The truth about Tuesdays is that, in fact, I am never here. Tuesday is dedicated to Pharmacy, my other life and the truth is that Adventure Togs phone does not get answered. I respond to the odd email and often phone customers back or email them on Tuesday evening. But if you need me 9-5.30 I'm afraid you will be disappointed. I have deliberated over this quite a bit and have tried to get someone else to take over for the day, but when you run a small business from a home office and offer a personalised service, it's not easy to hand over the reigns.
The "Tuesday issue" raised it's ugly head again this week, when I listened to my answerphone messages on Wednesday morning. I had two messages from an angry customer, one left Tuesday am and one pm. She had also emailed and I had obviously not been able to respond. She was waiting for delivery of an item and I could see that due to some kind of PayPal problem, her payment had not registered on our system and therefore her order had not been processed. I was naturally concerned and called her immediately but the line was engaged, so I emailed her, explained the situation and apologised (although probably PayPal is to blame) and updated the order for processing and dispatch that day. Then late morning, the phone rang and lo and behold, I had the worst ticking off I've had for some time. I was not proud of myself as didn't handle the conversation as I would have liked. But what it all boiled down to was that I didn't sort it all out straight away (on Tuesday).
The truth of the matter is that I responded within 24 hrs and sent the parcel out next day delivery. What large company with all it's layers of personnel would act faster. Whenever I email the "Big Boys", it usually takes several attempts plus a phone call before I get anywhere.
The thing with an online business is, it's 24/7 so why do we need to be available 9-5 Mon-Fri? Why should customers expect us to log off at 5 and not answer emails at weekends? I've answered the Adventure Togs phone at 7.45am on a week day, 7pm on a Sunday, not to mention Bank Holidays and over Christmas and Easter. In fact my biggest order ever was all organised via email on my Blackberry late in the night over a few nights and the customer on her iphone....she was grateful of sorting it all out away from her busy day!
So, I shouldn't feel guilty about not being here on Tuesdays, should I?
I'd have said that was pretty darned good service! What do they expect, a personal apology in blood?
Posted by: Dotterel | February 28, 2011 at 03:36 PM