Thanks Nikki. I understand your dilemma and want to be fair. Having worked at the bank and owning your own business you understand that there are costs. The bank has made it an art form to charge customers for everything and good luck getting those fees back from customers. You can imagine what would happen if we allowed people to order the food and we had to pay for all of the returns. We would be bankrupt. We have incredible customer service and receive compliments daily. We are a customer service driven company where you can reach a human. Good customer service is not just giving in. It is not a matter of blaming clients. We give customers their own management tools that are very intuitive, however, that also comes with some responsibility on the customers part. You will learn this as your company grows. If you would like to return the product, we will split the cost of the return with you. Please let us know prior to sending it back and we will issue you a Return Authorization Number. Thanks Nikki.
Actually, TLC Pet Food, when I worked for the bank (who turned a 2.3 billion dollar profit in their 3rd quarter alone), CSR's at the "lowest level" authorization, were given the discretion of up to a certain amount (pretty high amount) to refund client fees without needing a manager override. We were trained not to fight clients who were upset about fees. If a client was polite and was in good standing we could reverse almost any fee up to 90 days backdated. If a client wasn't chronic in incurring fees and then complaining/asking to have them reversed, we would reverse them and apologize for inconvenience. So don't tell me that giving in to clients makes a company lose money.
Again, if I called every month and asked for fees to be reversed, then no, I shouldn't get what I want just because I am a client. However, since I am a good client who never missed a payment and has referred friends and family to the program (I even had a link to the website in my email signature and on my blog page and shared it frequently with my 323 twitter followers) it would have been a better business choice to absorb the shipping cost, with the understanding that it was a one time courtesy only.
Then, you go on to say, you have "incredible customer service" but contradict that statement by saying you can't afford to "give in" to your customers. We know that the customer is NOT always right, in reality, BUT if you look at BIG businesses like the one I worked for you will see that they teach their staff that sometimes you have to give a little to receive a lot. THIS is the model I use in my own business and I have tripled my cliental in one year.
