4 Tips For Reducing Unhappy Or Unimpressive Customer Experiences

Julie Starr • August 4, 2022



In life, you can’t please everyone. When it comes to how we manage our own lives, we tend to accept that as fact and try to do the best we can anyway. We please those we care about and don’t worry about the opinions of those who we may not interact with outside of a few meetings. 

Yet in business, this is not a good strategy . We cannot simply brush away the concerns, worries, or poor experiences of those who, in good faith, tried to interact with our firm. Polite disagreement is fine, such as when we politely lay out the true details of customer interaction in a spiteful review left to damage our brand after we had to deny them service, for example.

However, for the most part, a poor experience is something that we can use to better our firm and understand its operations. Even if the issue wasn’t entirely our fault, it’s good to take responsibility because that’s what can affect change and help inform our actions going forward.

Reducing the amount of unhappy or unimpressive customer experiences is a good target to aim for. If we can reduce this by 20% year on year, that’s worthwhile. Let’s consider how this may be applicable:

Empower Your Customer Support Staff

Solid customer support can turn a bad experience into a good one, or at least one where we become impressed by the level of understanding and care invested into our issue. It’s one thing if someone lets you down, but if someone makes a great and sincere effort to rectify the issue and provide a gesture of goodwill? Are you more likely to trust that individual or entity? We’d say you are.

So, empowering your customer support staff to come with administrative possibilities in rectifying issues, be that adding credit to an account, issuing refunds, getting to the bottom of an issue, and apologizing on behalf of your firm, well, even if it’s the customer’s fault, that can make the entire effort worth it. After all, a customer is much more likely to tell their friends about a bad experience with your firm rather than a good one, so this way you may be pulling the plug on potentially negative word-of-mouth marketing.

Document Everything

From providing order receipts to chat log communication transcripts after a live chat exchange is concluded, all the way up to providing the minute order, packaging, and delivery tracking information, you can be assured that firms that overcommunicate tend to eliminate confusion or worry from the process of interacting with their services.

This means that negative experiences born out of miscommunication or confusion can be effectively eliminated because with every step your business makes, it will have communicated its intent and current status. This way, a complaint that may have come can be assuaged, be that a delivery arriving two days later than expected or perhaps offering a customer a pre-order for new stock rather than thinking they’ve ordered an available item and feeling annoyed that delivery hasn’t been made. Communication, as always, is king.

Use The Best eCommerce Platforms

It’s good to use an eCommerce platform with the features most appropriate for your brand, and you can use https://www.atwix.com/magento-adobe-commerce-vs-shopify/  to better see comparisons between the major players like Adobe commerce, Shopify, and Magento.

When you can integrate a seamless, easy-to-understand, and worthwhile platform, customers find the buying process to be much easier and simpler, and all of the relevant information is communicated with clarity. Platforms like this also help your staff keep on top of their deliverables and workflow, meaning that mistakes are reduced significantly.

Customer Feedback

Unfortunately, you’re not going to be able to assuage or fix every customer issue. For some, one problem is enough for a customer to ignore your business for the rest of their lifetime. That’s just how it goes.

However, these customers are certainly going to feel motivated to express their distaste or concerns, and so leveraging that is always going to be useful. Providing worthwhile portals by which they can raise their concerns and complaints is key. A dedicated email address can work here, accepting public reviews , and of course, passing along communications sent to your support team that may be of relevance. You may also send out anonymous surveys, the completion of which offers a light discount on their next order.

From here, you can use that information to potentially avoid a bad experience for the next user.

Sustainability

While no business wants their customers to have a poor experience, when these instances occur, it’s an opportunity to welcome stakeholder input. Doing so in a transparent manner and incorporating that feedback is critical to the evolution of the business.  For instance, perhaps a customer comments on the product packaging. By inquiring as to the complaint, there may be options to explore sustainable packaging options or even sustainable delivery for the goods.

With this advice, we hope you can more easily reduce unhappy or unimpressive customer experiences going forward.

Simple Steps To Make Your Office Space More Eco-Friendly

By Julie Starr • 07 Oct, 2024
Becoming more eco-friendly and running a greener business is a responsibility that business owners really need to think more about. The good news is that if you spend a lot of time in your office, there are plenty of ways to make it more eco-friendly without having to overhaul everything and start again (which isn’t just disruptive, but expensive too). So, if you’re ready to get started, here are some simple steps to make your office space more eco-friendly; read on to find out more. Use Energy-Efficient Lighting This idea is a simple one that you can do no matter what else might be on your list of tasks - it’s quick, easy, and really makes a difference; change your light bulbs to something more energy efficient. If you’re still using traditional fluorescent bulbs, it’s time to upgrade to LED which doesn’t just last longer, but also uses a lot less energy. They’re easy to install and they’ll help you cut down on your office’s energy usage almost instantly. If possible, you should make the most of natural light too, so think about rearranging your workspace to let in more sunlight, which saves energy and can boost your mood - it’s a win-win that you can do right away. Prioritize Air Quality The air you breathe matters, and keeping it clean can do wonders for your health and the planet. One way to improve air quality is by adding plants to your workspace because plants are natural air purifiers, and as a bonus, they’ll make your office feel more inviting. Another great idea is to make sure your office’s HVAC system is working efficiently, and having air duct cleaning done by professionals is an easy step you can take to improve air quality and ensure your heating and cooling systems aren’t wasting energy. Clean air ducts mean cleaner air, less strain on your system, and even lower energy bills, so it’s a simple but really effective thing to do. Switch To Reusable Products If your office is still stocking up on single-use plastic items, it’s time for a change - swap your disposable cups, utensils, and plates for reusable ones and you’ll be surprised at how much waste to eliminate. And what about encouraging people to bring their own mugs and water bottles to work? Give them tea, coffee, and water to refill everything with, and you’ll be doing your bit to help the planet and have less waste to deal with as well. And don’t stop with these things either - there are loads of reusable products that could be useful in your office. You could have refillable pens and ink cartridges for your printer, for example. Go Paperless Speaking of your printer, is that an office machine you actually need? If you were to go digital and aim for a paperless office , you might be able to do away with the printer, which means less money spent on ink and paper, and less energy used altogether. You should be able to set up a system where documents can be shared online and stored electronically, and there are plenty of tools around to help you do exactly that (and much more). If you don’t need to print something and you don’t need a physical copy of a document, don’t make one - just use the digital version instead and you’ll be a lot more eco-friendly.

3 Most Unsustainable Industries & What They're Doing To Be More Eco-Conscious

By Julie Starr • 04 Oct, 2024
Sustainability often gets pushed on the common person. Joe Public is told to be more sustainable with their daily habits as the government pushes for more eco-friendly measures. This is all well and good - but does it really matter when 71% of greenhouse gas emissions come from just 100 companies around the world? Small business owners are desperate to prove their sustainability, but what are bigger companies in some of the most polluting industries doing to help? We’ve taken three of the least sustainable sectors on the planet and explored the unique ways they’re trying to cut down on emissions and be more eco-friendly. Mining Any industry revolving around drilling underground will not be very environmentally friendly! Mining causes a lot of pollution, but its unsustainability often comes from the way it damages local environments and ecosystems. So, what is this industry doing to change things? It’s largely focusing on more responsible mining practices to reduce waste and mitigate the impact on local environments. This is done through mining dust suppression systems to prevent airborne pollution, reforesting mining sites when they’re no longer in use, and recycling as many materials as possible. Is it perfect? No, but it’s a step in the right direction. Fossil Fuels Shock horror; the fossil fuels industry is the most damaging to our environment. Finding ways to change the scope of this sector is the key to ensuring a better future for all. Some companies in this industry are trying to do this through carbon capture and storage. This is a technique where CO2 emissions are captured before they’re released into the atmosphere and stored underground. Realistically, the main thing fossil fuel companies should be doing is pushing for more renewable energy sources. Many are doing this - though reports suggest they’re not investing as much as they should. If fossil fuel companies dumped more money into developing biofuels and other renewable sources, pollution from this industry would drop dramatically. Fashion The most unbelievable stat to take from this post is that the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of our global carbon footprint . That’s remarkable (and worrying), considering how most of us don’t view it as a “dangerous” industry. Fast fashion is the main problem; poorly-made goods are pumped out at a rapid rate, and consumers constantly buy new things. Fashion companies are trying their best to resolve this. Most big brands will now have sustainable lines using recyclable materials. Consumers also hold the key to solving this problem: stop buying new clothes all the time and wear yours for longer. Or buy pre-owned clothes to slow down the fashion production line. Companies can still do more as well: they are trying to adopt more eco-friendly production processes that use less water and energy. The moral of this post is that everyone can do their bit to fight for a more sustainable future. Keep this in mind for your small business . It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in; there will always be ways to promote eco-friendly practices.
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