Yesterday, with a beach holiday quickly approaching, I felt obliged to buy a new pair of sandals that spoke of SOPHISTICATION…ELEGANCE…BEAUTY.
For anyone who knows me well, you'll know this isn't my normal choice of footwear for a holiday – not a walking boot or trainer in sight for THIS trip!
So, I clicked onto the internet, and I found the perfect pair of white sandals with pretty flowers that roped across the foot. Another click led me to the description…
Immediately, the pretty flowers disappeared from my mind, and all I could see was the missing apostrophe on the first line! Ouch! The positive vibe I’d felt about wearing such a beautiful pair of sandals was quickly vanishing .
BUT, I continued to read the description:
Trying to get away from the fact that these sentences don’t make sense AT ALL, I focused on the fact that the text might be telling me I’ll have lots of beach weddings! This made me chuckle. So, I continued reading:
I know that the words ‘compliment’ and ‘complement’ confuse a lot of people, but I suddenly got a vision of the sandal talking to my dress, complimenting it on how gorgeous it was!!
By this point, I wasn’t able to focus on the fact that I just wanted a beautiful pair of sandals for my holiday. By this point, I was totally engaged with proofreading the text:
'You can wear it’ immediately grabbed my attention. Can you imagine wearing just ONE sandal? Do we have to hop to the beach? It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But you can see how my trust in this product was quickly disintegrating.
A simple re-positioning of the letter ‘R’ in the word ‘perfect’ and I’d decided that I definitely, WAS NOT going to buy the most gorgeous pair of sandals I’d seen in a very long time! Such a shame.
A holiday without these sandals…can you imagine my disappointment?!
You see, the communication about these sandals was 'as clear as mud', and this company hasn’t realised that clear communication in sales is KEY! The importance of clarity when you’re selling a product can’t be overstated. By the time I’d moved off the website, I’d lost all trust and confidence in their brand.
Clear communication helps customers to understand exactly what to expect. It reduces the likelihood of dissatisfaction, complaints and even disputes if someone is brave enough to buy a product in the first place!
Even though I knew I should have focused on finding the perfect company to buy a perfect pair of sandals from, I was sidetracked at this point and decided to look at customer reviews for this company. And I found exactly what I expected:
“The shoes received had a resemblance to the picture however not true to size, smelly, creased, uncomfortable and without a box.”
“DO NOT SHOP HERE!!!!! 1 star is much more than they deserve. The worst service I have ever received. As with many other reviews below, terrible customer service and I am unable to return my unused shoes that are poorly made and are plastic like and nothing like the advertised pictures.”
“Like all the other reviews… do not touch this company unless you want lots of unnecessary aggravation. The boots I purchased are not brilliant quality, do not fit and are not comfortable and you will definitely not get your money back.”
In the last 30 days, 93% of the reviews had given one star.
There is so much competition out there for companies who are trying to sell their products.
One search for ‘white pretty flat sandals’ produced almost two million search results.
The reality is that the market is saturated with companies from around the globe all trying to sell their products. And as a customer, I’m aware of this: I have to be careful about who I’m going to trust. When there is such stiff competition for my custom, why on earth isn’t a company investing time and effort in communicating clearly with me!
Clear communication isn’t just a nicety: it’s a necessity. It ultimately lays the foundations for a happy customer who will repeatedly return to buy MORE shoes!!
If your company is selling products, and you're not sure about how to create crystal-clear communication, don't hesitate to contact me: https://www.sageproof.co.uk/get-in-touch.
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