Thank you for sharing those interesting details about outsourcing and I am impressed with how a business can really gain a lot more easier earning through excellent projects done through the help of trained staff.

As also been part of my experience, another website have taught me to find ways on how to leverage time and bring automation into internet marketing business easily. I found this idea from a friend which sent me this website http://www.massoutsource.com

It also has loads of information about the process of outsourcing and in my opinion, these free videos offered by this young Australian guy is really worth watching for and inspiring.

I hope this can also be one of your good resources in the future.

THE STORY SO FAR:

She placed her order for yard signs, paid for it, and we created her proof.

It was our mistake that the proof did not show that there would be a empty border on the sign as it would be printed. Customer approved the proof, and the signs were made with required border. See signs here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22355113@N06/3865285473/

Upon picking them up, she immediately noticed the difference. As we are unable to produce the signs without the border (otherwise we would have redone them gratis), she was emphatic about receiving compensation for the discrepancy. We assured her that it was our fault and she would be compensated, and she left with her signs.

We emailed her a coupon worth 20% off her next purchase, and apologized profusely.

Customer then replied with a torrent of claims against our product, service, people, etc., and asked for 20% to be returned directly to her credit card, because she wouldn’t be doing business with us again.

We thanked customer for her feedback, apologized once again for our mistake, and offered a FULL refund if the customer returned the signs.

This is the response that made me “Ask Andrew” for help: she is using the merchandise and will be happy to take a 40-50% discount. Believes she is an excellent customer and thinks it will work the next round. Committed to doing business in Austin and is proud that we stand behind our product.

Based on all your feedback, we re-stated our original offer: 20% discount on her next order, or a FULL refund upon return of the product.

HER RESPONSE AMAZED US!

She said some nice things about the product and our service, and looked forward to using her 20% coupon the next time she needed signs!

Baffled but relieved at her response, I again would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and ideas.

Thanks, Andrew!

Oh, BTW, thank you for introducing the PDFtoWord.com. Now I know where to go to convert my pdf files.

we bought ours online at http://www.wearabletowel.com (since some people mentioned they dont know where to get them).

Customer service is an art, a balancing act. Take the loss on the signs. Give her the money back. It is up to you to let her keep the signs or not. But it might be good to do something that she does not expect, give her a parting gift, a gift certificate to go out to eat or something else. With a note saying sorry for your inconvenience, have dinner on us.

It will be unexpected and you never know the reaction when they get something unexpected. She might end up being one of your most loyal customers and send you even more customers than anyone else. Or she will not come back but she is not bad mouthing you to other people.

Give her a referral to someone else that can help her out with her needs.

You will not need to do this much. Not many people want to keep the product and want the money back as well.

Good luck to you. Hope it all works out to your best interest. Have a good day.

Thank you for yet another great post, Andrew.

Dan and Deanna “Marketing Unscrambled”

“Success converting PDF ‘friendfeed-PDF.pdf.’ Conversion results were too large to attach: 12MB (limit is 8MB). Please consider trying the trial version of our desktop product instead.”

So they offered a 30 day trial of their desktop software. Hmmm . . .

Now, they could provided me a zipped file — or put up a short-duration page on the web and sent me its URL so I could download, but, no…

Is their “free service” simply a come-on? I smell bait-and-switch. Has anyone else tried it?

Oh ya — the towel is in the “as seen on TV” category.

About the sign customer, I agree with John “…listen to her, find out what the real reason is for her frustration” and go on from there. Only the dissatified ones bitch — consider what she can do to your company’s reputation via today’s social media where bitch has reach.

Overall it was a very informative show with good tips so it had me very interested in John’s program. But as I mentioned, it seemed a bit fishy since listening to the other podcast. Thanks for the validation.

I also agree with Ted’s point, John should really have made it clear beyond any argument that a custom order (and how many signs aren’t custom?!) is not refundable, period, after the customer “clicks here”…

Freakin’ customers. Who needs ‘em!? Oh, wait…

Great show Andrew, glad I Stumbled upon it.

I understand your concern, but John has no agreement with BestJobs, in fact he is genuinely baffled as to why they’re being so uncooperative.

John has worked hard to develop his system that works well for outsourcing, so he has every right to charge a fee for that knowedge and access in my opinion. Also, his program includes training videos to bring outsource workers up to speed.

Regards

Andrew

Andrew, thank you for the outsourcng webinar it was really interesting overall. However, my Spidey senses are tingling regarding the requirement to access Best Jobs VAs only via John’s site. I am generally not a cynic, but this is the reason I am a little concerned:

1- I listened to John on another podcast a couple of months ago and he refused to mention the site where he hires his VA’s to listeners b/c he said it was becoming difficult for him to find good candidates anymore and he was basically giving the info away for free. He mentioned, on this same podcast that if people wanted to get the VA info, they would have to become members of his site.
2- It appears, through his own admission, that he is 80% of Best Jobs’s revenue! Hmm, can we say leverage? I THINK HE HAS PROBABLY STRUCK AN AGREEMENT, NOT THAT THE SITE IS CLOSED TO NEW CUSTOMERS, TO DRIVE TRAFFIC THROUGH HIS SITE SO HE NOW GETS A PIECE OF THE ACTION. What growing, leading business shuts off access to new customers in this economy? I’m not buying it. I’m not saying, I’m just saying. If this is the case, I think it is tacky and shady. He could just set up an affiliate program and be honest. What do you think? Should I have the old Spidey senses checked out?

I won’t ask a testimonial to an unsatisfied customer. Do you really believe she’ll say “I recommend John for the wonderful service quality…” ?

Customer is not always right, but the key is not to know who’s right or not, it’s to deal with an unsatisfied customer.

If she wants to keep the “thing” that John sold her, it means that she’s satisfied by that “thing”.
Good starting point !

As her to write down her insatisfaction, and tell her it’s really valuable for you, that you’ll communicate her insatisfaction to your colleagues, so that next time she’ll come to buy something, she’ll get the best service possible.

Now tell her kindly that what she bought is not free, and that if she wants to keep it, she’ll have to pay for it.

I think he should just give her the sign and the money, but make it clear to her that he will not be doing business with her any further. It is hard to please every customer, but you should try your best.

As far as the signs… One comment above summed it up pretty well… find out what the real problem is. In the end it may cost him a little money, but a happy customer is a great advertisement. Example: I accidentally put one of my personal movies in the return for Netflix when I realized it I called and they immediately refunded me $9.99 so I could go out and purchase a new copy of the movie AND they will look for my movie as well and either way I get to keep the $10. Now the inconvenience of me being stupid and them not being able to just send me back my movie is way out weighed by the quick and more than fair response.

Another example: I was listening to Gary Vaynerchucks podcast and he swore on it, which I could handle but it was not marked explicit and my 5 year old son was in the room. Upset I quickly send Gary an email and expressed, nicely, my disappointment. With in 30 minutes Gary called me directly and apologized. I was so overwhelmed by his sincerity that I completely forgave and forgot and am now a loyal listener and will buy his new book coming out. The next day the same thing happened with another podcast, name withheld, so, inspired by the previous days encounter I sent of another email. This time I was slammed for being too sensitive and judgmental. Needless to say I have nothing to do with anyone near that podcast.

So to make a long story short, TOO LATE! Do everything you can to please the customer. You can choose not to do business with them in the future, refer them to the competition… but make sure they leave happy.

To John: Make your dissatisfied customer feel great about herself and sell too her again.