I am feeling a bit of discouragement after getting my first bad review on ETSY. I made a legitimate mistake and I processed an order for one of my laptop bags in the wrong size. The person who received it said she loved the design but gave me a 3 star review because the bag did not fit her laptop. She mentioned that it did fit her husband's laptop and that he is going to use it instead which is great to hear. I thought about how to respond to this and I wanted to figure out a way to get her to remove the negative review. Here is what I did. First I sent her a message stating the following:
Dear Buyer,
I am so sorry that the laptop bag did not fit your laptop. I made an honest mistake and selected the wrong size when I was processing the order.
I would like to send something to you free of charge from my shop to make up for this. If you would like to pick something, please let me know what you would like. Otherwise, I will select something and send this out shortly.
I am just getting started with my shop and the negative review has a major impact on my success so if you could possibly consider removing it, I would sincerely appreciate it. I understand if you are not comfortable doing this as well.
Best,
Jen
AGirlFromTribeca
My next action was to fully refund her for the bag and then I waited for a response. Unfortunately, it has be a couple of days and I have heard nothing back.
The 3 star review is at the top of my shop profile and sticks out like a sore thumb. Every time I see it, I cringe. Maybe this is just a way for me to learn the hard way. I will definitely be double checking and triple checking all of my orders before I process them. I did go back and review all of my other orders of a similar type and made sure everything looked correct.
My next action, which I will do when I finish writing this post, is to pick out something from my shop and send it to her as a gift My hope is that things will shift and I will see the review disappear.
If you would like to visit m ETSY shop here is a link AGirlFromTribeca The name is based on where I live and do my work. Tribeca is a fabulous neighborhood in downtown Manhattan buzzing with new fashion and great shops!
If any of you have had similar challenges with ETSY or have ideas on how I might be able to get this review removed or turned around, I would love to hear from you.
Jen Weiss, Artist and ESTY Shop Owner
Update
After I wrote the blog post above, I did send my customer a small gift which was one of my face masks. I heard back from her and here is what she had to say...
"That’s very kind of you. I really do like the design. I would have sent it back but as we had another way to use it at home there was no need."
After I saw this, I went back to check her review and sure enough, she changed it to 5 stars and I was thrilled!
One of the most important aspects of running an ETSY shop is customer service. When you make a mistake, you need to admit it and apologize and do whatever it takes to correct the situation quickly and make that person happy. You have to show them how important they are to you and that is what I did. It felt really good to turn things around with this customer and I will do the same thing again and again. I also learned to be more careful when I process my orders. This was all just a great learning experience for me.
Being an ETSY shop owner is fun and exciting but also a lot of hard work and dedication. You have to be willing to ride the ups and downs and not get discouraged. I have heard that a lot of people give up to early and too easily and that will not be me. I understand that my road to success will be a a marathon and not a sprint.
I would love to hear from anyone who may have had a similar experience or wants to share about the importance of customer service.
Have a great day!
Jen
AGirlFromTribeca
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