One of my closest friends had a son not so long ago. On hearing the news, I logged on to the net, intent on sending the tired but happy couple something nice. I liked the idea of a hamper, something nice for mum to get, after the inevitable stress of giving birth. 10 minutes of browsing later, I came across the heavenly hamper company. I liked the site, thought the hamper selections were nice and original, and so ordered a hamper for my friends, to be delivered to their house in London.
Checkout was good, got the usual emails to confirm everything, and felt happy with the purchase. But, at this point, I didn’t have any real positive or negative feelings about the company. The experience so far had been good and on a par with other sites I’d used in the past. Was I likely to go back? To remember them, their name or web address? Honestly, not at this stage.
The hamper turned up, on time, and was happily received by my friends. Great. Job done. Happy customer (me) and happy friends. Still, though, no real impression has been formed, but I am now slightly more likely to go back.
I use the net for shopping a great deal, and for one off or irregular purchases, I’m not that easy to impress these days, as I’ve seen and bought from too many sites that are all, effectively, the same. Now if I get a bad experience, perhaps late delivery or a poor checkout, then I’m likely to remember and not use them again. Worse still, if something terrible happens, for example they don’t deliver at all, or I can’t get any kind of reply from them, then not only do I not go back, but I tell my friends how terrible they are.
This kind of negative marketing is common place in markets where the bar is high for customer satisfaction, and getting things right is no longer enough to stand out.
Back to the hampers; a couple of days later I got a letter in the post, with a hand written envelope. Inside was an A5 card, my receipt and a hand written note, on a printed complement slip, thanking me for my purchase.
Now I remember the Heavenly Hamper company. When next I want to send a hamper, they will be my first (and probably) last visit.
From a Webtogs perspective, it’s all very well planning the perfect checkout and agonising over the colour of the ‘Add to basket’ button, but taking care of your customers and making them realise how important they are, is far more relevant and effective in the quest for perfect etail.
Tags: Comments
