Has Germany become a service desert? What is service, and do I have a right to it?
Recently, I placed an order in an online shop. Somewhat surprised, I had to realize, after the order—yes, I could have checked before—that the shop only accepts advance bank transfers. In my opinion, a bit outdated and already not very customer-oriented. But, well, said and done. I ordered and transferred the money. This was at the beginning of calendar week 36. In calendar week 37, I was on vacation and hoped that upon my return, my package would have arrived at the office. No such luck. And that’s where the fun began…
Upon my inquiry at the beginning of calendar week 38 about the whereabouts of my goods, I was informed, after a whopping 8 hours of processing time for the email, that shortly after the order, they had informed me that the advertised product, despite a different description on the internet, was no longer available and had to be reordered. Furthermore, the price would increase. However, the shop owner left the extent of the increase unspecified and then asked me, “How should we proceed?” Right from the start, I get the impression that it’s my fault for not receiving such an email—hence the prolonged radio silence. Also, the shop owner writes in the forwarded first email to me that he is withdrawing from the sale—yet in the second email, he’s asking how to proceed. Illogical. Especially since I wasn’t even informed of the new price.
In my opinion, the operator made several communication mistakes right from the start:
- Never make the customer feel at fault.
- Always proactively approach the customer and inform them as comprehensively as possible.
- Offer your help in solving the problem—never make the customer feel alone.
- If something goes wrong, apologize profusely, don’t just say, “Sorry.”
- If additional costs arise, and they are within a range that is reasonable for a shop, I expect that the mistake is not shifted onto the customer, and the contract is not withdrawn but that the shop bears these additional costs.
Let’s look at point 5 first. Why should the shop bear the costs themselves? Firstly, you should look at the amount of the additional costs: With an original value of goods of €46.90, the price increased by €7.10 to €54.00. So, we’re talking about an increase of about 15%. This doesn’t financially ruin the shop, and if you convert it into working hours, it’s about an hour of work—most likely even less. The time needed to inform the customer, answer at least two emails, and make a transfer. As a result, you end up with no revenue, no profit, just work. Additionally, a disappointed customer who, like me now, spreads word of mouth against this shop.
If he refunds me the money, he incurs much more losses than if he sends me the promised goods at the agreed-upon price. So much for his own economic viability in this case. Furthermore, it would have been simply a service to let me have the goods—because now, two weeks later, I’m still without this item.
Point 1 says, never blame the customer. This means that if an email doesn’t arrive, either the shop is at fault, or it explicitly remains open—but you give the customer a good feeling.
Point 2 has to do with the communication strategy. If a customer hasn’t responded to an email after two weeks, I, as the operator, have to follow up. Write a second email or somehow try to make contact. Especially since the operator should have seen that shortly after my order and his alleged email, money was deposited into his account—indicating that I obviously didn’t receive the email. Being proactive has a lot to do with service!
Point 3 means that you don’t just cancel the customer. You present solutions, want to satisfy them. Simply saying, “Well, then not,” is not enough nowadays. The internet is an almost perfect market—prices can be easily compared everywhere. You can only survive either by being the cheapest (and then also delivering) or by being the best (and can charge more for it). The saying “Cheap and good don’t go together” is usually true here. Obviously, this shop cannot be the cheapest, nor can it excel through its service.
Courtesy, as in point 4, is, in my opinion, crucial in business. A good seller and dealer must be friendly. Point 1 is part of this. Here, you apologize “many times for the inconvenience caused.” Additionally, point 3 is part of courtesy. I will come back to the topic of courtesy later in this post.
So, it continued. I wrote that with this information (let’s remember, the new selling price was not communicated to me—nor was a potential delivery time), I could only agree to a reversal of the transaction. Also, I expressed my deep disappointment that so little is being done for me. Moreover, I wrote that, due to this, I can neither visit his shop a second time nor recommend it.
The response to this made my blood boil (verbatim):
Yeah, that’s correct. The price was not mentioned; it would be €54. However, the email was definitely sent because the computer, like with text messages, waits for feedback and only then marks it with a green check. It’s always frustrating when something goes wrong, but if we have to absorb the costs just because manufacturers raise prices, then we might as well close down. Besides, nothing is being settled at the customer’s expense, or have you incurred any costs???? But there will always be people who react with incomprehension, and unfortunately, that can’t be changed either because only humans work here, and humans are not error-free and can overlook things.
Translation:
As mentioned earlier, the new selling price is €54. I can’t quite decipher what the gentleman means by “the email was definitely sent.” His system cannot tell whether it reached me—only whether it was sent. Additionally, he is placing the blame on me in a not-so-service-oriented manner.
Furthermore, nobody is demanding that a retailer must absorb the costs every time a manufacturer adjusts prices. Usually, retailers adjust their selling prices at the same time or have a correct inventory where the goods are phased out at the old price and then re-listed. It is often, although equally unfriendly in terms of service, that at the same minute the manufacturers raise their prices, the retailer does too—even if they purchased their inventory at the lower price. The fact that the retailer has to close down immediately due to a surcharge of €7.10 astonishes me, as he is currently throwing around his time and reputation (and thereby his money).
In the next passage, there’s a small subtlety that catches my attention because I value it: the “ihnen” (you) is written in lowercase. Politeness requires capitalizing the “I” here. Regardless, this passage contains something even more interesting: he contradicts me—directly. The countless dozen question marks, on the other hand, seem quite silly. Yes, costs have been incurred for me. Time is money—I dealt with the order, the transfer, emails, and ultimately, frustration. I lost two weeks in which I had neither the money in my account nor the goods in hand. Also, since the gentleman probably only thinks in terms of euros and cents, I incurred costs for the transfer. Monetarily not much, but still. All together, I think one can say that costs have been incurred for me. However, it also speaks volumes about the attitude of the wannabe seller.
The last passage is rhetorical blah blah again. Of course, I understand the situation of retailers. But no, I don’t have understanding for the lack of service of some retailers. Yes, only humans work there, making mistakes. But customers should preferably not feel these mistakes. Because:
The customer is always king!
Fortunately, not all online retailers are like that, and I know that. Not least, companies like Amazon (not the first in online retail, not the cheapest, but the ones who have best understood it) are way ahead. RC-Car-Online (Hobbythek) is also worth mentioning here as a shining example. They are not the cheapest on the internet. Instead, they have a comprehensive range—always everything in stock and ship super fast. If something goes wrong, they talk to the customer and find a mutually agreeable solution.
Unfortunately, the above two examples are not the norm. Hence, my conclusion is: Yes, Germany is mostly a service desert. This not only applies to online retail. Many have not understood that, in addition to a product, they primarily provide a service to customers, that it is about more than just sending goods or scanning them through a checkout scanner. Ultimately, only companies that internalize this and can bind customers in the long run will prevail.
The result of the above case is: I will never order there again, and I will advise everyone against doing so. A value that far exceeds €7.10. However, I will not reveal the name of the retailer here.