Customer Errors

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Scenario: A Customer has you engrave an item with Janine Smith yet after it is delivered to them, they realize the name should have been Jeanie Smith and would like you to fix it or engrave a new item. They are not looking for you to fix it for free. They know they made the mistake and not you.

Do you offer them some sort of discount to engrave a new item? Do you charge them full price?

I had a situation like this happen recently where a dozen large frames were engraved as gifts for a club. One of the names was misspelled and it was the gift recipient that contacted me to see if it could somehow be fixed. Since it was custom cut around a name, it was impossible to fix and have it look good. Since I ordered 1 spare plaque, in case I clobbered something, I was able to quickly redo the engraving & cut around the name. By sheer coincidence, I would be driving past their town 2 hours away the next day so I was able to meet the customer at an off ramp and save them around $19 in shipping. I only charged them about 1/2 the price of the original. They were shocked and thrilled and said they have never been treated so well. Since then, I have engraved many more items for them and received some business through word-of-mouth.

I had a good vibe about them, so it was worth it for me to create a whole new engraving for very little profit. But .... I have a feeling this type of "payback" does not happen as often as we would hope. I could have just as easily never heard from the customer again.

[Leigh Costello]

Mike, I have had couple of customer errors that I resolved the way that you did. I believe in customer service most days.

I did have one customer order 4 large plaques to serve as "forever" letters for family. Due to the time frame and my being in the middle of something else, she asked if she could lay it out and I could run the job at my convenience. She is very knowledgeable (?) about Corel so I said sure. Worked out great, we both were happy and I have since done more work with her.

Of course there are the customers who don't appreciate what is done for them, critique every little aspect of a job and won't pay for our work. I shocked one lady when I tossed a personalized item right into our wood stove when she wouldn't pay for it. By golly, she has been back and never questions our work now. :D

[Rodne Gold]

Great customer service and goodwill will always pay off , even if it's only your own satisfaction that you have done "the right thing"

[Frank Corker]

I have to admit I'm in the same category as you Mike. Do the right thing and just pray they come back, the generally do.

[Gary Hair]

The way I see it the choices are pretty limited:
1. Charge full price
2. Discount the price

There are arguments for both and it all depends on your personal feelings.

The "charge full price" rationale is that it was worth the price the first time, it should be the second time as well. If you can discount it for their mistake then you must be charging too much.

My personal choice is to discount it as much as I feel I can and not cost me money. My reasoning is that I want to help reduce the pain they are going to feel for their mistake. That's what I would want someone to do for me, if I ever made a mistake that is... The better the customer, and the better their attitude, the more the discount. If they even hint at it being my fault, or try to give me some bs story, then I would give them little or no discount.

Gary

[Dee Gallo]

In Mike's situation, the paying customer did not come back, the giftee did. To me, this is like someone getting a gift and wanting another one ... a new job. I think I might contact the original customer who made the mistake and see if they will pay 1/2 to have it replaced. Then charge the giftee 1/2. Collect 100%. Win-win-win. I guess it depends on how much work you want to do for how much money. There is never a guarantee someone will come back for more work, but it's always good to "do the right thing". I'm just not sure that you working for half-pay when someone else makes the mistake is the right thing.

To me, the special delivery was the really nice gesture, which saved the customer a lot of money and showed Mike's willingness to go out of his way to make a customer happy and save them money. That's going to make good karma.

that's just my 2 cents, dee

[Martin Boekers]

Customer service first.

If it's just a plate I may redo it no charge, depending upon attitude and frequency that it occurs with that client. I don't want them to always expect a rehit if they don't verify the layout and text before hand.

I could spend time (time is money) discusing the plate or quickly hit another one on the spot. (that impresses tham as they don't have to make another trip over).

A custom plaque, yes I do have to recroup some cost, not full price, but something reasonable.

These things happen, but not at the frequency that it creates an issue or much thought on my end how to handle it. I try to make sure that they are pleased when they leave my shop.

If it's just a mispelled name and looks nice, it updates my sample shelf!


Marty

[Bill Jermyn]

I try as much as possible to email proofs beforehand, it helps to catch problems and gives the customer less of a leg to stand on.

[Jim Beachler]

I will do an even exchange with the customer or recipient paying the shipping both ways. (Return of wrong one and delivery of correct one) The other one then becomes a display sample. This does not work in all situation but in the vast majority. Each case has to stand on its merits.

One of the ways that we reduce errors is to have one person put the order into the system and a second person review the order printout before it is made. My system is setup that once the order is in, the operator of the machine only has to run the order.

Jim

[Bill Cunningham]

For Text, I never accept verbal orders, their not worth the paper their written on.. If the info is hand written, or sent as a email or attachment, I Always email a proof to my customer 'before' I do the job.. When the customer signs off on the proof, the job is approved. If the customer makes an error on a small plaque plate, or trophy plate, I would usually just do another one no charge. But if were talking an engraved wooden plaque, marble, granite, or glass. It depends entirely on the attitude of the customer as to how much of a discount, if any, that they 'might' receive on a re-do.. I would generally discount it anyway by the already completed layout/artwork/photoprep, etc., and charge only my normal price for the replacement piece, and the actual engraving time required to engrave a new one.. Depending on how complicated the job is, this could also be a considerable saving for the customer by not having to do all the prep work again.

[Scott Erwin]

Mike,
I think you did the right thing and I see myself doing exactly as you did to include driving it to them. I am a born sucker for thinking the customer is almost always right (although this was the receiver of the item-customer by proxy in my mind).

I applauded you for your actions and think you will get back ten-fold your minimal loss for what you did.

I think that our names are very personal to ourselves at least, and when someone mis-spells our names we are not happy, it is a reflection on us too. I put myself in the position of the receiver. They were not responsible for the error, you were not responsible for the error either, but in the idea of there is no blame on the two involved parties, a discount, if not free replacement, in my opinion, is warranted.