How do you talk about your company?

[HappyShopper]

When you are on the phone or email to customers, how do you talk about the company? Do you talk about 'us', 'we', 'shipping departments' (even if there is only one or two of you) or do you position yourself as a one person company who can offer extra customer service?

do the majority of on line shoppers think that most of the sites they visit (ok, excluding the high street chains etc) are run by just a couple of people in their spare room, or do they assume they are big companies, lots of staff and different departments?

[jont]

The problem / beauty of the web is that anyone can create a fantastic website from their spare bedroom and similarly large established companies can have a very poor web presence.

As to refering to different departments that depends on the nature of the call and the actual size of the company - most smaller companies operate in such a fashion that everyone knows just about everything that is going on so anyone can answer most customer questions (especially if the computers are netwroked and you have good back office software in place). I can probably answer about 95% of customer questions but if I don't I will either put them through to someone who can or find out and call them back.

Having one point of contact is very good for customer service regardless of the size of the company. Unlike the recent TV advert it is pointless pretending to be a larger company than you really are by having different departments if they don't exist. Keeping it honest and simple must be the best policy.

If one person can offer a customer all the information quickly and effectively it should not matter whether you have day time TV on mute in the corner or you are sharing a room with 50 others.

[Earlybaby]

We are a two person (plus 2 baby) company, but seem to be seen as far bigger than that by some of our customers.

Especially when dealing with people selling advertising space in magazines!!

Bill

[Miranda Stamp]

Ah that'll be Mums plus one or whatever. Was £13K earlier in the year, still want about 5K, yet no-one has heard of it!

'We' used to be just me (and DD) at home, but 'we ' are now 4 (albeit very part time to suit school/nursery hours) and, unlike the majority of our competitors (most of whom were customers!) are no longer in the spare room but have a little warehouse. Consequently we get a lot of calls asking 'do you stock x and y and z and how many of each do you have in stock and which colours do you have?' or 'how long will it take you to get them in?'- they are not expecting us to physically have them in stock (which we usually do).

I prefer the small is beautiful approach. I think people (particularly women) like dealing with smaller firms they can have a more personal approach (though we have been going so long I can no longer remember how old or what sex baby No 1 is nor when no3 was born even if the surname is familiar)

[compendia]

I think its important to be professionally truthful. When a customer has a problem I often say. "I will look into it and get back to you, my name's Megan and I run all aspects of the mail order so I don't worry about anything I won't forget about you". Customers love the idea of not being held in eternal phone queues and having to explain the problem from the beginning every time.

I think if you mislead about the size of the company then it may leap up to bite you on the bum. If you don't have the resources to do something, ie supply 2000 units by 9am tomorrow, then say so.

We all make mistakes. I have said to customers before, "I know it went out I posted it so if there's been a mistake its absolutely my fault. Let me check." They are always loads more polite after that. I think its the shock that someone will take responsibility.

Was there a specific scenario you were thinking of in asking the question?

[HappyShopper]

Not really a specific scenario, we all know the big names from the high street who do on line selling too, and we know that these are big companies with resources, sales staff etc backing up their online section.

I was really wondering how customers see us, whether if we're not a big name, they assume it to be a small company, possibly run from home or maybe a small office somewhere. I know there's many in between these two extremes. Are most customers savvy enough to be able to tell from a website if it is a big or small company? What gives it away?

There is a huge difference between the very professional sites, and the little mom and pop sites that just don't inspire you to part with your money - the poor graphics, badly laid out design etc all shout 'very small company doing it part time'. What about the professional sites that look as good (in many cases better) than the 'big' names? What do customers imagine lies behind the scenes?

A professional looking site - does a customer make a connection with this, and expect a large sales force at the end of a phone taking hundreds of calls a day?

[jont]

Hi - if you want to post a URL to your site maybe someone can take a look and let you know what type of image / size of operation it conveys

[pinbrook]

A professional looking site - does a customer make a connection with this, and expect a large sales force at the end of a phone taking hundreds of calls a day?

does it really matter how many people are at the end of the phone as long as

1 you deliver on your promises.
2 there is someone there to answer the phone
3 you deliver on your promises

As Megan says it is important to only commit yourself to what you can acheive.

[compendia]

Interesting that you would feel that you don't want to part with your money to a small company, since my opinion tends to be that smaller companies need less profit - for instance they are not renting expensive premises. Also I feel they will remember me.

With most websites that are not a high street brand I tend to presume up to about 20 people in an office or warehouse.

There are also a lot of people who run shops or business alongside their website, I always imagine them to be roughly the same size as us - up to 10 people but with some who not involved in the mail order.

For businesses with a rural address I tend to presume one person with perhaps a bit of help packing up. Particularly with babies sites.

It also depends on the product. With software and computing I always imagine that I am dealing with a fairly large company since I can't imagine how smaller companies survive against people likem dabs.com. There's a guy on the community who sells swimming pools. Well I might imagine a small workforce, but he'd have to have someone who fits them and that's the kind of company that takes investment so I'd be thinking a fairly large company.

With niche books or comics I'd always imagine a one man show though I know that some people that do that are much bigger than I'd imagined. With any 'craft' site I'd always think of a one man show (though I've just realised I'd generally presume it was run by a woman don't know why).

If I thought I was buying direct from an artist or maker I'd be downright annoyed if I thought there was a workforce of forty churning the stuff out.

One person or one hundred, I'd always expect a reply to emails in 24 business hours (even one that said, we're lookign into it) and people to be available by phone the phone during the day, though I'd be fine if I had to leave a message and get someone to call me back - as long as they did call me back!

Does any of that help?

[Sheila]

I'd be curious as to what you think of our site??

I'll tell you why later once you've had a look at our site but I disagree with what is being said.

[pinbrook]

but I disagree with what is being said

its probably better to tell us why you disagree without being mysterious.

I like your site though!! If I were Indian I'd love to indulge in a wedding planned by you. However I went for a UK register office with all of the atmosphere of a cold rice pudding!

[Duncan Allan]

I think its important to be professionally truthful. When a customer has a problem I often say. "I will look into it and get back to you, my name's Megan and I run all aspects of the mail order so I don't worry about anything I won't forget about you". Customers love the idea of not being held in eternal phone queues and having to explain the problem from the beginning every time.

I think if you mislead about the size of the company then it may leap up to bite you on the bum. If you don't have the resources to do something, ie supply 2000 units by 9am tomorrow, then say so.

We all make mistakes. I have said to customers before, "I know it went out I posted it so if there's been a mistake its absolutely my fault. Let me check." They are always loads more polite after that. I think its the shock that someone will take responsibility.

Was there a specific scenario you were thinking of in asking the question?

Like good English, say I when you me you and we when it's more than you. Honesty is the best way with people and deluding them will only drive them away.
When I get calls especially people are delighted with the 'I' status that I will do something for them or chase something through if it's suddenly needed quicker than anticipated. That goes for all of us here. Though I usually answer the phone and Allana deals with emails. But it's who gets there first gets the job done.
The customer will respond to a personal touch everytime irrespective of how big you are or not.
Last night Allana was working late and got a late email - dealt with it there and then. It was a wrong setting on the pricing model and the item was being charged twice. She fixed the problem, emailed the customer, had a chat in the email as girls do and then went home.
This morning the order was there placed from the customer about half an hour after Allana had sent the email.
This was also after special arrangements were made with the customer to buy the goods as they will not be delivered to us until Weds. So the stock was 'fixed' to allow the purchase and then reset.

All in a days work.

[compendia]

I'd be curious as to what you think of our site??

I'll tell you why later once you've had a look at our site but I disagree with what is being said.

Was it me you specifically disagreed with? In which case I'm very intrigued to know what I said.