Stand Up for Your Brand!

When something goes wrong, I am the person’s first contact with the company. Whether they were sent the wrong item, a defective item, or they are outside of the time frame for the company to help…they get upset. When I have to deliver news a customer does not want to hear, I sometimes hear this famous question:

“Don’t you stand behind your product?”

What does this really mean? Do you feel you can stand up for your product and your overall brand? Consider your business practices, your product, everything that defines your business. Anyone can start a business and talk about how much they care for their customers and how they sell the highest quality at the best prices on the market. However, some people neglect to practice what they preach; which leads to unhappy customers.

Standing behind your brand starts with the products you sell. Why is your offering so much different than others who have similar products? Do you offer lower prices, unusual items, or items you designed yourself? Whatever the reason, make sure your site has a strong summary of what you offer, how your business got started, and why people should buy with you.

What do you pride yourself on? Higher customer satisfaction ratings than one of your competitors? Very few claims for damaged products or return requests? Quick response time to customer inquiries? Play it up on your site and use statistics to back it up so people will know you are the real deal (For example: ABC Inc. has a 98% customer satisfaction rating!)

Think about how often you put your practices into…well…practice. If you say you will give a customer a return credit within 10 business days, it should be applied by the end of the 10^th business day. If your orders require a 1-2 business day processing time, have it shipped and notify the customer of tracking by the end of the 2^nd business day. If an item cannot be returned, is it clearly stated on the item page? You should not imply or say one thing on your policies, then tell a customer something completely different. (That’s when another popular question comes in: “Where is that on your website?”)

Finally, it is hard to stand behind your business if you do not offer good service. It is one thing to have a voice mail set up if a customer is calling before or after hours. It is another to not even check the voice mail or check it, but ignore customer calls. If you want to hire staff, make sure they are properly trained on your product and in all areas of customer skills. Does your staff empathize as well as they can give technical specifications on your products?

You put a lot of energy and money into your e-commerce business…why would you not stand behind it and be proud of the work you and your staff do?