When starting a dropshipping business, one of the main concerns new dropshippers have are the shipping times. Especially when they use Chinese Aliexpress suppliers. This article was written to let you know how you can deal with angry customers relating to late or delayed delivery.
Before we get into HOW you should deal with these angry customers, you first need to learn how to PREVENT them from being upset about your stores delivery time. The only way to do this is to be honest about them.
Always display your delivery times
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a new dropshipper is lying to your customers. This will not only result in many angry customer emails asking where their order is, you could also be flagged by facebook for witholding information which could lead to a disabled Facebook account and lastly you may encounter chargebacks which can result in the termination of your stripe/paypal and even Shopify account.
Clearly, lying to your customers is very bad practise. It’s not only frowned upon, it could get you into serious trouble.
To avoid angry customers the first step is to display your real delivery times on your shipping page but also every single product page. You should also mention your processing times which (if using Aliexpress) can take up to 7 days.
Doing this, your customers will know how long it will take for your product to arrive at their address before they order the product. If you do still get angry messages after that, you can refer to these pages.
Lastly, I want to add that you should display accurate delivery times. Don’t mention you have 7 day delivery when dropshipping from Aliexpress.
Know how important your customers are
Too often I encounter new dropshippers that don’t care about their customers. They just want to make a quick buck and don’t care about angry emails or providing a bad service.
This doesn’t last. These stores always fail.
Your customers are everything when starting a brand. A bad online reputation, in this age of social media, spreads like wildfire.
You should do everything in your power to satisfy every single customer, even if that means you have to refund them and give them store coupons.
It’s far better for your store to refund the $30 they spent than have them write a post about how terrible your business is.
So unless you plan on starting a new store every single month, start treating your customers properly.
Provide good customer service to deal with shipping delays
Even when having your delivery times in your product descriptions, you will still encounter customers that get upset about this. The only way to deal with these people is by providing a prime customer service experience.
This means you should avoid using excuses (trust me, they don’t appreciate this) and instead just be honest with them.
Don’t use excuses like these:
“Hi! Sorry, we’re experiencing some delays currently due to a high amount of orders.”
Instead be honest:
“Hi Chloe! I see that your order is a bit delayed. I’m very sorry for the inconvenience. I will check in with the shipping company and let you know how much longer your product will be!
We’re still a small company but we truly appreciate your faith in us and buying our product. I will personally make sure you get it ASAP.
Expect another message from me soon!
Hope you have a great day,
Dean”
A personalized message like that will instantly make the customer feel better and almost always works. If however, they still react angry after that, it’s best to just refund the order. Yes, this will eat into your profits but the outcome is far better than a dispute or worse, a negative social media post.
Why would customers still buy from my store when I display my long shipping times?
Contrary to what many believe, long shipping times will have very little negative effect on your conversion rates when everything else about your product and your store is good.
Of course, no one will wait 3-4 weeks for a stapler that they can get from target. But for items that you cannot get at every store in their neighborhood, customers will gladly wait for 3 to 4 weeks.