The Unofficial Second Life® Fashion and Shopping Blog

This topic has been on my mind since I read a fabulous post from Six Kennedy over at Appearance Mode on Sunday. Six has some really great tips on how customers can get the very best customer service from creators.

What I’ve been thinking about is the flip side - how to help creators deliver customer service to their buyers. And since the grid is down and I can’t post my pending skin review, this seemed like a good opportunity.

As with marketing, the rules for customer service in SL are very similar to the ones in real life. And as with marketing, a lot of businesses just don’t know how to do it well in the virtual world because it hasn’t been part of their business education in the real world.

If this is a topic that interests you, read on for a step-by-step approach to keeping customers happy, regardless of the outcome.

I have seen many, many customer service situations go AWOL because the customer is complaining and the vendor is immediately defensive. Being defensive delivers the psychological message that it really is your fault and that you’re just trying to dodge responsibility. The result is that the customer gets more frustrated, and that is never going to end well.

It is a much better approach to restate and acknowledge the customer’s issue, even if you cannot resolve it. Then you can work towards diffusing the situation, whether through education, refund, or replacement.

When It’s Your Fault

Although embarassing, the easiest customer service situations are actually the ones where it’s your fault, because you can quickly remedy the problem - a missing item, a mispackaged product, a script error. While according to the rules of the Second Life Jungle, “caveat emptor” means you could just ignore a valid customer complaint, it should go without saying that you should do everything in your power to make sure the customer ends up with exactly what they purchased, as advertised.

If the item is transfer, it is OK to ask for the item back before replacing it. If it is not transfer, do not nickle and dime your customer. Give them a new hot tub, an updated vendor, or whatever it is you messed up in the first place.

1. Acknowledge and Assure

“I am very sorry you are having problems with the Acme Super Widget. I am happy to help you, and will do whatever I can to help you resolve your issue.”

This lets the buyer know you are not going to blow them off, but doesn’t commit you to accepting fault or doing anything in particular until you have a better sense of what the issue is.

2. Establish Agreeement

“So the problem is that the Widget isn’t working on the voice channel?”

Make sure you restate the issue clearly and get the customer to agree that yes, that is the problem, so that you’re both in agreement on what needs to be fixed or replaced.

3. Empathise and Apologise

“I’m so sorry about that. It must be really annoying to not be able to deactivate it with voice!”

4. Define the Restitution

“I will be happy to replace your Widget with an updated version, but I will not have time to script it properly and test it until Friday. I am putting your name on a Post-It note, and will drop a new version on you Friday night. Is that OK?”

Let the customer know exactly what you will do and when to fix their problem. If you can drop a new item on them immediately, all the better, but if it will take some time, let them know exactly when their issue will be resolved.

In an instance where I had a product that failed about 15% of the time (depending on some settings) and I didn’t know how to fix it, and therefore didn’t have a resolution date, I simply refunded customers who were experiencing issues because I couldn’t define the restitution.

When It’s Not Your Fault

When something isn’t your fault, but the customer is unhappy, I would urge you to do anything possible to make them happy. This includes issuing refunds on transfer items. If a couch won’t fit in someone’s house, I will take it back and give them a refund as long as the item is transfer.

If it isn’t transfer, but there’s a specific issue that can be fixed I will usually offer to modify it free of charge or give them directions for doing so rather than give a refund - it works out better for both of us.

But there are circomstances when that isn’t an option and for whatever reasons, and in that uncomfortable situation, the customer still needs to be dealt with. The steps, though implemented slightly differently, are still the same.

1. Acknowledge and Assure

“I am very sorry you are having problems with the Acme Super Skin. I am happy to help you, and will do whatever I can to help you resolve your issue.”

2. Establish Agreeement

“So the problem is that you don’t like the way the Acme Super Skin looks on you?”

It is especially important in a situation when you know you are not going to offer a replacement or a refund that you are both in very specific agreement about what the issue is. In addition to making the customer feel their issue is being clearly understood, it also sets up the reason for declining to issue a refund or replacement.

If you know you’re willing to replace a malfunctioning set of scripted eyes, for example, but you and the customer are in agreement that he simply doesn’t like the colour of the eyes on his avatar, you’re going to be on sound ground for refusing a refund.

3. Empathise and Apologise

“I am sorry you didn’t see the NO TRANSFER/NO REFUND signs or try the free demo before buying. I can understand why that would lead you to be frustrated now.”

Find something - anything - to apologise for. Even if you are not going to be able to give them what they want and it isn’t your fault, you can apologise without accepting a responsibility that doesn’t lay with you. Remember that apologies are free.

Notice, though, that this is an apology that returns the responsibility for the complaint to the customer. It also acknowledges how the customer feels - which is legitimate, even if it’s their own fault.

4. Define the Restitution

“The reason we have those signs and demos in the store is because unfortunately, since you cannot return the skin to me, I cannot issue you a refund.”

This states without being defensive that there will be no reparation. Do not apologise for this, though, because it’s insincere - if you were that sorry, you could actually issue the refund, after all.

C. When It’s Just Insane

Customer service can, unfortunately, leap way over the edge and into the abyss of insanity. I have had situations where people have complained about products I didn’t make, the way flowers they bought from someone else looked on a coffee table they bought from me, or the fact that rezzing one of my objects put them over their prim limit.

1. Explain Why You Cannot Solve the Problem

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t make that product/don’t own that store/don’t know what else you have on your land.”

A lot of the time, the insane customer service requests are just consumer education issues. People don’t know how to see who an item’s creator is, or how land works, or whatever. A little education can go a long way in this kind of situation. While no, it’s not your issue, remember that people took the time to help you when you were new, and it doesn’t take long to help someone now that you’re an established player.

2. If at All Possible, Make a Helpful Suggestion

Nobody likes to hear that it is not your problem, even when it really isn’t your problem. If there is anything helpful you can do (point them towards the original creator, suggest a store where they might find better flowers, give them a set of flowers that doesn’t look pants) then it can be a good investment in your business PR to to do so.

Then again, I would rather give CrazyLady McNuttypants a $95L vase of flowers than have to deal with her, so I guess I’m a sucker for the easy out.