I have heard the lines at the returns counter are longest right after Christmas. This is when all the unwanted or incorrectly thought out gifts are returned of course. I came across a great example of how this provides you with a way to market your core values to your customers or clients at this time – it’s an online example and, whilst not a small business, provides a great lesson.
The business is Amazon. For reasons that are unimportant in their details, suffice it to say it wasn’t Amazon’s fault in any way, a gift for delivery in time for Christmas failed to arrive at all. It was returned to Amazon. On contacting them they got back to me quickly with an apology, a full refund and an offer to waive the shipping cost to ship the items to a different address.
It’s a good recovery, and it’s above what was really required. Remember this isn’t their fault, but they are acting as though it was and making amends accordingly. This is from a large organization, one that you may think wasn’t too bothered by a small order like mine.
The lesson here is that it is never too late to make a good impression. Amazon’s business model is set up to be automated, but of course, things can always go wrong – human error for example. At these times a great opportunity arises to fix it, and actually create a better impression in the minds of your customers and, guess what? They will tell others about it. How are you fixed to create this impression with your clients?
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