Lauren: Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Publish & Prosper. This is episode number 92. And today we're going to be talking about a part of my job that I try very hard not to think about. Or not my job, because it's not my current job, thank goodness. Part of my career and my lifetime in careers that I try very hard not to think about, but is an inevitable part of it anyway. And that's customer service.

Matt: I wasn't sure where you were going with that for a minute. I was sitting here like wait, what is she about to say? 

Lauren: For somebody – 

Matt: Cause I thought we were – Yeah. 

Lauren: Yeah. For somebody who is just such a massive introvert and also has a chronic case of RBF, I have consistently found myself in customer facing or customer service providing roles, careers, whatever. 

Matt: Yeah. But I think, I think most people do at some point in their life, whether it’s –  

Lauren: I think most people should – 

Matt: – early on or even later in life. I mean, no matter what your first or second job is, or for some of us, third, fourth and fifth jobs. I mean, there's usually…like, my first real job outside of working for my dad growing up was I – if I remember correctly in a restaurant. So I mean, that's almost the hardest kind of customer service. 

Lauren: Oh, for sure. 

Matt: Yeah. I don’t know. 

Lauren: Yeah, I'm – personally, I am of the opinion that everybody should be required to work for at least a year in some kind of customer service... 

Matt: Oh, I agree, yeah. 

Lauren: Role. 

Matt: A hundred percent, yeah. 

Lauren: Because it really, it puts a lot of things in perspective. 

Matt: It's like bootcamp for life. 

Lauren: Yes. Yes it is. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: But for those of you that have not had any kind of customer support position or experience with that, and find yourself in a place where you are now responsible for providing customer service and providing a top tier customer experience with your ecommerce store as you are selling direct for your brand or business, we're here to help. 

Matt: Well, I'm going to rephrase that a little bit. 

Lauren: Okay. 

Matt: Because I think that there are people that have had customer service experience that get to something like having their own bookstore or storefront or website where they sell items, whether they're books or other things with those, but it's a different, it's kind of a different ball game. 

Lauren: Oh, for sure. 

Matt: So I'll rephrase that a little bit –

 Lauren: Okay. 

Matt: – from what you said. I know what you meant by that, but whether or not you've had any customer service experience in your life in terms of a role, I think these things will help anybody who is, you know, operating their own digital storefront and finds themselves in a situation where they are selling something to somebody else online that could potentially have an issue. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: I think, I mean, that is also a very, very fair point that this is a totally different ball game than something like working retail or working in a restaurant or working that kind of – 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: – customer service. 

Matt: And people also forget about it. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: We talk about selling direct all the time. We actually don't talk about this topic much, but we get asked about it a lot. Because we'll have people ask us at a show or in an email or something like that hey by the way, you know, if somebody gets one of my books and it's damaged, what do we do? 

Lauren: Yeah.

Matt: Or if somebody has a question, what are my customers – like, what do I do? Like, I don't think that's talked about enough. Yeah, there are a lot of benefits to selling direct and maintaining that customer journey all within your own ecosystem, but there are responsibilities on your part. And one of those is that customer service aspect. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Absolutely. And I think that there's also that element of providing customer service for your own brand or your own business is probably very different than doing it for a company that you work for.

Matt: Yes. 

Lauren: You know? I mean, you've got different stake –

Matt: For most people, yeah. 

Lauren: – in the game. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: And you've got different responsibilities. You've got different levels of flexibility with what you're allowed to do. And it's a very different experience. So yeah, you're right. Even if you do have a lifetime of customer experience…experience, customer service experience.

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: This might be something that's just a whole different beast for you. 

Matt: Yeah. And it's not hard, by the way. There's just a few basic things that if you can master it, you can minimize the amount of customer service inquiries you'll get. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: And you'll look like a customer service superhero. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: So that's what we're going to talk about today. 

Lauren: Yeah, I think it's really, it really boils down to just being proactive, being thorough and setting yourself up as much as possible to have, whether it's systems or workflows or whatever it is to help you in place, to really minimize the amount of work that you're going to have to do so that when you do have times where somebody reaches out to you and needs help, you are available and prepared to provide the help that they need and to do so in a way that is hopefully going to result in you still having a happy, loyal customer. 

Matt: Yes. Yeah. 

Lauren: Yeah. What's the worst? What do you think the worst customer service job is that you've ever had? 

Matt: Oh gosh. Man, you know, this is going to sound crazy, although maybe not. And I had a lot of jobs where customer service was a key component of it, if not the main component of it all through, obviously, college and even in my twenties, and… But I, I think the job where I felt like it was the hardest to me was when I worked at Disney. 

Lauren: Oh, I have no doubt. 

Matt: I mean. 

Lauren: I believe that entirely. 

Matt: It's not like it was constant, but when there, there was a quote-unquote issue with something, and then back in those days that there was no terminology like Karen or something like that, like.

Lauren: RIght. 
Matt: But I mean, there were quite a few people… Yeah, it was just, it was exponentially harder. Because when you're in an environment like that where it's supposed to be the happiest place on earth, you are somewhat hamstrung in what your options and solutions are when somebody has an issue, especially if it's a ridiculous issue.

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: I mean, I'm not going to pull any punches here. There are times where it was just, it was just straight up stupid what they were asking for, or what they were upset about. It was just like, you're just trying to be that type of person. Which in other situations you can sometimes get out of that easier, there are more solutions. But working at Disney, there are very few exit doors, solutions, options. You just kind of have to I don't know, smile and make them happy the best that you can. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: Sometimes that was really, really tough. 

Lauren: I can't even begin to imagine. 

Matt: Yeah. It was, I always forget about that. So that's pretty wild. 

Lauren: Yeah, I'm sure. 

Matt: But you know, I mean, I've worked in, in retail clothing. I've worked in restaurants, retail clothing was also an interesting one though, actually. 

Lauren: Yeah that – the only time that I worked in a clothing retail was for like six months in high school. I worked at Limited Too in the mall.

Matt: I remember those. 

Lauren: Because I very specifically wanted to work somewhere that I was not going to be required to wear the clothing that I was getting at the store. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: But I was dealing with preteen girls and their moms and that was, that was…that was a time for sure. 

Matt: Yeah. I mean, just imagine how much worse it's gotten these days. 

Lauren: Oh, I can't. Yeah. 

Matt: Like, obviously I go shopping and I have kids and sometimes the level of entitlement I see on some of these parents or these kids is just like, whoa.

Lauren: Yeah.

Matt: Like we should probably move on. 

Lauren: Yeah. No, I could do this all day. I didn't mean to derail us that much. 

Matt: No, that's okay. 

Lauren: I was just curious. 

[7:35] - Tip #1: Set Expectations in Advance

Matt: Well, let's just jump right into the first of the five tips that we're going to talk about here, which is you really need to set, or level set, expectations in advance, you know? 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: So throughout various places on your site or other areas that you communicate, whether it's social media or things like that, transparency is the key, right?

Lauren: Transparency, absolutely. I think just clarity and transparency in both ways. I think that there's a lot of times where we see people try to like… If you're trying to be clever with your wording and you wind up not being super clear about what your product is, or you're trying to think outside the box and show like, here's a really cool image that is my product, but it's like, not actually an accurate image of the product. 

Matt: Yeah. I'm actually glad you said that because there are so many ecommerce experiences now, brands that we like, places we shop where it's all print-on-demand drop ship. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: Which is fine. But I know from experience that when you're doing that, the distributor that you're using or the provider that you're using, the print-on-demand provider, often will provide the mockups for you. And they're, usually pretty accurate, but what a lot of people do nowadays is they're using AI to generate mockups. Oftentimes they're wildly off from what the actual product will look like. And so in that instance, you're just setting yourself up for a headache. So yeah, I think when you're talking about images specifically being very careful that whenever possible, always use like, real photographic images that you've edited to fit the size and space of your product pages or your website. And very little to no editing on things like colors, you know, of the product or shape or things like that. Because you want your customer to have the most accurate depiction of the product that they're purchasing. And this, this includes books. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: Don't have some AI generated mockup of your book cover, whatever necessarily, if you can avoid it. Just snap a really nice, clean, tasteful photo of your book, crop it to fit the size that you need and put it up there. 

Lauren: I think especially when it comes to images, if you're operating under the impression that, oh yeah, I know the book that I showed in the photo is the casewrap, because I used my casewrap hardcover for the photo, but the product that I'm selling is the paperback edition of it. And it says that in the copy, in the product description on the website… people don't read. People don't read. If you have a photo on your website, even if you clarify in the copy in the product description, they're not going to read that half the time.

Matt: The irony there is so insane. 

Lauren: I know. You're buying – I know, I know. But things like that all the time. Or I'll see people, they'll use a nice AI generated product image from their book or like, an edited template or something. And they'll show a book in the photo that is like a 300 page paperback. And then the – their actual book itself is only a hundred pages. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: And the product that, that arrives in the mail is just not what the customer was expecting based on what they saw. 

Matt: Here's another one. Don't call it an ebook if you're going to give them a five page PDF download. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: I'm so sick of seeing that. 

Lauren: That's so fair. 

Matt: So the point here is transparency with information, right? Call it what it is. Be honest and transparent. Give every bit of detail that you can to help somebody make an informed purchase. Do not be afraid that if you give them full and accurate details that they will then not purchase the product. 

Lauren: Right.

Matt: If they don't, great, you just dodged a bullet. It's unfortunate, but you just dodged a bullet. 

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: You don't want somebody to buy something under false pretenses. That's just a headache you don't need. Again, product imagery. Let's make sure that the image fits the product, that you're not using some wild, crazy AI generated image of your product, your book, and it is in no way, shape, or form accurate or representative of that product or book. 

Lauren: And product description to go with it. 

Matt: Yes. 

Lauren: Like not just an image –

Matt: That’s right. 

Lauren: – or just copy. But provide both, and both should be clear and obvious and as thorough as necessary. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: Agreed. 

Matt: I think you may have said this, but if not another one, especially within books, right? Be very clear that if this is a pre-order, that it's a pre-order and where possible, give an estimated ship date.

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: We've all bought pre-order products, whether they're books or shirts or collectibles or whatever. The worst thing is that it says pre-order, but there's no estimated ship date. That's a terrible idea. Guarantee you, because I've sent this email before, but I guarantee you're gonna get an email a month and a half later with somebody going hey, I pre-ordered this a month and a half ago. Like, when are these shipping? You know what I mean? Make it very clear anywhere and everywhere you can what the estimated ship date is. Not delivery date, what the estimated ship date is. And you will cut down drastically the number of emails, or support tickets you would get if you're using a ticketing system, around when is my item going to ship? 

Lauren: Yeah. They did a really interesting job with this with the pre-launch of the new Taylor Swift album. 

Matt: Oh, here we go. 

Lauren: When they first announced the album, when I was at Disneyland watching World of Color and a new Taylor Swift album was announced and it was the greatest five minutes of my life. They had not yet announced the release date, but even then the pre-orders on the website still had a date attached to the pre-order. And it just said, it very specifically said, will ship on or before…let's say October 13th, or whatever it was. But then said this is not the release date. The estimated shipping date was provided to make it clear that this was a pre-order. 

Matt: Right. 

Lauren: And then when they did ultimately announce the release date, it was October 3rd. So it was close. Like, they picked a date that was close to that window. 

Matt: Right. And that's the best – 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: – that you can do, right? 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: On a pre-order sometimes, or, you know, it's the same as if you're doing like, a Kickstarter or something like that, where there's a print fulfillment component to that. You know, you're not always going to know the exact ship date, but you will know the general window, right? And then you can always come back in and update it when you have a more accurate date, as well as release a flood of emails to the purchasers to let them know, hey, I've got a date from the manufacturer, you know, whatever that might be. You can now expect these to start shipping within the next five days or whatever that is. 

Lauren: Yes. And I also want to emphasize that this is relevant, not just with pre-orders, but just any product in general, especially if you are somebody who's working with print-on-demand. So if we're talking about the holiday season and we know that there are shipping delays and just a lot of unexpected shipping issues around the holiday season. And your carrier is saying that its fulfillment time right now is about two to three weeks. If you value optimism over transparency and you promise your customers that they're going to get their book in two weeks, they're going to be annoyed when they don't, and they're going to be frustrated when they don't. And they're going to reach out to you and say, hey, where's my book? But if you say to them, it's going to be three weeks and they get their book in two and a half weeks instead of three, that's a good thing. 

Matt: Under promise and over deliver. 

Lauren: There you go. 

Matt: Yeah.

Lauren: That's much nicer than my, my phrasing of value transparency over optimism. 

Matt: Well I mean, you know. You'd like to do both. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: You'd like to be transparent and an optimist, but that's not always possible. Nonetheless, right? 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Under promise, over deliver. In everything really, which is essentially what you're saying. You know, it's not always the funnest, most upbeat, sexy thing to say like, oh, it's going to be three weeks potentially. But what's worse than that is two and a half weeks later, somebody sending you an email like, where's my thing? Or a hundred emails coming in with the same thing. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: To that end, one of the other things that we see that people aren't always transparent about is having a return policy. Or I don't offer refunds or returns. But understanding what your comfort level is and what your ability is to take in returns and offer refunds is really important. And then to be transparent and convey that in a way that is again, very clear, legible, and makes sense for your customers is super important. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Yeah. So again, make sure that you're setting expectations on the front end, right? As they're going through the site, it's very clear what they're purchasing, when they could expect to receive it, what your policies are for returns and refunds, if there's anything that's specific to that product that might cause it to be delayed in shipping or some sort of seasonality component there. Making sure all of that is front and center, I think, is the first step in making sure your inbox isn't flooded with a bunch of Karens. 

Lauren: Yeah, just help your customers make the most informed decision possible before they decide to become your customer. And then at the very least you've covered your bases and you can say, oh no, I did –

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: I did tell you this. I did tell you that it was going to take six weeks for the product to ship. 

[15:56] - Tip #2: Publish an FAQ Page

Matt: Well, and one of the best ways to do that is with a… 

Lauren: FAQ page

Matt: An FAQ page. That's right. Taking all of those most commonly asked questions. You can find an FAQ page template –

Lauren: Perhaps – 

Matt: – out there – 

Lauren: – frequently asked questions? 

Matt: Right. Frequently asked questions. I guess I could do a CAQ page, commonly asked questions. 

Lauren: Oh yeah.

Matt: FAQ sounds better. 

Lauren: It does. 

Matt: Or FAQs. But nonetheless, understanding what those frequent or common questions are and just go ahead and knock that out up front. And make sure there's links to your FAQs everywhere. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Make sure people understand like hey, you got questions about shipping? Check out this article in our FAQ page. Making sure that people understand like, this is where you go to preemptively, proactively understand our policies, what you can expect from a purchase, things like that. 

Lauren: Think about your own customer experience, your own shopping experience, anytime like that, that you're the one going through all of this. For me, I try to avoid talking to people as much as possible. Also, I want my answers as quickly as possible. I don't want to have to wait three to five business days for customer support to email me back. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: When I have an issue. So if I have a concern about something, if I have an issue about something, the first thing I'm always gonna do is go look for an FAQ page and see if I can find the answer to this question without me having to reach out to anybody. 

Matt: I tend to go look at my last email from them.

Lauren: That too. 

Matt: But if I've already deleted that or there's nothing in there, my next stop is the FAQ. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: So either way it is extremely important and inevitably you're going to have somebody at some point that has a question about something.

Lauren: Yes.

Matt: If you can handle that without you having to intervene as a human being, you're going to be happier and quite frankly, they're going to be happier. Because the minute they have to actually craft an email to you or pick up a phone or go on a social media channel and send you a DM, their frustration level is already heightened. So being able to, again, preemptively take care of that, I think is probably the best thing you could do for yourself. 

Lauren: I absolutely agree. And I also think that you want to be intentional with how you build this page, starting with how you represent the questions and answers that you're including on the page here. Because if you want customers to, if you want your customers to find this information, you have to think about it, how they're going to phrase it. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: You know? 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: So you have to think about like, if they're sitting on Google right now and they're thinking, I need to figure out when my book is going to ship from Lulu. How do I type this into Google in a way that's going to give me an answer or link me to their website where the answer, where I'm going to find the answer

Matt: Well, yeah. I mean, again, I don't know how often somebody would be on Google searching for an answer to a question about your store or your — however, that being said, stranger things have happened. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: And absolutely people do that. And so yes, if you've done a really good job with your FAQs page. And again, don't rely on just your post purchase emails for questions to be answered. Handle this upfront. 

Lauren: We’ll get to that.

Matt: Yeah. If you've done a good job on the FAQs page and somebody does happen to go to ChatGPT or Google and say shipping times from Lulu on hardcover books, you want your help articles and your FAQs to be the first thing that pops up. Not some disgruntled person that, you know, made a YouTube video ten years ago because their book actually got delivered to their neighbor's house and they never figured that out, so they took to the YouTube to talk trash about it. You want your stuff to come up first. So that is a good point. And to that end, you know, what are some of the things that you should have on that FAQ page? 

Lauren: That is a great question. And the short answer to that is going to be as much information as you feel is necessary and relevant to help your customers. I – Personally, this is going to come as a shock to everybody listening, that has been listening to me yap for hours on end for two years straight, but I am an over-explaimer. I provide – it's definitely an ADHD thing actually, but I will provide as much information as possible, just in case I didn't anticipate any questions that you have. So I want to make sure that I'm really clear about what I'm saying

Matt: Alright. 

Lauren: You know. 

Matt: But in the interest of time, if you had to rattle off six, seven, eight things, what would be the top things? 

Lauren: Oh, well definitely I would do your order processing timeline and your shipping timeline. 

Matt: Yep. 

Lauren: I would also explain the difference between those two things. This is something that is relevant to print-on-demand more than it is to some other products and businesses, but your customers need to understand that if they choose overnight shipping as a shipping option, that doesn't mean they're going to get their book tomorrow. Because that's – overnight shipping is not including the production time. 

Matt: That's right. 

Lauren: So the more you can explain about that… If you have the opportunity, if you are using Lulu and you want to say something like, here's a link to the life of a book video that shows you how a book is printed, made, and shipped. So you understand everything that goes into this. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Something like that, that you can provide that information, help your customers understand. 

Matt: Well, again, putting a positive spin on something that is sometimes looked at as a negative. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: So forget about, you know, Lulu and print-on-demand books for a second. If you're selling something that's handcrafted that you make, right? And it typically takes, I don't know, three to five days for you to make it. Put a little video clip of you actually making one of those items and people can literally connect like a real human being with that process and understand oh, okay. We've gotten so Amazon lately where we just expect everything overnight and not even they can fulfill that half the time anymore. So putting a very human element to your product, the production time that it takes, that really helps temper people's expectations. 

Lauren: Absolutely it does. I mean, also this is – you're serving multiple purposes right now, because you're creating an opportunity for you to create some social content or video, YouTube, whatever content. 

Matt: Yeah.

Lauren: You're giving yourself some content ideation there. You're also providing some humanity and reminding your customers that you are a person that is creating this product. And you're cross-promoting whatever channels you're gonna share this content on. If you are gonna embed it directly in your website, sure. But if you wanna say instead like, I made a really cool video about how all this stuff gets made and you can watch it on my YouTube channel here. Now you're getting a fun little promo opportunity for that. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: But I also really think that that's like, very valuable to have that kind of behind the scenes. Or to have that to put like, contextualize that. I was watching a TikTok recently where somebody was talking about the difference between how you consume content once you become a creator yourself and you understand… Or how you consume content, how you consume products, how you consume whatever. Like the difference between going to a restaurant and being served dinner that somebody else made, versus making your own dinner – 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: – and understanding like, exactly how much time and work went into all of it.

Matt: Yeah. Some of the other things you should have on your FAQ page, if you offer different carrier options, list those out and what their typical or average delivery times are. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: You should have something about your return refund exchange policy. If there are digital assets that you provide, you know, if somebody can buy an ebook directly from you or, you know, a PDF download or whatever those things are, make sure you have some instructions there because undoubtedly you will get emails asking how does this work, or it's not working for me, or why isn't this download opening, things like that. Other common errors or troubleshooting types of things if, if something you sell is not as simple and straightforward as a book. And then lastly, you're going to want to have contact methods. It never hurts to give people an expectation of when they could potentially see a response from you. If you don't put that there, everybody's going to expect a response within five minutes. So if you put something there along the lines of we answer customer service inquiries between the hours of nine to five, Monday through Friday, Eastern Standard Time, that really helps. Or, you know, you could do something that says, we tried to respond to inquiries within three hours on business days – 

Lauren: Yup. 

Matt: – or something along those lines, but give that expectation. 
Lauren: Yeah, absolutely. And we'll talk a little bit more about that later in the episode, but I definitely wanted to just make sure we included that as you're building out your FAQ page, you want to provide your clear customer support guidelines on there.

Matt: Yeah. And if you want a really good example of a really good FAQ page, especially in the world of publishing and books, go look at Joanna Penn's. For years we've kind of used hers as a baseline or a standard. She does a really good job of all of those things. 

Lauren: Yeah, she does. I will link it in the show notes for sure. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: So that you guys can check that out. 

[24:28] - Tip #3: Be Proactive with Transactional Emails

Matt: The third thing is you want to be extremely proactive about, you know, your customer service and your retention and loyalty efforts. So it's all fine and good to put a lot of great things on your website, or have a really great FAQ page. But as Lauren alluded to earlier, all irony aside, people don't read. 

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: So they'll look at pictures, they'll click the buy now, and then they sit back and wait and hopefully ten minutes later their product shows up. And that's just not the reality – 

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: – of the world that we live in. So people often won't read a lot of those things unless they absolutely have to, or they have a need for it. So you need to have something after the fact, post-sale, post-transaction, but nonetheless being proactive about those things. 

Lauren: Yeah. Proactive about – cause actually Matt himself pointed this out at the beginning of this episode, or before we started recording, that so far, everything we've talked about is proactive. This is all proactive with your customer support solutions. And that is totally fair. Proactive with your post-purchase customer support, in this particular part of what we're talking about here. So basically using those transactional emails that we've talked about in the past. We've talked about them, Laurie and I have talked about them a little bit in other episodes. This is your opportunity to make sure that your customers understand what's important to them. Because there is absolutely that we live in this kind of place where people are only paying attention to what's relevant to them. And even if you said four different times on your website that this is how you will receive this product, and when, they didn't process that until after they've been the one to purchase the product and now it's relevant to them. So the best thing that you can do is to send that unique, tailored-to-them information directly into their inbox. 

Matt: Yeah. Most ecommerce platforms that you would use those days have a lot of this stuff already built in for you. You can just go in and tailor it to your brand and your products. And that's typically already set up and you can either toggle it on or off. And then most of them also have the ability for you to build these out into a more robust ecosystem of emails and things. But having a post purchase email flow is extremely critical. Don't just let an email fire automatically that says hey, here's your confirmation, you bought this product on this date for this much. Use that as an opportunity. Like, that's the most open email, by the way. 

Lauren: Yep. 

Matt: – in an inbox, is a confirmation email. 

Lauren: I believe that. 

Matt: It is the highest open rate of any kind of email on the planet. It's almost always going to be opened. So why would you not take that opportunity to put important stuff in there or other things, you know, marketing types of content? Because also, by the way, if they've not subscribed to your marketing email flows, you can't send them marketing email flows. So the only chance you have to put any type of marketing stuff in an email is that confirmation email. 

Lauren: Yeah. I want to be really clear about the fact that this is a different type of email. 

Matt: That’s right. 

Lauren: We're not talking about your newsletter. We're not talking about your marketing promoting a new product, re-engagement, anything like that. These are transactional emails that are directly related to a customer making a purchase from your website. 

Matt: Yeah. So again, your confirmation email’s a great way to say thank you, I appreciate you supporting my brand or my book or my product or whatever that might be. This is another great place to reiterate if this was a pre-order or even if it wasn't if it's a print-on-demand product, what are the production timelines that they can expect? If there are estimated shipping windows, you know, if this is actually a shipping email, there'll be kind of tracking in there, hopefully. You can put all kinds of other things in there. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: A link to your FAQs would be great. 

Lauren: Yeah. Yeah. This is where you put that maybe some next steps while you're waiting for your book to get there. Here are some things that you can do in the meantime. Things like follow me on social or come check out my website or download this, like, reader's guide for free so that you can sign up for my newsletter so I can send you this, whatever. Like, this is your opportunity to do that while also providing the information that is going to solve potentially some of their problems. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: You're also obviously going to want to have once your book ships if you can do tracking information, but even if they don't choose trackable shipping, you should still be able to get a shipping confirmation, right? Your order has shipped. 

Matt: Well, you could get a confirmation that shipped, but I would go so far as to say just a pro tip here, never offer any shipping options – 

Lauren: Agreed. 

Matt: – that aren't trackable these days. Every carrier is a mess right now and it's unfortunate, but at Lulu, we get so many inquiries about where's my book. They've already received the tracking number from us. They've clicked on the tracking number. They see that UPS has decided to take their book on a US tour, literally coast to coast. In that instance our hands are tied. But if they didn't have that tracking number they wouldn't have a clue where their book was and neither would we. You know, in other instances it's probably a miracle – 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: – to have that insight into where your book is. And the cheapest trackable option is literally like in most cases for a singular book fifty cents more than like standard media mail or something. 

Lauren: Right.

Matt: You know, it's not, it's not exorbitant and it's on the customer anyways. I've never bought something where I went, I wish there was a cheaper non-trackable option of shipping here. Never. 

Lauren: Literally never. 

Matt: Never. Now there are times where shipping I've looked at that total and been like, that's a little much, but okay. But I've never once said, give me a cheaper non-trackable option. 

Lauren: That's going to bring me to my last point with this post purchase email flow, is if you have the…if you have the ability to if you have the functionality to also send a delivery confirmation email. I am a big fan of those. As a consumer I am a big fan of delivery confirmation emails because that way I know if the brand is telling me your package was delivered, your order was delivered and I can't find it, then I know something's wrong. 

Matt: I'll do you one better. 

Lauren: Okay. 

Matt: And Laurie’s going to love me for this. 

Lauren: Oh. 

Matt: I love these days – 

Lauren: Same. 

Matt: – I get a delivery confirmation via SMS. 

Lauren: Yep. 

Matt: So I am signed up for SMS in most brands that I purchase things from, I don't necessarily get their marketing stuff, but every time I purchase something, it's shipped and it's delivered. I get that SMS. 

Lauren: Same. Same. And I think that's, that's super relevant. It's super helpful. I think actually other than the Lost Bros, every single SMS list that I'm on, I signed up for originally – 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: – for the delivery notifications. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: And then, you know, they just folded me into their marketing as well, which I, you know, that's worth – 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: – that's worth the trade for sure. But yeah, absolutely. Highly recommend those. I do also think there are some other emails that you might want to consider including in this. If you do a delivery email, maybe a post delivery check-in. I always love getting those that are like, hey just like, you know, your order was delivered, did everything turn out okay? Is everything what you expected? If you have any issues, here are the next steps for how to deal with that. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Here's a link to my FAQ page. Here are instructions for how to reach out to me directly and the expectations for how you can, or when you'll expect to hear back from me with any customer service inquiries, things like that. 

Matt: Yup. 

Lauren: And then maybe if you liked this, leave me your review, thanks so much –  

Matt: Yeah, not quite customer service – 

Lauren: – check out this other – I know.

Matt: – more self-serving. But – 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: But – 

Lauren: But just like a gentle…

Matt: – understanding that those transactional emails, you know, they fall outside of a lot of the regulatory eyeballs and compliance eyeballs because they're not considered marketing emails. It is your opportunity if they're not in your marketing list to get that review or something else. So yeah.

Lauren: Yup. 

[32:07] - Tip #4: Set Clear Expectations for Customer Support

Matt: Alright, fourth tip. 

Lauren: Yep. 

Matt: We really want to make sure that they–they being your customers, your fans, your readers, your purchasers, whatever–they understand where, when, and how they can get in touch with you, communicate with you. 

Lauren: Yes. Yes. And we have alluded to this or mentioned this twice now in this episode. So let's get into it a little more with your specific guidelines for providing customer support. But I actually, I want to take a step back from that before we even talk about how to clearly communicate that to your customers. I think it's really important for any small business owners, solopreneur, content entrepreneur, whatever, to have these guidelines in place for yourself. 

Matt: Yes. 

Lauren: Like, this is worth – it is absolutely worth taking time to say, okay, here are my rules for myself about how I'm going to handle customer support. I am only going to handle customer support inquiries Monday to Friday, nine to five EST. Even if something comes in at 5:02, that is tomorrow Lauren's problem. I'm not going to answer emails on Sunday. Or maybe, maybe you're going to set the boundary of… I will not provide any support on social media. My social channels are not my support channels. I have a Google Form built in on my website, people can submit that, and I'm only going to accept customer service requests that are submitted through that form. Whatever it is, create these guidelines for yourself and commit to them. Because when you start breaking them, you're setting expectations for your customers and for yourself. And those fall apart very quickly. 

Matt: Which, by the way, a lot of people will hear that and go, well, why wouldn't you offer support on social media? Cause a lot of brands do. But a lot of brands don't. And the reason for that is not because I want to keep our social media accounts clean for just marketing stuff. It's tracking, right? 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: So when you've got social support requests coming in, you've got requests coming on your website, you've got them coming in via email, you've got them coming in and other channels. That all starts to get quite confusing. And so before you know it, you've now got a post that you just found online where somebody's like, hey, reached out to so-and-so on Instagram. They said they'd take care of this and they never did. Well, it's cause you forgot about it, because there was no tracking. There was no – so having support issues coming in via social is not a great idea. Now, again, a lot of brands have big teams and people who focus solely on social support, and that's fine. But for the average solopreneur or small business owner or creator, it's not a great idea to be taking support requests on social media. 

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: And as long as you're transparent and clear upfront about that, like, hey, I don't do this and here's why. So please shoot me an email at support at whatever, or go to the website and fill out the form and it'll create a ticket. It's for that customer's best interest and their safety and security that the ticket will get worked, the problem will get solved. There is tracking, there's accountability. That's one of the biggest things with customer service is accountability. So I just wanted to put that out there that I think oftentimes as creators, solopreneurs, small business owners, we think we have to be everywhere at all times, not only for creating content, but also for supporting people. And that's just not true. 

Lauren: It's not true. And it's not sustainable. 

Matt: No. 

Lauren: You're going to burn yourself out so fast if you do that. I think another thing that a lot of people don't realize if they haven't had this experience on their own, when it comes to larger businesses that are providing support on social media they have software on the backend. 

Matt: That's right. 

Lauren: That is aggregating all of those DMS from the different channels into like one giant support tool. If you are somebody who is a solopreneur, who's doing this on a budget and you are manually answering DMS on Instagram and on X and on – I can't believe I just said X – and on TikTok and on Facebook, like you're manually doing those within all of those channels, that's not sustainable. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: So I will say if you're like, okay, great, how do I do that then? How do I not provide support on social media? Obviously we're not encouraging you to ignore support requests that come through on social channels. I would say set up your like clearly defined guidelines for how to get in touch with you. Here's how you can contact me. Here's a link to this form on my website, or here's the email that you can use to reach out to me. Have that clearly visible on your social channels, on your profile, or in your profiles in a pinned post, whatever. And most, I don't know about all of them, but I think there are at least a few of the social channels these days. You can set up an automatic response to DMs and you can set up…not, I'm not talking about a chatbot, I'm not talking about using AI to answer people's inquiries for them. 

Matt: Yet. 

Lauren: But you can set up basically like an out of office message. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: That is an auto response that is, if you're reaching out with a customer support request, I am unable to answer those on social media, but here's a link to this form on my website, or here's the email address that you can reach out to me at instead. 

Matt: Yeah. I think the point is don't feel bad that you're not making yourself available everywhere –

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: – at all times. It's just not sustainable. It's not smart. And if frankly, somebody is not okay with that, then again, they don't deserve to be your customer. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: You're dodging a bullet there. They can keep moving, so. Now on the heels of what Lauren just said, there are other types of tools that do involve AI that will help you handle some of these things. If you're getting enough inquiries coming in where you need some help, there are options. There are other things you can do. One of those is an AI chatbot. Not all of them are terrible. None of them are going to be as good as a human being, or somebody that understands your product, your business, your service as well as you do, or a human does. But nonetheless, they can certainly help with all the small annoying requests like where's my product, when they clearly receive a tracking number. Making sure you lean into those, automated responses work best when you at least include what next steps would be after that. And when they could expect to hear back from you. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: The other thing is making sure that in your FAQs, these guidelines, these support criteria are really well laid out, as well as again, your response time. So if the expectation that you want to set is that they'll hear back from you within 24 hours, right? On a business week or whatever in general, doesn't matter. Then you need to make that very clear. And so that way, if anybody has any issues with that, you'll always have that to fall back on and say, well, I get this might not be optimal for you, but this is how I run my business and this is how I'm able to continue running my business, is by making sure that these hours, these times are where we're kind of situated. 

Lauren: One of my favorite things to remind myself of all the time and that I think is always very important to remember is that none of us are in the business of saving lives. Your customer is not going to drop dead if you don't answer their support email within the first ten minutes of them sending it. 

Matt: Oh, I don't know if I would say that. I mean, somebody might be creating content that is medically related. 

Lauren: But not time-sensitive medically-related. 

Matt: Yeah, I get what you’re saying. Yeah, they're going to survive.

Lauren: It’s not – 

Matt: If you don't respond in ten minutes, they're going to survive. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: Like if the inquiry is where's my book and you don't get back to them, you know, in an hour or two hours, they're not – they're going to be fine. 

Lauren: Yeah. Even worst case scenario, it is something time sensitive. Like my promo code, like you sent me a promo code and it's not working. Okay. You have the ability to extend that discount for them. 

Matt: Yeah, 

Lauren: You can still fix it. You can still – it's okay. It's okay if it takes you 24 hours to get back to them. 

[39:38] - Tip #5: Know Your Limits and Your Support Options

Matt: Which, that leads us into the last one. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Number five, which is knowing your options and your limits. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: So talking about what you just said by the way is you're the business owner. You're the, the solopreneur, or the co-founder, whatever that might be. But you have the ability to kind of bend and shape things when and where you want to. That's one of the greatest things about being a human and running a business. It's also one of the best things about dealing with a small business owner, or a small brand, or something like that is knowing that you're working with real humans and real people. Especially if you truly understand and process that and give them grace to have those couple of hours to answer you. But in a situation like we were just talking about where, you know, again, you're getting quite a few inquiries for whatever reason, and you do need some help. You need to know your options. You need to know your limits. We don't want to see people getting burned out. We don't want to see people throwing in a towel on a business or a book or a product after six months because of some silly things that could have been avoided or could have been mitigated with the help of other tools or other people. So we did touch on the idea that there is software out there that can help. There is also AI obviously. Now, yes, as Lauren alluded to earlier, a lot of people have a visceral reaction when you say AI chatbot.

Lauren: Yup. 

Matt: But I'm telling you, there are a lot of good ones out there now. And yes, like I said earlier, they're not going to solve all the problems or even your problem entirely, but they will get you closer to a solution faster than if you had to wait five hours for a human to reach back out to you. If an AI chat bot can get that process started faster to where when a human does get involved, it just goes that much quicker and the problem gets resolved faster, then why not? 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: And it's at a fraction of the cost for you in terms of money, but also a fraction of the time that you would expend in human capital –

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: – to take care of that, so.

Lauren: Even if it's something that can just do the work of setting up everything that you need in order to be able to like, immediately help the customer as soon as you get there. If you need their order number, their email address –

Matt: That’s right. 

Lauren: – their tracking number, whatever it is, people very often do not provide that information upfront. They are so focused on reaching out and saying, oh my god, I need help. I need, I need you to do this thing for me. And then you're like, okay, what's your order number so I can look it up for you? Crickets. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Oh, okay. I mean, I can't, I can't move this along until you give me the information that I need in order to be able to help you. 

Matt: That's a shame. 

Lauren: Yeah. So if you can use a chatbot or something like that to get that information for you so that as soon as you get into the chat, you can hit the ground running and help them out. That's just going to make everything better. 

Matt: Yeah.

Lauren: But I do think that whenever possible, any kind of automation or software tools that you're using to improve this workflow for you, I would focus on stuff that helps you out on the back end and isn't necessarily customer-facing. So even if it's something as simple as I'm going to take the time to set up… Again, I'm using a form and a Google Form embedded on my website as my main way to contact me and submit a customer support inquiry. And I'm going to take ten minutes to set up a workflow in my Google inbox that everything from that form is being filtered into a specific folder in my inbox. So that I can right away first thing in the morning, every morning, I go click into that folder. And that's where I start with whatever new emails are in that inbox. 

Matt: Yeah.

Lauren: Something that simple could be enough to help you automate that process versus you having to manually go through and search for any support requests that you might've missed. 

Matt: Yep. And never be afraid to call in some pros for help. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Right? 

Lauren: Yeah. You can't do everything on your own. 

Matt: Nor should you. 

Lauren: Nor should you. But also genuinely you can't, like there are some problems that you can't solve. If there's an issue with a book, if there's a production issue with a book–unless you are the one printing and binding the books at home, in which case, what are you doing with us–you won't be able to solve that on your own. You're going to have to reach out to Lulu and ask for help. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: If a package is missing, if a customer is having an issue tracking a package, you're not UPS. You can't tell them where UPS lost their package. One of you has to reach out to UPS. 

Matt: Yeah. Although I would argue in that instance, once a product is shipped and it's in a carrier's hands, I think the first line of defense is usually, the receiver, the customer, they have the tracking number, it's in route to their location. As a shipper, as the producer of the good, the product, whatever it might be. You don't really have any extra pull –

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: – clarity understanding any more than the end customer does. Both of you are working from a tracking number and that's it. 

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: The answer that FedEx is going to give you is going to be the same answer they would give your customer. So in that instance, you know, I think it's a 50 50 toss of the coin. Like for me, when I order things and–which is regularly–where shipping is screwed… I just had to deal with this yesterday, as a matter of fact. Again, I don't expect that the company I ordered the product from is going to be able to solve this. I reach out to FedEx or I shoot an email and I just say this shipped from a distribution center within the state that I live. Why is the product going all the way out to California only to come all – like, what is going on? Where is my product? Why is it on a truck or a plane to California when your distribution center was an hour from my home? 

Lauren: Yup. 

Matt: You know what I mean? Like, if I go to the brand or who I bought that product from, they're not going to get any different answer than I am from FedEx. So. 

Lauren: Well, yeah, but that's – that's part of what I mean when I say know your limits

Matt: Yes. 

Lauren: Know when it is acceptable and appropriate for you to say, hey, I'm really sorry that you're having this issue. This is not something that I can help you with. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: You have to reach out to the carrier for this one. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: I'm no longer able to help you track this package. If you place your order and it's shipping through FedEx, please reach out to FedEx. And it's okay to say that. It's okay to – 

Matt: Well, it's also okay to say, yeah, I can absolutely reach out to FedEx for you. The answer they give me is gonna be the answer that they give you, but I'm happy to do that for you, and kind of put it back on the customer. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: In most other situations, I agree with you. I think that you're the first line of defense for your customer, right? So again, if it's a production issue or something with any of your other backend vendors and providers, yeah, your customer shouldn't be contacting them. Shipping is the one –

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: – outlier there, I think, where it's kind of a roll of the dice, but. 

Lauren: Yeah, we did – we did talk about this in the episode that we did on how selling direct actually works, which I will have linked in the show notes if you want to go check that one out. But just to put it here and make sure we are reiterating it here: Your customers should not be reaching out to Lulu if they're having any issues. You're the middleman between them on that one. So. 

Matt: Well, yeah, and again remember most cases, at least with Lulu, part of the appeal to using us is that we white label everything –

Lauren: Yes.

Matt: – for you.

Lauren: Yeah.

Matt: So if you order something from Lauren Vassallo Industries and it's a book about how to drink around the world and Epcot That book is coming from her. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: Like, you wouldn't even have Lulu's contact there. So 

Lauren: Right.  

Matt: Now in some instances, you know, maybe Lauren talks about the fact that Lulu would be fulfilling her books and so… But nonetheless, yeah. I mean, again, it's your customer, keep them, handle that experience, make sure they have a good one. You're the one that's contacting Lulu to say, hey, I have a customer that book didn't ship. What's going on?

Lauren: Yes.

Matt: Where's it at? 

Lauren: Yeah. 

[47:19] - Wrap-Up

Lauren: Which I think is a, is a really good segue into kind of our final…not strategy because these are all just kind of miscellaneous things to keep in mind, but – 

Matt: Rapid fire, let's go. 

Lauren: Rapid fire best practices. And the first one that I want to just remind you is that a customer support issue is not like, that does not mean that you're about to lose a customer. And I think that it's actually an incredible opportunity for you to turn a casual customer into a truly dedicated fan. Because if you go ahead and you provide thoughtful, well-handled white glove service to help a customer, to really make a customer – like, they had a problem and you went above and beyond to fix it. That's a loyalty win more often than not. 

Matt: That's right, yeah.  

Lauren: And I think that's like try to view these as – I mean, not all the time. Some people are impossible to please. Some people, the problem that they have isn't actually a problem that can be solved. Some people just want to complain because they like to hear the sound of their own voice. And you can't really do anything about those. 

Matt: Yup. 

Lauren: But if you have a, some, if you have a customer who has a genuine issue that you can do something about, that is an opportunity for you to really, really make a mediocre customer experience into a great one. 

Matt: Remember that you've been in this situation as a customer. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: And so think about how you would like to be handled and treated. When possible, solutions over explanations. 

Lauren: Yep. 

Matt: I don't want to hear that, oh, this truck broke down on the side of the road, so we sent another truck to pick all the parcels up and then this truck broke down. That's not what I want to hear. The solution is: the carrier was having some major issues. So I've got another order in the works for you, en route, we should have it to you in two days. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: Plain and simple, right? 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: So solutions over explanations, I think, is always a winner. I think the most important one is transparency and accountability. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Right? Again, when there are issues, take accountability, be very transparent with what's going on, how you're going to fix the problem, right? Solutions over explanations, and just own up to it. It's your brand. You don't have to be a doormat, but it is your brand. This experience, like you said, can either be a great one or a terrible one. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: And ultimately you're the one that's going to decide how that plays out. 

Lauren: Yeah. It's coming back to that point that we made earlier about the, one of the best things about working with a small business or working with a solo content entrepreneur or whatever is that human experience and not, you're not working with a big box store that is just looking at you as a dollar sign that's going to add to their even bigger dollar sign or whatever. And the same goes for you. Reminding that customer like, hey, I'm so sorry. I made a human error. I'm dealing with it as a person treating you as a person, and I'm going to do the absolute best I can to own up to this and solve it. That's part of that humanity and that human experience of working with small businesses versus massive corporations. 

Matt: Yup. 

Lauren: And as long as you're transparent and genuine, it should go fine. 

Matt: I agree. 

Lauren: And if it doesn't, you don't want that person in your customer base anyway, honestly. 

Matt: Also agree with that. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: I'm a big fan of firing customers. 

Lauren: Absolutely. 

Matt: Okay. So that was five tips.

Lauren: Yup.

Matt: For ecommerce success. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: Yep. And a few extras thrown at the end. 

Lauren: Yeah. A few bonus ones thrown in there too. 

Matt: Yeah. All right. 

Lauren: Hopefully they're going to help you out with your store. These are really important things to keep in mind.

Matt: Do all the things. Like, subscribe, leave us a review, send us an email if you want to complain about customer service, or our customer service.

Lauren: I love – 

Matt: Podcast@lulu.com. 

Lauren: I love customer service. It's like a solid, I'd say 20 % of my TikTok feed is service workers sharing customer service, rants, and horror stories, and stuff like that. I'm like, yeah, I need this. So yeah. 

Matt: I don't need that in my life. 

Lauren: It makes me crazy, but in a good way. Did you know you can leave comments on episodes on Spotify? That’s a new one. 

Matt: I did see that was a thing now, yeah. 

Lauren: Yeah. Yeah. So if you want to leave us a comment, you can do that or you can leave us a comment on YouTube or Lulu's social media and you can find us on all those channels. 

Matt: Yup. 

Lauren: So please do. Say hi. Let us know what you want to hear more about, less about, or your customer service horror stories. And in the meantime, we'll be back next week with another new episode. 

Matt: Hopefully. 

Lauren: Fingers crossed. Thanks for listening. 

Matt: Later.