Hello! In our last episode, we talked about pricing. We discussed free plans and annual plans for Shopify apps. In this week's email, I mentioned that we would continue the convo in Part 2, and I have decided to take a detour instead. Part 2 of the pricing discussion will resume next week. The delay is because I have chosen to make it premium content that is a part of the paid subscriber benefits. So, you have ample time to subscribe to upgrade if you’re interested. Everyone's time is valuable so some of the content will be for paid users only. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of free content like this weeks’ coming, too.
Today's issue, we'll cover:
Going beyond expectations to make the experience exceptional for merchants when Shopify has outages or glitches
An app spotlight
Something happened last week with my candy business. For those who don't know, I have a freeze-dried candy business on Shopify.
I received an email from Shopify notifying me that I might have missed an order due to push notifications being glitched in their system. So, I wasn't seeing the notifications on my mobile app and didn't receive an email about the order. The order was placed on Wednesday, and I fulfilled it on Saturday. It's NOT a good look at all and definitely not how I want to run my business. I contemplated what to do. Do I contact the merchant to explain that I didn't get notified about their order from Shopify? Do I write a note saying I’m sorry for not shipping out their order the next day to go in with their order?
It got me thinking about you, the app provider. When Shopify has outages, your apps sometimes are affected. This could mean significant lost revenue for your customers depending on the severity of the outage or issue. When they contact support trying to understand why their upsell offers aren't showing up or why certain things aren't happening that your app does solely because of Shopify, what do you do?
I'll tell you what I did, and you can take this and run with it in your business however you see fit. I chose not to say anything. I chose to act instead of talk. I decided to go above and beyond and wow this customer with extras they were not expecting in the order I shipped them. I decided to provide value and show that I cared about their business. I didn't make excuses. I didn't explain what happened. I didn't say anything. I just did what I thought was right. I chose to give them more than what they were expecting. You've all heard the famous quote from the late great Maya Angelou.
People don't want to hear why, and they also don't necessarily care how when they are in a distressed situation. What they do care about is what you did to make them feel valued, cared about, understood and that they mean something to your business.
I once worked with an app that had some bugs that were interfering with some Shopify things (technical this and technical that, blah blah blah!). The customer service team was TOP notch. They were carrying the app on their backs during this time. They didn't talk about the issues to the merchants, perpetuating the problems even more. They were hyper-focused on ensuring that the merchants were getting value no matter what. If it meant they did some custom development work to make the app pop even more or whatever they could do to wow the customer with their experience, they were all in.What can you do to make your customers feel valued by going above and beyond when issues arise with Shopify that are well beyond your control? Are you going to blame Shopify and take zero accountability for their suffering? Or will you use those moments to get closer to your customers on a human level and allow them to see how great you can be to them during times of adversity?
What contingency plans do you have with your support teams to empower them to make decisions with your customers during these times?
Have you read the book The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande? If not, I highly encourage you to read it. If you like storytelling to explain processes, this would be a fun read for you. Having checklists in operational processes, such as what to do when Shopify has outages or bugs in the app that are affecting your customers, could help save customers from churning. It will also give them a guide to follow to make customers feel special during times of crisis.
App spotlight
Auction Plus is such a cool concept for an app that Shopify merchants can use to build community, create buzz, and grow sales.
In my opinion, it takes what was cool about preorders and gives the strategy a modern twist. Or remember when eBay was the coolest thing ever? Any category of stores would work for this but I can see it working well for art, sports memorabilia, watches, cars, custom bikes, machinery, and most collectible items. I’m thinking really anything that has a high ticket price that you want to maximize the profit on and create a competitive environment around.
That's it for this week. Thanks for being here. Feel free to pass this on to friends and colleagues in the community who would benefit from receiving this newsletter.
Cheers,
Deb