As we are aware, when it comes to addressing concerns with a company, the preferred method of contact for the majority is via email. According to a recent survey, 67% of participants favoured email over social media or phone communication.
While some people prefer to talk to a person on the phone, the vast majority of people’s experience otherwise. It shows that customers get a more accurate response by email. Often phone calls to companies cause more frustration. Being forwarded between departments, put on hold and promises being made over the phone that never turn into reality.
At Dunster House, we have designed a system that gets our customers the best response possible as quickly as possible.
Having sold thousands of products each year, the vast majority of our customers have no issues or reason to contact us other than to say thank you and send photos! However with that many products designed, manufactured and delivered every year, occasionally an issue does arise that needs resolving.
Some customers at this point are then surprised to find that we deal with all Customer Service issues in writing. Preferably by email. Sometimes this can lead to customers getting frustrated that they have to contact our dedicated Customer Service team by email. Rather than by phone.
Why does Dunster House choose to operate in this way?
We have previously dealt with customer services by phone rather than by e-mail. However, we found this to be ineffective for a number of reasons:
- Our products are quite technical and photos are often needed to help explain issues. This means that e-mails are needed in a lot of cases anyway.
- With the more complicated issues, e-mails give us the opportunity to involve several members of staff to help answer a query. We get it right that much quicker.
- Even simple queries such as missing assembly instructions are vital through emails. So in these cases, it is necessary for a customer to access their e-mails anyway.
- We also find that dealing with issues in writing gets rid of the emotions. Therefore it helps to concentrate on what the actual problem may be. This helps us to retain trained staff who otherwise become demoralized by dealing with a small minority of customers who can be abusive over the phone. By retaining our trained staff it means that ALL of our customers can enjoy better answers to their queries.
- It allows our customers and ourselves to keep a record of what has happened so that we do not give empty promises which may otherwise be the case in a heated debate over the phone as with some other customer services departments.
We are very proud of our Customer Services Team and far from seeing communication by e-mail as being to the detriment of this service we see the benefits that this brings to our customers.
The Customer Service Team is available at [email protected] – please quote your Order Number when contacting us – this begins SO and is on your Delivery Note, Order and Invoice paperwork
Opening times are: Monday – Friday 8:30am to 5:00pm
Back to blog