Damage Control

I want to tell you a story of how I was able to salvage a sale and customer. Not only did I salvage the sale, but I was able to sell even more products to my customer. Now as you may recall from a few posts back, I did a launch call. On this launch call I phoned various friends and family to sell them a box of coffee over the phone. Well one of those people was my aunt, who is the sister of my mom. Knowing she was a coffee drinker I sold her a box of the black gourmet coffee.

Now the thing you have to understand about my mom and her sister is that they are both blabber mouths. If there is something that they like, everyone around them has to know about it. You can't buy the advertising those two are worth if they like your product. So I was really hoping that she would enjoy the coffee.

I gave my aunt a call one day as I was coming home from work. After asking what she thought of the coffee she told me that my uncle and her "weren't fond of it". She said that the coffee was just too strong for her taste. I told her that I understood and would be willing to give her a refund. She said that wasn't necessary and would just give me back what was left in the box. Since she was currently at my house with my mom, she said she'd give it back to me when I got home.

I must admit I was a little bummed. Not so much that she didn't like the coffee, because I would never take that personally, but because I wouldn't have her as a walking advertisement. Fortunately I was able  to come up with a possible solution to the problem before I entered the house. I told my aunt that I wanted her to instead hang on to the box of coffee and give out samples to people she knew instead. I than asked her if she would like to try a sample of my Organo Gold green tea. She agreed and I brought in some for her and the rest of the family. When it came time to leave she took the box of coffee with her.

A couple days later I woke up to my mom yelling to me upstairs in bed while I was sleeping that my aunt wanted to buy a box of green tea from me. I got her a box and made the sale on the spot. I also made sure to show her how she could order more online. About a month after that point I got a notification that somebody had made a purchase from my OG site. I checked my back office to find that my aunt had made a purchase of nearly one hundred fifty dollars.

I immediately gave her a call to thank her for the purchase and ask what it was she ordered. She said that she ordered two boxes of green tea for herself. However, it turns out she had been giving out samples like she said she would and my cousins girlfriend is a fan of both the coffee and tea. So my aunt purchased a box of each for her too. It was, and thus far still is, my largest customer bulk purchase to date.