Earlier this year I had a brilliant idea! I was so excited about my idea that I immediately put it together and executed it the same day thinking that it would be great.
My idea was to send a note with my packages to thank you for buying a part from me and asking for you to leave feedback on EBay or Amazon regarding your purchase. I also created a note with some chocolate to send with the package requesting the same thing.
I thought that by doing this I would get more people leaving feedback. The fault in my logic was I thought people would leave only POSITIVE feedback when the reality was I was just encouraging feedback, good or bad.
Imagine my shock when I started to get more and more negative and neutral feedback. My mind was screaming, “This is not what I wanted, why are people being so harsh on me?” I didn’t get it at first. It took a while for me to understand how I had created this for myself. It wasn’t that I was giving worse service. What I had done was give the wrong instructions. I assumed that my service was perfect and no one ever had a problem with it. In my arrogance I never even thought that anyone would ever think badly of me and leave negative feedback. Oh, how wrong I was in my assumptions. Talk about shooting myself in the foot. I may have severely hurt my brand and image for my customers.
The day before I wrote this I received a Raincoat for my son I had bought off eBay and it had a note with it. After thanking me for buying it says;
“Please feel free to contact me and give me a chance to make things right before leaving negative feedback!! I’m more than willing to work with you on anything!!!”
When I saw this I slapped my hand against my forehead and thought, “you arrogant idiot! You didn’t tell people what to do if they had an issue.” Because of this I’ve revised my follow-up messages to my customers to include instructions to contact me before leaving negative feedback so I can resolve the issue.
This is a tough way for me to learn this lesson. This could ruin this business for me and that is a scary thought because I provide for my family with this. To rectify this I’ve contacted each customer over the last year that had an issue with me and made amends with them as best as I can. Some have responded and taken down their negative feedback. Some have not responded.
This has been a valuable lesson for me. Hopefully it hasn’t damaged my reputation too badly. I’m always looking for ways to improve and I appreciate getting feedback that helps me serve others better. If you have an idea for me please feel free to write me at support@pelletstovepro.org
