Value & Customer Service for Shop Success - Module 6: Mastering Etsy Print on Demand (FULL COURSE)

Welcome back to mastering Etsy print on demand, the completely free course that I've created to help you be your own product boss from anywhere, in just pockets of time, grounded by years of small business experience, expert testing- because I never preach what I haven't practiced and crafted to suit anyone. No matter what part of the journey you're on, my goal is to show you the ropes, help you build out a strategic approach for print-on-demand success and give you a results-based grip on driving sales using the simply pod framework that I've developed and that this entire free course is based off of. In case we Show more

haven't met yet, hey there, friend, my name is Mandy. I'm a busy Midwest boy, Mama, former HR Director turned full-time handmade small business entrepreneur and builder of print on demand shops that, all together, have reached almost six figures in less than a year, all while not having to touch a single product or ship anything out to a customer myself. I'm obsessed with sharing knowledge, knowledge that simplifies CSC print on demand process so that truly anyone can feel empowered to start their own Show more

journey. In this module, we are covering all things related to adding value to your shop, not just in customer service but also in product offerings. Will be covering things like customer service, the Etsy star seller badge Printing and delivery issues and how to handle them like a boss, negative reviews- my own personal secret to consistent five star reviews- and personalization, unlike brick and Show more

mortar retail stores, there is no face-to-face interaction with Etsy and any kind of online e-commerce business, which means lots of things can get lost in translation. That's why customer service can be so important to running your Etsy Shop. One way to do that is to communicate clearly and concisely, with a friendly and professional tone at all times with your customers. I also recommend having super clear public policies, but also flexible internal policies, and what I mean by that is externally facing. That is what you have listed out in your Etsy shop as your policy, so if you have a no return policy or no exchange policy, that means that that is what your setting is within your Etsy shop. However, internally, there may be times where you want to be flexible on that in order for your customer to have a great experience with you and sometimes turn a one star review into a five-star review. That also means replying to messages in a timely manner and set auto responses when you need that work-life boundary and finally, make sure that you're answering common questions in the FAQ section of your shop. This is an easy Show more

space to miss, but it's a great opportunity to further clarify and solidify lots of common questions that you may be getting in your messages, so that customers have a well-rounded understanding and set expectations. Now let's talk about the Etsy star seller, and is it really worth the hype? So if Show more

you've never heard of it before, or if you're new to Etsy, Etsy has a star seller badge concept, which means that it's etsy's way of recognizing shops who have met requirements in the areas of fast replies, great reviews and smooth shipping. You can earn each of these three badges individually and then if you you earn all three of them in a rolling 90-day period, Then you get the full star seller badge and you get that little purple star next to your shop name. There are tons of opinions out there on whether or not it's worth it, but I have some strong feelings and I do think there are some key benefits with this. First of all, it demonstrates that you care about and strive for excellence. The customers will see that and know that you have done a good job in running your shop. They don't necessarily know all the ins and outs, but as a customer, but they know that there is some special recognition happening with your shop. Etsy is also telling us as sellers that these are areas they care about and want to promote. So we need to consider this as another tool within Etsy to advance our shop status within their rankings. Not to mention- and this is a big one- etsy's latest search update allow customers to actually filter buy shops with a star seller badge. This is huge, because without it, you will now be Show more

immediately filtered out. Hello, Game Changer. If in none of the other benefits made you stand up and pay attention, this one definitely should. So the ultimate question is: is the star seller badge and working towards it really required for success? The short answer is no. Plenty of shops out there are absolutely successful without it, and there can be a variety of reasons, particularly in the handmade space, where meeting some of these badges isn't entirely possible. That being said, should you still make it a goal to have your shop reach and maintain that status? Absolutely regardless of whether or not it's making a huge difference for other shops? It's always in your best interest to strive for the best and prove that your shop deserves to be seen as a business. We should always be striving for excellence and achieving the metrics that Etsy says are important to shop success. I guarantee you that these are not made up metrics, but are based off of etsy's analysis of massive amounts of data across their platform. So, love it or hate it, it's a formula that works. Another Part Of Your shops of value and Excellence is how you deal with issues when they come up, because they will come up, and if you clam up and panic or blame the customer or simply ignore the problem, you're going to make things worse. So let's talk about how to handle them like a pro. First of all, repeat Show more

after me: issues can and will happen, and what makes the biggest difference is how you handle it. Absolutely no business is immune from it, no matter how long you've been in business or no matter how much experience you have. It can happen to any of us. This is not just a print-on-demand problem. It can happen anywhere. I've had plenty of one star reviews in my handmade business. It happens. That being said, professionalism, respect and kindness, as in life, can get you everywhere and make a huge difference in the experience, not just for you, but for the customer as well. And just a little word of advice, since we are talking about print on demand and working with Printing Partners, I will tell you right now that taking out your frustrations and blaming the customer service rep of your printing partner will not fix the problem faster. So how do we fix issues when they come up? Let's talk about it. One of the more common Show more

issues that can happen with working in the print on demand space is printing issues. This can be anything from looking abnormally faded when the customer receives it to having a slightly crooked design. Every great once in a while they grab the wrong file and it's the wrong design sent to your customer. Every once in a while it will arrive damaged, often through the mail system, and sometimes you'll run into color issues. So how do we deal with them? First of all, you handle it with your customer first. Apologize to them and request a photo of the issue. You'll definitely need this whenever you're reaching out to your printing partner. Confirm with your customer if they want a refund or replacement, because that will be the next question that your printing partner asks you when you bring the issue to them, and then you'll request either a replacement or refund from your printing partner, depending on what the customer has chosen. The other Show more

common issue that can happen- and this is not exclusive to just print on demand- I've had plenty of delivery issues with my handmade business as well. It can be in the form of never actually getting delivered. Sometimes the tracking will stay stuck and it's just lost in the abyss of the mail system, in which case if it's sat at the same shipment status for more than five business days, typically that is the point when I check with the printing partner to let them know. Oftentimes they will say and confirm: yep, it's lost in the mail system and they will issue a replacement for you. The other type of delivery issue that can have happen is it will show delivered but the customer will tell you that they never actually got it. This has actually been something that's a more common issue that's been occurring within the last year or two that I've noticed just across the mail system in general, and typically what happens is if you ask that customer to wait roughly 72 hours or so, it usually shows up for whatever reason. Particularly with the US post Office system, they're scanning and tracking can get a little off, so oftentimes it will get scanned as delivered and then show up a couple days later. I have no idea why it happens, but it is a very common thing and nine times out of ten it does eventually show up. But if it doesn't, let your printing partner know and also let them know that you did in fact ask the customer to wait and that it did in fact not show up again. Anytime you can kind of preemptively give you, the printing partner, this information when you reach out. It helps to move the process along faster and get things resolved in a very timely manner. Occasionally other issues will come up, or if you've got questions or if you are experiencing a delay from the printer that your product is with when in doubt. If you have questions, you can and should always check in with the support of your printing partner. One of the reasons that I love printify is that they have multiple options for contacting support. One of them that I love is the little green chat button that's in the bottom left hand of their screens once you log in. It's available during most business hours. Unless their support group is getting a high volume of questions, then sometimes that chat button will disappear and you have to use other methods. The other option is via the Show more

order itself. So in printify there is a submit issue button right there within the order. So one trick that I use: when I am confident that a replacement is needed- and you'll get the hang of when those situations occur- I duplicate the order and immediately send it off for fulfillment. Then I go into the order to in the original order to this screen and submit an issue. But in this case, instead of selecting requests reprint, I will click the requester refund and just handle it as a refund and let them know that I've already processed a replacement for the customer based on XYZ issue that they report. It often will make things move a lot faster, especially in cases when there was very clearly a printing error or very clearly some issue with the design or something like that that occurred during the printing process. And then they do also have a great kind of general knowledge base where you can search for information, search on how to do certain things within printify and get a lot of common questions answered. So that is another great resource right there within printify. Now let's talk about negative reviews. If you've never gotten one before, you're probably going to get one at some points in your print on demand journey, and typically, when they happen, they will fall into one of two categories. One caveat that I want to Show more

make abundantly clear and point out before we dive in is: do not publicly respond to a negative review until it is your last option, and that is because it is locked into place. If you end up working with a customer and now they want to change their review from a one star to a four star or a five star, that review becomes locked in place as soon as you respond. So hold off on responding I know it's a knee-jerk reaction, so I want to Dive Right In. Hold off on responding, though, until you have worked with your customer or until you feel like it's your last option, like if the customer is not responding, things like that. I just want to make that clear up front. So with negative reviews, typically it will either be an issue with the product that was never reported, so sometimes you'll get a one or two star review saying that you know the printing was crooked. Well, had they reached out to you before that review, obviously we just got done talking about how to handle those issues. Sometimes customers will just jump right to the review because Etsy is giving them that option, especially if they're doing it from their mobile app. So first thing you'll want to do is immediately reach out to the customer and try to resolve the issue right away. I usually approach it is: hey, I was hard to hear from your review that things didn't go well. It looks like there might have been a printing issue which I would love to correct for you right away. Can you please send me a picture and we'll go from there- something along those lines- but try to reach out to them and resolve the issue right away. If you resolve it successfully- and quite often customers are willing to update their review- sometimes they'll do it on their own, and sometimes you can reach out to them after they receive their replacement to check in. Make sure to think about well and see if they felt like they had a higher star experience and might be willing to change it. I usually don't push too hard on it and, like I said, a lot of customers will Show more

navigate to that and do it on their own, depending on how Savvy they are with Etsy. The other type of negative review that you will sometimes get is: there's not a product defect. There is nothing wrong with it. The customer just didn't like it for one reason or another. Every once in a while you get someone who doesn't realize that their Guild and sweatshirts and for whatever reason, they were expecting something different or higher end. So sometimes you'll get that, no matter how clear you are in your descriptions or pictures or things like that. So just know that it happens. It's not personal and oftentimes there's not a whole lot that you can do about it. Show more

Typically what I will do is send them a message apologizing that the order didn't meet their expectations and that their feedback is appreciated for continuous Improvement, specially if it appears like there's not going to be much that I can do to change their mind. One thing I will say is that refunding or returning is an option depending on what you have in your shop policies. But when it comes to refunds, unless you have it built into your policy, do not always feel like you need to fall on that sword. You will also experience sometimes customers who know that they can work the system and get a refund if they complain hard enough. So that is where I will typically have a no refund policy, out externally, facing on my shop, and then depend on how the customer approaches it and how that interaction goes every once, while I will still offer an exchange or Reef an option, depending on the situation. But I just want to make sure you know that you don't always feel like you have to go that route again. You are a business, you are in this to run it successfully and just know that anytime in a retail space there are going to be customers that you simply can't make happy, and that is okay too. In general, Show more

the mindset that I have with negative reviews is: don't let things get heated or out of control. As I said, some customers are just determined to find fault and cannot be pleased. I always err on the side of being professional and kind in my responses, no matter how unpleasant we'll call it sometimes customers can get. Just know that it's usually not about you. There are some customers that just aren't going to be satisfied if you need to respond Show more

publicly again as your last option to keep it professional, National, fact-based and remember future customers May read it. So placing blame on a customer or things like that are generally not going to be looked upon well by Future customers. So simply explain the facts and then move on. Don't let bad customers Rob your peace of mind. Simply move on and consider it a learning opportunity if needed. Don't take it personally and like I said, sometimes you just simply need to move on. Now let's get to the fun part, because we've talked about negative reviews, we've talked about printing issues, and so here it is. You know that I've got a couple tricks up my sleeve to help ensure that my orders in my shop have the best chance of getting consistent five star reviews. At the time of this recording, I am currently over 2 700 sales into one of my star seller shops. I have 722 reviews, with an average item review of five stars, and, as you can tell clearly, there is an approach and way to handle things so that customers who feel like they're having an All-Star experience. How do I do that? Well, if you look closely at any of these, you can see it's Show more

real simple: under promise, over deliver- let me say that again- under promise and over deliver, if you are trying to set out to be the next Amazon and having shipped super fast, or if you're trying to guarantee lighting production, this is print on demand. You simply cannot do that, and so we need to establish again customer expectations, and so that means that I am transparent in my descriptions, that I work with the printing partner and, again, as we've talked about before, I describe the printing process briefly and set expectations, and I use my FAQ section wisely to reiterate those as well. I respond quickly to any pre-purchase questions. The SC minimum for the star seller badge is 24 hours, but I do try to respond in a timely manner. I also include a size guide in my listing photos. Again, we want to make it clear- especially if we're not going to offer exchanges or Returns- what the sizing expectation should be for the item they want to purchase. And these next two are the big ones that I think really help in setting expectations and delivering on that under promise over deliver concept. So, whatever the production window is within your Printing Partners set schedule. So, for example, I use swiftpod and their typical production schedule is two to five business days. In Etsy I set the production window for those items one to two days longer than the longest one listed by the printer. So I will say: typically then, my production timing for an item is two to seven business days. Same thing goes for shipping Windows. Typically, while that's not posted, I will use the shipping window of three to five business days. And, above all, I never make delivery guarantees. If a customer reaches out to me asking for something by a certain date, I always very clearly say that I work with a printing partner and while I can't make guarantees, I'm happy to X, but I am getting their order over to my partner as soon as possible so that it can reach them in a timely manner. Nine times out Show more

of ten, even during peak season, all of my orders arrive at least a week before etsy's scheduling based on the production and shipping schedule. That I've listed. They arrive typically more than a week before they're scheduled to, so guess what that means for the customer. They get excited when they get a notification saying that their order has shipped quickly, and then they get even more excited when that item arrives well ahead of schedule. So that's where that under promise and over deliver comes in again. Even during Peak holiday season, I receive received consistently five star reviews, largely because they got exactly what they expected. I get comments on quality and I also get positive comments on how quickly it arrives. If you take a look at Show more

some of those review comments- Perfect, Fit, fast shipping, true to size, arrived fast, fits, perfect, shipped fast, item match, description provided- all of these things are very impactful in that customer experience and they make a bigger difference than you might think. So again, as much as we feel like we need to compete with super fast shipping- and might I lose a few customers along the way because it's not getting to them in two days, like Amazon perhaps, however, I almost always can guarantee that I will get a five star review based on on the shipping and the item that they receive. That is why it's so important and that is the concept of under-promising and over delivering, because I'm telling them it's going to arrive in a certain way at a certain time, and oftentimes what they actually get, and when they get it, exceeds all of that. Shifting gears a little bit to another way where you can add a unique spin on value, and that is by leveraging the ability to personalize products. This has become one of the greatest ways to stand out on Etsy, and Show more

not only does personalization add value, it can even help you break into those areas or niches that are super saturated by standing out. When we think about keywords, as it's related to personalization, did you know that the term personalized has seven times as an many searches as customized? So, while I certainly recommend using both, personalized is going to be one of the best terms that you can use when you are actually getting this into a listing. Customers love unique items, especially Etsy customers, because that is what so many of them are. There to do is to find something unique, find that Hidden Gem or find something that they can personalize to exactly what they're looking for, and, statistically, personalized products consistently perform better. Since they take a little bit more time. Customers are often willing to pay a little bit more for that value, and some of the top niches for personalization include pet parents- so personalized shirts for a dog Show more

mom, or personalized bridal party t-shirts. Baby milestones: that could be great for blankets. Vacations: you know. Family vacation 2020 3, as well as Sports parents- you know. So volleyball mom: you could have a family last name on there. There are so many different ways that you could use personalization within your shop, regardless of what Niche or target audience that you are working with. And my special treat for this is the next bonus video where I will walk you through exactly how to set up a personalized listing, both on the Etsy side as well as on the print provider side of things, and then how you actually navigate an order when it comes in. So make sure that you look for that video as well. And that brings us to the end of Show more

this module. So again, we've already worked through the basic foundations of products, SEO and design, so that we can get confident on those areas. And then, Within These later modules, we've been building in integrated supports of consistency and value and then traffic in the next module, so that we can continue to build on and sustain the success within our shop. And don't think I forgot about homework for this one. I want to keep it simple for you and just have you do a shop reflection. Can you identify at least one product style that could be personalized for your Niche? Again, think outside the box and think about your ideal buyer and what they might think is something neat to have personalized. The other thing I want you to do, as it relates to value, is verify that you've clearly communicated details about the printing process and style expectations in your listing. So, again, you are setting those expectations for your customer and they understand the value of the product that they are Show more

receiving. And then also look at additional details that you can add to your product listing is to help communicate to potential customers. The key to to having great reviews is by helping the customer understand exactly what they're going to get and then being able to deliver on that promise or, as I've said, under promise and over deliver. So if you're very clear that what they are getting- for example, if it's direct to garment printing, is different than Screen Printing and vinyl, they will know right off the bat that it's a different same thing with shipping and when they can expect to receive it. If you provide that longer production and shipping window and they get it much sooner, they are typically going to be happy campers and talk about that in their review. So there are several ways that this can help to add value to your shop. As you're working on achieving things like the star seller badge and providing seller customer service, as I said, make sure you stay tuned for the upcoming bonus video on how to, step by step, create a personalized product and fulfill that within your shop, and make sure you stick around for the final module on mastering traffic. You are so close to the Finish Line, my friend. Hang in there, keep going Show more

and we'll see you on the next one Show more