Here's to a Better Online Shopping Experience!
We do a lot of chatting about different products and services here on rokblog, but the one thing we do not do enough of is thank our great customers. And I am not talking about the "thanks for your business" formality that is printed on every cash register receipt or shopping bag you get in a store. We really do appreciate our customers, not just because they keep us in business (which is an obvious one) but because they help make being in this industry a fun experience for us. We are not call center reps that respond to customer inquiries with preexisting text, we are folks that enjoy technology and enjoy applying it in our lives, both at work and at home. We have discussions with our customers about their issues and questions. I know that I enjoy talking with a customer on the phone about a new technology or product and the neat things it can do. I equally enjoy going over the shortcomings of some products and finding ways to help customers overcome them. The best part of the job is when we are educated by a customer who might know more about a particular product or technology than we do. Then we can pass that information along to others. So again, thanks to all of you for your continued business and thanks for sharing your experiences with us.
At Rokland even though we get great feedback from our customers, we are always asking ourselves how we can make the customer experience better. We do our best to get shipments out as timely as possible and to minimize problems that could result in order delays. There are also some things that you can do when shopping online, be it here at Rokland or elsewhere, to make sure your order goes as smoothly as possible. One thing to remember is to always include valid contact information. I know, I know, no one wants to receive unwanted junkmail or telephone calls, so sometimes it is tempting to put in an outdated email address and/or telephone number when placing an order that way you don't risk getting junk in your inbox or risk having those pesky telemarketers call. At Rokland we do not give your contact information out to anyone, but it is important that we have your valid contact information to notify you if any issues arise on your order. Say for example you order six units of an item but we only have five in stock. It may be that you are okay with having the order downgraded to five units and want the five we have shipped out right away, or it may be that you must have six and do not want any units from us if you can't get the six you need. In the event of an inventory discrepancy like this, it is important that we can reach you to alert you of the situation and find out how you want to proceed. If we can't reach you, the order may be delayed until we hear from you, or it may be cancelled if we cannot get your confirmation of the order quantity change.
It is also important to remember to include your full address information when placing an order. This includes apartment or suite numbers and should also include the full street address. It is a force of habit to take shortcuts and write an address like this:
Joe Moe
123 Ridgemore
SLC, UT 01234
when your full address is actually:
Joe Moe
123 Ridgemore Lane
Apartment 17
Salt Lake City, UT 01234
While the postal carrier may know who you are and is able to deliver your mail even when addressed to the first example, couriers such as UPS may not be able to. If you leave off the apartment number, often times they send you a post card and wait for you to call with the apartment number so they can attempt redelivery, thus causing a delay of a few days. Sometimes if they cannot reach you, they will return the package back to us. Also, the UPS distribution center may not know where to deliver the package if it is only addressed to 123 Ridgemore. If there is both a Ridgemore Lane and a Ridgemore Street in your town, they may again have to delay delivery until they can find out the correct location for delivery.
Obviously when going through a checkout process on a web site, one wants to complete the process as quickly as possible, so shortcuts taken like those in example one are common. But sometimes they can lead to delays or undeliverable packages altogether, so remember to include your full address information when placing an order. One other thing that you may not know is that couriers bill us, the shipper, a small fee for any address correction that has to be done on a package. So if you forget your apartment number, we have to pay an address correction fee. We of course would never bill this charge to the customer, but the reason we note this is because we do have to factor in this type of fee as a cost of doing business, and when costs get too high on our end, that is when we unfortunately have to make increases in prices or shipping charges. So by providing correct address information, you can indirectly help us keep our prices and shipping charges as low as possible!
One final thing you can do is to always remember to make sure your credit card billing address is the same as your shipping address. This requirement is in place because it helps protect you- if someone steals your credit card and tries to place an order with it on our web site, we are able to prevent the fraud by not charging the card because we will see that their shipping address does not match your billing address. We know that sometimes there are legitimate cases where you will need an item sent to an address that is not a billing address. In such cases, we can make exceptions to this policy, but ask that you please call us first to okay the situation, thus avoiding a possible delay or cancellation of the order once it is placed.
Again, we thank all of our great customers for their continued business and wish you safe and happy online shopping.
posted at: 01:56 | path: | permanent link to this entry