Silk Road forums
Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: Burning Babylon on July 31, 2013, 02:01 am
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Was considering creating this thread in the Vendor Roundtable but I really want the perspective from customers as well as I don't fully understand them on this issue.
Lately we've been getting a lot of messages from Domestic Customers asking us either if we're going to send the package the same day or if it's been sent even after its been marked "in transit". Now we've had perhaps three to six orders in total of ~140 so far which we've shipped a day or two late and we've always messaged the customer beforehand in those cases, so that can't explain the amount of customers asking this. What we want to know is why are the customers asking these questions and is there anything we can do to stop them from doing it? Those who do ask are most likely not reading our Presentation as we state we'll ship any order which comes in before 12:00 CEST on weekdays or they want reassurance.
Would it be a solution to create an alternate non-vendor-account which manually messages each customer with something along the lines of "Your order of X has been shipped today by Burning Babylon, have a nice day." ? The goal would be to reduce the amount of messages asking for Shipping Confirmation so we can deal primarily with Unique Questions and Custom Orders.
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Put an "Update: 30/7/2013" at the top of your vendor page and put exactly what you just wrote, or something like:
"We do not mark in transit until *after it has been dropped off*. If your order is shipped late due to a delay on our side, *we will PM you and let you know*. If you haven't been messaged, your order went out when it was marked in transit. We want your business as much as you want our products. We won't waste your time, so don't waste ours by asking."
I think that's a very reasonable thing to put, even if it sounds harsh. Many vendors it seems do in fact mark in transit before it's actually shipped, and in addition many buyers are just paranoid/jonesing/eager/going through withdrawal and naturally want to know where it is and why it isn't in front of them, and you shouldn't have to answer to that as their vendor.
Most importantly, if people aren't reading your full vendor page before purchasing from you, they don't belong on Silk Road. That's like leasing a car and not reading the contract because you're so excited to drive.
And while you have an obligation as a vendor to deliver a product in the amount of time that you say on your vendor page you will deliver it within, you are not held to some divine, higher standard of ridiculous proportions that necessitates you calming all of your customers nerves.
You could make a blanket generic response, similar to what you posted and just save it in a text file. Literally copy paste it in and respond to anyone who still pesters you. If it were me, I wouldn't even dignify the buyer with a response, especially if it were clearly noted in your vendor page. But that's why I'm not a vendor. I don't like customer service. ;)
I think you have a very valid point and reason to be annoyed.
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Would it be a solution to create an alternate non-vendor-account which manually messages each customer with something along the lines of "Your order of X has been shipped today by Burning Babylon, have a nice day." ? The goal would be to reduce the amount of messages asking for Shipping Confirmation so we can deal primarily with Unique Questions and Custom Orders.
Yes, but people might get paranoid that it came from another account. Any problem with manually sending those messages from the BB account besides cluttering your inbox? It seems like you'd be cluttering your outbox instead, which would help you sort through the bullshit.
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"We do not mark in transit until *after it has been dropped off*. If your order is shipped late due to a delay on our side, *we will PM you and let you know*. If you haven't been messaged, your order went out when it was marked in transit. We want your business as much as you want our products. We won't waste your time, so don't waste ours by asking."
Unfortunately won't help much since not everyone reads it, although it might be a good point to add something like they will be contacted as soon as possible if there's any issues at all.
Most importantly, if people aren't reading your full vendor page before purchasing from you, they don't belong on Silk Road. That's like leasing a car and not reading the contract because you're so excited to drive.
And while you have an obligation as a vendor to deliver a product in the amount of time that you say on your vendor page you will deliver it within, you are not held to some divine, higher standard of ridiculous proportions that necessitates you calming all of your customers nerves.
It's understandable in one way as if they had ordered something from an electronics store or similar in real life they would get an order confirmation, and when they don't get one here they get worried. I wouldn't mind if some kind of function would be added which automatically sends a custom message through Silk Road when an order is marked as in transit where one could for example confirm its been sent.
You could make a blanket generic response, similar to what you posted and just save it in a text file. Literally copy paste it in and respond to anyone who still pesters you. If it were me, I wouldn't even dignify the buyer with a response, especially if it were clearly noted in your vendor page. But that's why I'm not a vendor. I don't like customer service. ;)
I see it as a structural issue and if someone messages me about Shipping Confirmation I've already failed even if I answer yes it's been shipped. A solution which could be implemented on the Silk Road end would be a daily timer which can be set by each vendor to set a daily time limit and each order which is within that limit gets specially marked in the Order Section as having been ordered within the time limit. This timer would be visible for any customer visiting a product page and/or the vendor page itself.
Yes, but people might get paranoid that it came from another account. Any problem with manually sending those messages from the BB account besides cluttering your inbox? It seems like you'd be cluttering your outbox instead, which would help you sort through the bullshit.
If I send the messages from the main account I will definitely get people replying things like "Thanks" and "Good to know" and so on and this would just move the problem to other messages basically. A solution could hypothetically be implemented by Silk Road if one could get the ability to label messages similar to Gmail so the clutter wouldn't be as bad.
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For what it's worth, while I certainly don't think it's **necessary** to do it, just emailing saying it's shipped is what makes the difference for me a lot of times with regard to whether I will purchase from that vendor again. It might be worth the cluttered inbox in terms of increased business. I don't know man. Interesting dilemma.
Cheers,
Trellis
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Some people are just annoying...I think that having the message on your vendor page what your policies are is sufficient, and I appreciate when I know what to expect from a vendor.
Maybe put another message regarding how you handle processing shipping time in the item description as well?
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yeah if the seller marks it in transit it means that it has been shipped. I don't see why its necessary to message a confirmation, but will if requested.
I think some buyers ignore your vendor profile page for the most part or not read at all.
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i just did this today (asking if something was going to be sent same day) and i feel like a super annoying douchebag lol i can totally see how that can make a mess of things.. i let my impatience get the best of me.. oh well, won't do it again now that i understand the problem..