… or simply an online seller of any kind. Being an Etsy seller surely has lots of advantages, but it’s not always pink cotton candy and unicorns and flowers and rainbows. Remember a while back we talked about one of the biggest problems we have as sellers – shipping problems.
Shipping is definitely a major issue and it’s very stressful as it’s clearly out of our control as sellers, but also out of the client’s control too. So it’s definitely a bummer when a client tells you: “My package hasn’t arrived yet. What’s going on?”
*** Since we’ve already given a few tips on the article about shipping (see above), let’s move on to the next terrifying words you could hear from your clients: “I received the package, but i don’t like the items / the items don’t fit.” Awful, right? Here are some tips to prevent such a situation:
– make sure your shop policies are crystal clear on refunds. For example, if ordered items are personalized, could you actually make a refund? You’d be stuck with the items as you couldn’t resell them, you’d have lost time on making them, you’d have lost money on materials…
– make sure you double check every detail of the order before sending it. Make that a triple check!
– send as many photos as possible and as accurate as possible.
*** Another terrible situation is when a client tells you: “I received the package, but it is not what i ordered!” Etsy sellers are either full time online sellers or they also have a day job too. It is tiring dealing with a day job, Etsy promoting, talking to clients, being active on social media, working on orders, shipping orders, creating new designs, maybe also taking care of the family. It is understandable to make mistakes, so here are some tips in order to try and prevent something like this from happening:
– be organized. Even if you’re naturally not an organized person, make sure you have an organized mess there in your workshop!
– use labels. I’m not talking about something fancy, but simple post-it notes or something similar so that you’ll know at all times what is where.
– step by step and one by one. Don’t start working on more orders at once. If it’s deadlines that you’re worried about, you should consider extending the time frame within you tell your clients that you’ll ship their orders. Better safe than sorry.
*** The final terrible situation you can find yourself into as an Etsy seller is having your client tell you: “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to order anymore.” Even though there aren’t any apparent losses depending on the exact time the client has decided not to order anymore, we – as sellers – know exactly what and how much we lost: time, money and materials. Here are our tips:
– communicate. Try and find out what caused the client to change his mind and work your way from there.
– do not send hateful messages to the client. Yes, he might have caused you to waste time and money, but hateful messages won’t bring them back and won’t do any good either. Quite the opposite actually.
– stay positive and don’t get too upset about it. You’ll need that energy for the other billion possible clients who will actually order from you!
Feel free to add your own tips and tricks for these situations or maybe share similar awful situations you had to go through and how you handled them!
The Funky Studio team wishes you, as always, a colorful day!
PS: This is part of the blog articles i’m “rescuing” from the old blog.
