite. And a few minutes later, one of the hotel's employees will come out with white gloves on carrying a silver platter with the popsicle of their choice. Now, the most amazing thing is this hotel is just average. It's not like it's so exceptional, but what they do excel at are the small moments such as the popsicle hot line that exceed expectations. And that have their guests talking about them for months to come and guess what it is that they talk about when the guests go home and their neighbors and relatives say, how is the trip? Well, they talk about the popsical hot line. This is what I want you to do in your business. And this goes along with what your project is. You need to create a project where you are starting to brainstorm three ways that you create defining moments for your customer. And these are the moments that are going to build word of mouth and really give you more business. Now this goes along with the quote by Maya Angelou, which says that people will forget what you said. They will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. So how do you want your customers to feel? For me at one blushing bride with my custom wedding feels, I want my brides to feel beautiful. I want them to feel gorgeous and valued. In a culture where women are told that they're not beautiful and they're not valued. That is my goal. What is the goal in your business? What do you want your customers to feel? And what are the small defining moments that you can do to create that experience? Now keep in mind this does not have to be something that breaks the bank, the popsicle hot line. I mean, they're paying hardly anything at all for these popsicles that they're giving out. It doesn't have to be something that is expensive. In fact, I would recommend not doing something expensive. We don't want to break the bank with this. It is more about the thought that goes into it. So I want you to start brainstorming ideas. We live in such an experience based culture these days, Even for businesses that are providing an end product, such as clothing, jewelry, or a service, such as web design, accounting or something. All of these businesses still need to provide an experience because people expect to have an experience whenever they work with a business. And this is what's going to make you stand out from the rest of the businesses just to kind of get the juices flowing. I'm going to tell you some of the things that I have done in the past. I continue to experiment with this and try to get better at it because there's always room for improvement. But this is just to kind of get you thinking. And the things that I do is if I'm meeting with a client one on one, say they're coming to me and we're meeting at a coffee shop to talk about her vision for her wedding, I will surprise her. By stopping at the local French bakery that we have here. They have these delicious filed pastries. They're absolutely heavenly, they're to die for. I'll just pick up one. I pick up one. I have it in the nice little French packaging, and I give it to her because she has taken the time to meet with me and Bride's time is valuable. And it's amazing how this $2 pastry can go a long way to really creating that exceptional moment, even if the bride doesn't really have a sweet tooth. Just the fact that I would think of her and go to that extra work really makes an impact. Something else that I do is I try to create a defining moment with the packaging that I do for my veils. So I have nice white boxes with white, sturdy tissue paper. I have beautiful double sided, kind of a pinkish satin ribbon and custom logos. I have veil care instructions and a beautiful handwritten note that ties in whatever that bride and I have been talking about over the past few months, or however long our correspondence has been. And this is supposed to create a moment that she remembers, that defining moment. I've even had brides put the elements of the packaging of their veil into their wedding scrapbook that shows you how important that moment is of when she's opening her box and it's the anticipation of what is going to be inside. How can you incorporate that in your own packaging and doing it creatively so that you're not breaking the bank for me. I have lots of extra scraps of Tool lying around because Tool is the fabric that is used for wedding veils. So I have so much tools. So Tool is part of the packaging that I use to wrap up my veils. Actually, it creates a really nice bow. So what do you have laying around that can create a really nice experience and package for your clients? Now, I want you to brainstorm in some ways that you can do this. And I also want you to remember that this is a process. I remember back when I was first starting my business and I was even more on a budget, I didn't understand this at all, and I thought, well, as long as the veil is beautiful enough, good quality, then my brides will be happy. That's not the case. So I had this one client. I was fresh out of boxes, and so I went to my garage and I picked out a nice clean dirt on it, a nice box. The problem was that it was a shoe box. And I packaged the veil up inside the shoe box. And I sent it to my bride. And guess what? She was not happy that her veil was packaged in a shoe box. And understandably so, I wouldn't want to receive my veil in a shoe box even if it is a clean shoe box. So the reason I'm sharing this fail story of mine is so that you know that you're not going to get it right all the time. But just being aware of how you can create these experiences will help you. And I want you to start thinking about how you can implement this into your own business. Maybe it's even with something like a sign off that you do at the end of every e mail, for example, a lot of people just sign off their e mails by saying best their name, It's a little boring, it's a little generic. Maybe you can come up with something that's special, something that's unique for me. I have a couple of different sign offs, but what I use a lot is with anticipation for your special day, Alicia, which is my name. You can also start to brainstorm different sign offs that you can use, something that makes you stand out and shine. Thank you. 5. Rule of Reciprocity : This lesson is on the power of free. There is so much power in offering something for free. It makes people get all excited and jump up and down, and feel like they're getting a bargain. In this lesson, we're going to learn about something called the Rule of reciprocity, which you can read more about in the book by Robert Cialdini. It is called Influence the Psychology of Persuasion. But I'm going to give you just a short summary of what this is and how you can apply it to your business. The rule of reciprocity says that whenever somebody gives you something, you feel a need to pay that person back. If somebody gives you something for free, you have this desire and this urge to do or give them something back. It's like they have indebted you in some form. The funny thing is that this applies even if you don't want what that person gave you, even if you never asked for it, it still applies. Now I'm going to go over a couple examples of how people have used this in business so that we have a clear idea as to how it works. So for example, you are looking to buy a car. And you go into the car salesman and take a look at their fancy red porch, I don't know. The salesman offers you a soda and some refreshing and light snacks for free. Why do they do this? It's because they're hoping that by giving you this free snack, this free soda, they are playing on the rule of reciprocity and that you are going to feel indebted to pay them back by, hopefully, in this case, buying their car. Another example, in the mail. Do you ever see those charities who will print out free return address labels for you with your address, your full name? They're laminated and they're completely free. Why do they send these to you for free? It's because when they do so, the rate of people who will then donate to the charity goes way up like skyrockets. I mean, it's just a smart move to incorporate something for free for your potential customers. So I want you to be the first to give something in this relationship with you and your customers. You don't wait for your customers to buy from you. You are going to proactively offer something for free for me. I offer free samples. My brides don't pay for the shipping of the samples. They don't pay for the material. It's completely free of charge. And I tell them that there is no commitment involved, because there is no commitment. They can just have the samples and not ever purchase from me. But the hope is that I am building on this rule of reciprocity so that the bride then will gift me with the, with their business basically by purchasing from me. I want you to think about how you can in your business build on this rule of offering something for free. Now, this can be even in the form of a personalized consultation of some sort. Maybe you offer 1 hour of free services. Maybe you offer free samples like I do. Maybe you offer some sort of free advice. Or if you have a subscription service, first month is free. You're trying to build up that rule of reciprocity in the relationship. Now some of you are probably thinking, well, how am I going to budget for this? I don't, I don't have the margins to pay for these free services or the free products. This is something you have to factor into your budget, put into your marketing budget, because it is a form of marketing. Another thing that I've seen people do is to include a free gift that is above and beyond what the customer purchased in their order. I do this from time to time, but not as often, and you can personalize this for your own business. 6. What to do with Negative Feedback: What do you do with bad feedback? This is the horror of horrors for small business owners. For me, when I was just starting on Ets, I put so much pressure on myself to always get five star reviews. I had built up over 405 star reviews. And I was getting more and more pressure like I have to maintain this. But the truth is, if you are in business for long enough, eventually you're going to run into that client who cannot be satisfied, who is unreasonable. And you just have to let it roll off your back and accept that you tried your best. Now, there are some steps that I want you to take. If somebody does leave a negative review for you. These are steps that I think can prevent a lot of issues. This is what I do to this day. Something you must keep in mind is that true customer service is shown when the client is not happy. It is easy to be gracious and generous with clients who are grateful for your work, who appreciate your time and investment. But your true test as a business owner and a person of exceptional customer service is when a client is not happy and when they are being rude. If you think through these steps and what you're going to do ahead of time, it can help you. Now I have a template that you will see in the resources tab for a preset E mail that I sent to clients who have indicated that they are not happy. You can customize it. And I customize it for every person that expresses any sort of unhappiness. But this is a good starting point because it's professional, it's well laid out, and it's going to save you a lot of time. So make sure to download that in addition to my other resources that I have. Okay. I have a three step process. If you log on to your site and you suddenly see that somebody has left a negative review and they don't like the product or they didn't like your service, what do you do? Well, the first step, number one, always, always give yourself an hour or two to think it over, to think about the situation, and to think up some creative options or alternatives. Oftentimes, if you respond right away, you might respond in a way that is curt, that is unprofessional, that is rude, and you never want to do that. Clients can be angry. But you as a business owner must always be respectful. Must always be generous and gracious in your replies. That is the mark of a professional. I recommend giving yourself at least an hour or two to think it over, to try to formulate your response in your head. Number one, after you give yourself some time, it's time to move on to step number two, which is you need to reach out to the customer who was unhappy and offer a phone call. This can go a really long way. Give your phone number and say, I'd like to talk this over with you in person. Sometimes people don't want to do that, they just want to do it electronically. And in that case, it's okay. Sometimes, especially people who are on a tight time frame, they really want to just jump on a phone call with you. And you can alleviate a lot of their concerns. You can allow them to feel heard, You can allow them to vent. If they need to vent, it's just really important that you reach out with a professional manner and offer to resolve this with them. Number three, in your response to them, you need to have several options. You need to offer options for your customers to choose from. Because this makes them feel like it's more in their court, like they are in control. You are still, you're not giving the customer everything that they want, but maybe you can think of one or two creative options that will hopefully solve the issue. Oftentimes, this can be an exchange. This can be a return with some sort of additional credit to their account. Or perhaps you just need to explain to the person how to appropriately use the product that they bought. But if possible, you need to formulate at least two, hopefully three, creative solutions to the problem that they're experiencing. And then you leave it in their court and allow them to choose which option they prefer. The most important thing that you can do on certain sites like, I don't know if sites like ebay or websites also offer this, but you can offer a rebuttal to a client who offers anything below a certain star level. Say somebody only leaves three stars on C for your item. You're then able to leave a rebuttal where you respond to the customer's complaints. I never recommend doing this until you try to reach out to the client personally first. If at all possible, you want to resolve it directly with the client. But if you are unable to do that, eventually you can leave a rebuttal where you leave a very professional well thought out response that is not attacking, but that sets the record straight after you do this. I know after I had my bad experience and I felt like none of it was my fault that it was totally the other person's fault. I still want you to take some time and to think about how you can take this and learn from it. Even if you were only 1% at fault and the customer was 99% at fault, how can you take this and improve your system or improve your communication so that this doesn't happen in the future? For me, my issue was that I had for the length of veils, They are pretty standard. But after I had that issue with that one bride, I now require my brides to give me their own measurements. I don't make the veil based on photos they send me. They have to tell me how long they want their veil and then I make it according to their specifications. So what is a change that you can make and how can you learn from this experience, even if it's only that you're learning to get a thicker skin and to have more backbone. What did you learn from the process? But 99% of the time you'll be able to work it out with the client and come to an agreement that works for both of you. That is a win win for both of you. Just hang in there. 7. Final thoughts: What do you do with bad feedback? This is the horror of horrors for small business owners. For me, when I was just starting on Ets, I put so much pressure on myself to always get five star reviews. I had built up over 405 star reviews. And I was getting more and more pressure like I have to maintain this. But the truth is, if you are in business for long enough, eventually you're going to run into that client who cannot be satisfied, who is unreasonable. And you just have to let it roll off your back and accept that you tried your best. Now, there are some steps that I want you to take. If somebody does leave a negative review for you. These are steps that I think can prevent a lot of issues. This is what I do to this day. Something you must keep in mind is that true customer service is shown when the client is not happy. It is easy to be gracious and generous with clients who are grateful for your work, who appreciate your time and investment. But your true test as a business owner and a person of exceptional customer service is when a client is not happy and when they are being rude. If you think through these steps and what you're going to do ahead of time, it can help you. Now I have a template that you will see in the resources tab for a preset E mail that I sent to clients who have indicated that they are not happy. You can customize it. And I customize it for every person that expresses any sort of unhappiness. But this is a good starting point because it's professional, it's well laid out, and it's going to save you a lot of time. So make sure to download that in addition to my other resources that I have. Okay. I have a three step process. If you log on to your site and you suddenly see that somebody has left a negative review and they don't like the product or they didn't like your service, what do you do? Well, the first step, number one, always, always give yourself an hour or two to think it over, to think about the situation, and to think up some creative options or alternatives. Oftentimes, if you respond right away, you might respond in a way that is curt, that is unprofessional, that is rude, and you never want to do that. Clients can be angry. But you as a business owner must always be respectful. Must always be generous and gracious in your replies. That is the mark of a professional. I recommend giving yourself at least an hour or two to think it over, to try to formulate your response in your head. Number one, after you give yourself some time, it's time to move on to step number two, which is you need to reach out to the customer who was unhappy and offer a phone call. This can go a really long way. Give your phone number and say, I'd like to talk this over with you in person. Sometimes people don't want to do that, they just want to do it electronically. And in that case, it's okay. Sometimes, especially people who are on a tight time frame, they really want to just jump on a phone call with you. And you can alleviate a lot of their concerns. You can allow them to feel heard, You can allow them to vent. If they need to vent, it's just really important that you reach out with a professional manner and offer to resolve this with them. Number three, in your response to them, you need to have several options. You need to offer options for your customers to choose from. Because this makes them feel like it's more in their court, like they are in control. You are still, you're not giving the customer everything that they want, but maybe you can think of one or two creative options that will hopefully solve the issue. Oftentimes, this can be an exchange. This can be a return with some sort of additional credit to their account. Or perhaps you just need to explain to the person how to appropriately use the product that they bought. But if possible, you need to formulate at least two, hopefully three, creative solutions to the problem that they're experiencing. And then you leave it in their court and allow them to choose which option they prefer. The most important thing that you can do on certain sites like, I don't know if sites like ebay or websites also offer this, but you can offer a rebuttal to a client who offers anything below a certain star level. Say somebody only leaves three stars on C for your item. You're then able to leave a rebuttal where you respond to the customer's complaints. I never recommend doing this until you try to reach out to the client personally first. If at all possible, you want to resolve it directly with the client. But if you are unable to do that, eventually you can leave a rebuttal where you leave a very professional well thought out response that is not attacking, but that sets the record straight after you do this. I know after I had my bad experience and I felt like none of it was my fault that it was totally the other person's fault. I still want you to take some time and to think about how you can take this and learn from it. Even if you were only 1% at fault and the customer was 99% at fault, how can you take this and improve your system or improve your communication so that this doesn't happen in the future? For me, my issue was that I had for the length of veils, They are pretty standard. But after I had that issue with that one bride, I now require my brides to give me their own measurements. I don't make the veil based on photos they send me. They have to tell me how long they want their veil and then I make it according to their specifications. So what is a change that you can make and how can you learn from this experience, even if it's only that you're learning to get a thicker skin and to have more backbone. What did you learn from the process? But 99% of the time you'll be able to work it out with the client and come to an agreement that works for both of you. That is a win win for both of you. Just hang in there.