How To Deal With Angry eCommerce Customers, Here’s What To Do
An all too common theme for new eCommerce dropshippers and even those entrepreneurs who are running a successful dropshipping business is upset or angry customers!
According to retail experts, Resolver, online shopping generated 84 percent more complaints in 2018-19 than the previous year.
In the growing online retail space with vast selections of products for eager consumers to buy, buy, buy, the world of customers who aren’t happy or even those who are positively angry is now an everyday experience for store owners.
So how do you turn around these especially unhappy online shoppers and how do you deal with angry eCommerce customers?
Before we get down to the details, let’s first start with the mini answer, so you can get started straight away appeasing your upset customers and bringing a sense of calm.
How do I deal with angry eCommerce customers?
- Listen and show empathy
- Understand anger is natural
- Ask questions and show your acknowledgment
- Be honest
- Give time frame and expectation
- Review the case and think about how to prevent it from happening again
Ok so that’s the takeaway customer service tips, so you can launch straight into calming down fretful and angry dropshipping customers.
So we have a better understanding of this huge online shopping issue, let’s start by looking at what exactly customer anger is.
What is customer anger?
It’s not difficult to come to the conclusion that understanding why someone is upset makes it easier to empathize with them.
Being an online store owner can often require you to wear many hats, including amateur physiologist!
But what exactly is anger?
Anger is often described as a secondary emotion. Basically, this is a self-protective reaction to suffering, either physical or emotional pain, or fear, which is simply described as anticipated pain.
Emotional suffering can often be traced to a gap between expectations and perceived reality. The anger your online store customer is feeling can be loosely translated as:
“I deserve better than this!”
It’s called a secondary emotion because essentially it stems from another emotion and doesn’t mean it’s any less valid.
Although emotions don’t excuse abusive behavior, understanding these drivers of anger can help eCommerce store owners be a little more forgiving of outbursts when they occur.
So in your quest to bring a sense of calm and rescue a potentially difficult situation, one of the first steps to take is to understand why they are angry and understand the situation.
Why I get angry eCommerce customers?
There could be a number of reasons why your online customers are angry.
Let’s take a below at some of the most common scenarios likely to make your customers’ blood boil and find out some useful customer service tips to handle the situation as smoothly as you can.
Where is the order?
Often, orders delivered late or not delivered at all is one of the primary causes of many of your ECommerce store customers’ angry responses.
What do I do if my customer hasn’t received an order?
Firstly make sure you thoroughly investigate the situation. It could one of the reasons below:
- Delayed
- Lost
- The customer provided an incorrect address
- Tracking number not found by the customer
So how do deal with this situation and what can you do to prevent your customers from getting angry?
- Automated tracking number You can make sure you use automated tracking number uploading so it’s an easier process for your customers to locate and keep up to date with their product delivery.
- Change to a reliable express shipping company If you are getting many issues with products delivered late or in some cases, not at all, it might be time to change your shipping company. An dropshipping supplier with express shipping will make sure you have happy customers who will be more likely to order from you again!
Poor quality product
When your customer actually receives their goods and is disappointed with the quality it can cast doubts on your sourcing abilities. It could be you’ve added a line you haven’t tried and tested, or simply the product is of poor quality.
If this scenario happens frequently, it may be an idea to review that particular product and maybe discontinue offering it.
However, it could also be a situation that has happened purely by the customer after delivery, so here’s what to do:
- Get proof Ask your customer for images or other kinds of proof before accepting responsibility for the poor quality.
- Offer refund or reshipping Once you are satisfied it is an issue with your service, then offer a full refund or if you aren’t going to refund as you believe the issue lies with the customers handling of the product, then make sure you explain the situation carefully.
In the future, you can mitigate against this by:
- A robust Quality Control process – From a legal standpoint, the importer can be considered as the manufacturer. So this means that you have the duty to prevent the circulation of defective products to your customers. Always ask for a sample from any suppliers so you can make sure you are providing a good quality product.
- Abandon any products with potential or recurring issues – Some products come with certain amount of headaches attached to them. These can be products that have safety standards to adhere to. It’s probably best to avoid those wherever possible.
Customer simply unhappy
It could also be the customer is just plain and simply disappointed with the product and it wasn’t what they initially thought.
The best way of rectifying this is first determine if it aligns with your customer service policy. If so, then go ahead and issue a refund. If it doesn’t stack up with your policies then make sure you clearly explain it to your online customer.
Bad reviews on social media
In an ever-growing review marketplace. Bad reviews on Facebook or elsewhere could potentially kill your eCommerce store.
Make sure you regularly monitor your social media accounts for any signs of bad reviews.
How do I prevent bad reviews on social media?
- Respond quickly By responding quickly and positively you will hopefully diffuse the situation and give a well-reasoned response to any negativity around your eCommerce store.
- Remove the comments However bad comments could be for a myriad of reasons and could be you’ve caught a member of your audience on a bad day or it has been known for competitors to add poor reviews, so if you think this might be the case, then remove the comments.
And finally…
So in a nutshell our best customer service tips are to make sure your ECommerce store is always offering the best service possible.
Add your policies to your website or any online store platforms and make it as clear as you can to your existing and potential customers.
Crucially, always make sure you have a full understanding of your supplier’s terms so there are no nasty surprises waiting for you or your customers.
By working with reputable suppliers you can make sure bad reviews and angry dropshipping customers are a thing of the past!