It seems that everyone is apologising these days. I must not be the only person that sometimes doubts the sincerity of public apologies and I often wonder if the value of an apology is being diluted by the apparent ease with which public figures feel the need to apologise, especially for events or actions that occurred or were taken outside of their control. Don’t get me wrong: there are many occasions when we all have to hold our hands up and say sorry. Even at WoodenToyShop.
It is a fact that everybody makes mistakes. None of us are perfect, and in the case of organisations such as businesses and local and national government, you will judged not only on your successes, but on how well you turn around your failures. It is very easy to say sorry, but it’s what you do next that counts. Occasionally our customers will receive a product that is faulty or has been damaged in transit. We don’t like this and we do our level best to avoid it, but these things happen. Because we are a small independent business and because we’re, well, like that, we take every mistake and failure to heart. We hate to disappoint our customers when we want to delight them, so if a toy arrives in less than perfect condition we know that we need to apologise and send a replacement out immediately.
We won't cook up any excuses. We'll resolve your problem and rectify our mistakes as soon as we possibly can.Unlike some companies, we won’t wait until we receive your returned goods because we understand that our customers should not be inconvenienced by our mistakes. We talk with and listen to our customers to ensure that we meet or exceed their expectations when rectifying an error.
We listen to our customers and act on what they tell us.We even hate to think about customers being disappointed with their purchases: sometimes you will buy something that is in perfect working order, but just isn’t quite what you wanted. When we launched WoodenToyShop we decided very early on that we would offer a no quibble returns option, which allows our customers to shop with us in the knowledge that they can return their goods to us, for any reason whatsoever, for a full refund within a reasonable time period (usually up to 30 days, but this can be extended for customers buying presents in advance of Christmas and birthdays).
As well as apologies, politicians are extremely fond of reviews. Or rather they are extremely fond of (when in opposition) demanding or (when in government) ordering reviews. (CYNIC ALERT: a part of me hears the phrases ‘false indignation’ and ‘kick it into the long grass’ when the calls for a review reach deafening levels.) In the real world, reviews are of course extremely important. A small business like ours places a huge amount of importance on customer reviews, both positive and negative.
Good, or great customer reviews will encourage friends, family and even strangers to try out a new shop or restaurant. So when someone writes that WoodenToyShop.co.uk has a
“great selection of wooden toys that are built to lastâ€*
and another person praises our
“efficient service and speedy deliveryâ€
we hope that this will give consumers the confidence to shop with us. Another customer told us that she was
“very pleased with the service and quality of your productsâ€
while another was very kind indeed when she wrote of the
“…excellent customer service from all at WoodenToyShop, something that is rare these days!â€
We’re working hard to continue to live up to this fulsome praise and hope we will earn one or two more positive reviews in the future.
One final thing…
Just don’t get me started about the word ‘frankly’. Frankly, when I hear a politician use the word frankly, I tend to believe the opposite of what they say.
*Read a selection of independent customer reviews at Trustpilot.
