Ask questions to improve customer service

Pencil artists, there many ways you can improve your service to customers that don't cost you anything. One way is to know how your shipper works. Being educated about how your particular shipping method determines prices can help your customers.

Today, I had a customer email me from the United Kingdom. It is typical for me to give a quote and explain that I would need to check with the shipping company I use for the current price for mailing to the UK. But today I explained a bit more to the client -- that the UPS shipping rate is affected by many factors, including fuel prices at the time of shipment, and whether the destination mailing address is deemed Residential or Business. (Some rural addresses have surcharges because they are out in "the boonies")

It occurred to me that the customer might work in a town (at a Business zoned address) and could live at a rural address. In that case, the client could save a lot of money by having the artwork mailed to her at her work address.

So I mentioned this to the client and advised her "So if you have an office in one area and live in another area/code, and wouldn't mind which one the art gets delivered to, let me know both and I can check to see if either one gives you any kind of decrease in charge."

It's as easy as asking a question to get more information to be able to help somebody. With an international shipment, a little tweak like this could result in a much lower charge for your client. Of course they'll remember you for that, even if it doesn't help them in the end, at least you cared enough to look into it.

Always act in your customers' best interests.

Shipping and handling

I like using UPS to ship my portraits for several reasons.

The customer service I am able to give my clients, by being able to get a package to them on a particular day that fits best into their schedule (if required); Being able to tell the customer when to expect the package, and being able to give them a tracking number gives peace of mind.

USPS has some shipping options like Priority Mail, and that is cheaper than UPS. You can get some tracking, but the tracking is extremely weak...almost non-existent. So I stick with UPS.