What I Ordered vs What I Got: The Four Things E-Commerce Vendors Must Do Better
By: Osumo Michael
Tags: Customer Service, E-commerce

image: unsplash

As I stood peering at my reflection wearing the oversized playsuit in the mirror, I couldn’t help but feel silly. A sting of anger washed over me as I again stared in disbelief at my reflection in the playsuit.

For context, I had ordered this playsuit off an online vendor who swore by their post that the clothing item was a small size 8 and came with a band around its waist. No, I wasn’t crazy, I had actually seen the dress description and pictures to back it up and it promised to be my perfect size. The rest is history and led to me standing in front of my bedroom mirror staring foolishly at my reflection in an oversized outfit. Hot tears threatened to break out of my eyes and I could not hold them in. My 10k had gone with the wind.

If you type in the phrase; “What I ordered vs What I got” on Google, a a load of web page results will flood your screen, including images and videos addressing the matter.

Source: BusinessDay

This implies a good number of people have indirectly or directly experienced e-shopping nightmares. Although some of these experiences have been narrated through memes and jokes, the truth remains: e-commerce vendors must do better with the quality of services and products they provide their customers.

Source: Coolval

How can e-commerce vendors do better? Detailed below are some steps vendors can take to improve customer experience before and after making products.

Be honest and clear about what you offer

All businesses should be honest about their product offerings. However, e-commerce businesses must double-up on this virtue as customers cannot physically see their products and services but only have “proofs” from posts and pictures online.

E-commerce vendors must learn to include as much information about a product or service as possible when uploading them online. For instance, if you sell dresses, include information about the accurate size; is it a UK or US size, for instance? Include info on the fabric type the dress was made from and the condition of the dress (is it brand new or re-used?)

Commenting on how e-commerce vendors can be clearer about their products and services, a customer stated, “as a designer you should always tell your clients the truth. In this case, if you can replicate a particular design as it is, the choice of fabric, and body shapes.” This comment speaks volume to vendors to be honest about their abilities and skillsets when dealing with clients. It is better a vendor lets a client go if they cannot produce their desired needs rather than do a crappy job and lose their reputation.

However, another customer thinks that honesty in purchasing services and products exceeds e-commerce vendors to include customers: “as regards ready to wear, most times the responsible factors are designers/vendors posting edited pictures so appealing to the eyes while the actual dress is not so. The buyer sending in wrong measurements or not considering if their body type suits a particular dress”

Ask for feedback

While this culture might not be popular among the Nigerian e-commerce industry, it is quite effective.

It is important to cultivate the habit of asking for feedback. Sure, some of the feedback you may receive will not be positive, but they also help you do better in your business.

Offer follow-up services

Again, another culture not popular in the Nigerian e-commerce market. E-commerce vendors have omitted this crucial step in customer satisfaction and this tells in the reaction of some clients — dissatisfaction.

A simple follow-up question asking whether a client has received their order and how they feel about tit can make the difference for an e-commerce business. Just like asking for feedback, some responses a vendor might get from following up might be negative. This should be used to a vendor’s advantage since they can hear first-hand from a customer how they feel about the product or services.

Source: Instagram

In addition, vendors should personalize their follow-up messages. No client would appreciate a robotic message asking them how satisfying they find their purchase. Vendors can explore including the name of the customer (if available or accessible) and the name of the product or service purchased.

Address customers’ problems head on

It’s inevitable some clients will encounter dissatisfaction purchasing your product or service. This should not be discouraging as it could be caused by a number of reasons.

What is more important in this situation is to take initiative and find out what particular problem the customer may have encountered and deal with it. Many times, some vendors do not respond to clients’ complaints and worse, when they respond, they refuse to acknowledge the customer’s problems.

This sort of response is counter-productive as such customer will most likely never patronize such vendor again and even worse, start campaigns against that business. Recall that customers can be informal salespersons; this is applicable both positively and negatively. Some dissatisfied clients will take the gospel of a bad e-commerce vendor to the ends of the earth if triggered.

Surely, if you are an e-commerce vendor or aspiring vendor reading this, you must have guessed this isn’t all there is to making your online business a better experience for clients. In this fast-paced era, it is wise to constantly develop your business to delight customers every way possible.