Confirm with your customers

I recently read about a website where you could order shoe repairs. They send you a prepaid envelope and then you put your shoes in the envelope, drop it off at UPS, and then they repair them and send them back to you.

I thought this was a great idea! When we lived in Frankfurt I loved that fact that there was a shoe repair service when I walked out of our building and turned to the right and a seamstress when I walked out of the building and turned to the left. It was very convenient because even thought my German was pitifully bad, they still knew what I wanted them to do.

I decided to try this shoe service even though they are located in Southfield and I drive by their store almost weekly because stopping in is a big hassle with a baby in tow. I still think it is a great service, but I still had communication problems just like when I was in Germany. The reason was I needed better directions on what they expected from me. The UPS envelope arrived folded up in a #10 envelope. That was it.

I was expecting some additional instructions and/or communication from the company. Something like "Thanks for becoming a customer, please put your shoes in the envelope and drop them in a UPS box near you"....even better would have been if they had take 1 minute to find where the closest UPS drop box was, print it out the map, and send it with the envelopes. Instead I had to do it.

I am still thrilled with the service, it was one thing I could easily check off my to do list without really having to get out of my seat. Getting the mail and driving by the UPS store are things I already do.

However, I think it is a good lesson on setting your customer's expectations once they give you business. You may know what the relationship will look like but do they? You don't want to be speaking two different languages.