Important Parts of the Sales Process

Recently I placed orders with two vendors on Etsy. I sent my payment through PayPal immediately. I did not hear back from either of the vendors for quite a while. I found this very puzzling because as soon as I get a sale, I like to send a Thank you immediately. I tell my customer when I will ship the product and when they should expect its arrival, that I appreciate their business. I let them know that if they wish to contact me for any reason, I will be glad to help them if I can. I consider this not only good business practice but also a practice to alleviate what is called "Buyer's Remorse". Of course, on Etsy we generally are not concerned with high priced expenditures that create true Buyer's Remorse...like homes or automobiles or even televisions, computers or home appliances. For purchases that require a great outlay of cash, the buyer will almost always have second thoughts about spending the money, or question the item itself... i.e., "Did I choose the right product, did I get the best deal''? and so on.

On the level in which we each do business on Etsy, buyer's remorse most likely will not be occur over the amount of money the customer has spent. In my case it was simply asking myself if I made a good choice of vendor because they did not seem to appreciate my business. As we all know, there are plenty of other vendors from which to choose from on Etsy or the internet in general. The competition is stiff and it's a dog eat dog business out there! Because the competition is so stiff, we as vendors must ask ourselves, what is going to separate me from the next guy? The simple answer is great customer service!

How do you give customer service that will separate you from the pack? Simply stated, act like every sale is your first sale! Do you remember the excitement you felt when you made the first one? You couldn't wait to say Thanks and ship out as soon as possible. You couldn’t wait to hear back that they received the merchandise. Then with great pleasure, you checked the rating the customer gave you, and sent a follow up Thank you note for that as well. You asked them if they were happy and satisfied with the product and service and hopefully they said yes. If they did not say yes... well we can cover customer complaints and resolutions in a different post because that is a whole topic in itself!

Another thing to remember in the sales process is that it is much easier to make a repeat customer out of a first time satisfied customer. A repeat customer is much easier to come by than a first time buyer. It takes more time and effort as well as advertising dollars to create a first time buyer. The repeat buyer hopefully has confidence, not only in the quality of your product but in your customer service skills. They feel relaxed and good about buying from you again if the first time was a pleasurable experience.

So everyone, go sell and remember to say to your customer, Thank you, I appreciate your business, not only once, but in each step of the sales process.