What do YOU do when a customer complains...

Is it any different from RL? I do a lot of custom work. All but 2 of my customers have been very happy. The two in question requested ongoing changes to the work requiring many hours of extra work (which I did not charge for). In both cases, sale was finalized, item was purchased, and both had said throughout how happy they were with it. However, when I drew the line eventually (after many RL work hours) for modifying this or change that, they became angry. However, they are still using the items. Both of them have bad-mouthed me to other people. One of them actually tries to find out current customers to dis me. Now this is in spite of me clearly stating in my information note that refunds can be given if truly unhappy. Neither asked for that. They apparently just want free ongoing maintenance.

I guess I've almost reached the point where I feel custom work is not worth any amount of lindens.

Do many others have this problem? How do you deal with it? Isn't offering a refund enough? I take a lot of pride in what I do, I enjoy it, and am very hardworking at it. Is it perfect? I doubt it. I have yet to see a skin, hair, clothing item, house, or frankly anything in game that is "perfect". But it is made with care and to the maximum level of my ability and tools. The customers have seen my work before they hire me.

What I ended up doing so far is to write on my job card (which is turning into a novel) very specific "rules" for custom work. I'm now offering a specified and limited amount of RL time for modifications beyond the specs, otherwise it is charged. Any other suggestions?

Also, is it against TOS for that guy to run around seeking out my customers and bad-mouthing?

My own words of wisdom to persons wanting custom work would be this. Be clear on what you want. Don't just say, "Whatever you think, be creative!" and then complain about it. Know the difference between deliberate sloppiness and honest mistakes. If your usual way of thinking is "my way or the highway", it's probably best if you learn to do it yourself. And if you're not happy, tell the man! Don't just say "it's fine", pay for it, and then complain.

Any words of wisdom further on dealing with irate customers (or especially, ways to make your own terms of service more clear) would be appreciated.

Andy it sounds like your doing everything you can. If anything I would charge extra for modifications to the original work. Perhaps per piece or per hour. Custom work is just that you have to set limits or ppl will walk all over you. Sounds like you did that As for the badmouthing well of course that is not right. However if your good at what you do your work will speak for it's self and ppl will continue to business with you.

My best to you, sorry you went threw this.

Mar

Wisdom? No, sorry, I can't offer much of that. Just "Welcome to the Real World!" of the service industry.

Its like this in First Life. Why should it be any different in SL? And while it is a very good idea to specify what are your exact conditions and requirements for such a deal, it won't protect you from cases such as these. There is a type of customer, whose attitude can be best described as

This type of customer will never be satisfied just with a refund. It will never be satisfied if you don't accept his condition of working "till I smile. And if I don't smile ... keep working."

It's impossible to control or educate this type. If you meet them, you have to decide. Is the amount in question big enough? Do you need the job? If yes, accept and be prepared to grind your teeth a lot. If in doubt better refrain from accepting. A good sign for such a customer is usually when it is "impossible" to agree on briefings and specifications in a binding form or they stay vague throughout the entire briefing process.

What complicates this dilemma additionally is the fact, that there are "good clients", who share the attitude "I can't decide. Please just do and the we'll see or change it again". The "good client" accepts that this is his or her problem. And pays for it. They are rare, though

Never do free work.

If you sell a pre-made product charge for every modification required and charge a reasonably high fee. Do not group them or offer a discount because they need many and it is expensive; that is the whole point.

Be as clear as possible about what sort of modification they are looking for and if, after it has been done, they want just a tiny little change charge them full modification price for that as well.

Have them pay as you go along. If at any point they no longer wish to pay for another modification give them the product in the last state they paid for and wish them well.

This will both cut back on the number of modifications that people ask for and also cause them to think more carefully about which ones they really want.

I usually always tell my clients that technical service and maintenance are included in the original price. Which means if the item breaks (which happens a lot due to sheer size and SL limitations) I'll come personally to the place for free and try to help as best as I can. Same thing goes for maintenance (for example, a point in a slide where people happen to... uhmmm... fall out ) and updates.

This way of acting has made all my clients so far very happy. If you do this and act politely all the time, people will appreciate it, even those who aren't very polite themselves. After all, it isn't hard to put a smiley after some sentences, doesn't it?

However, custom work is an entirely different thing. I have seen that many people like to ask for a straight price from the beginning. In these cases I just tell them my price for custom work, then I create a fast bare-prims demo of the final work, and modify it in front of them until they like it (if the client is friendly enough and trusts me, I usually do directly the finished work).

Some other clients know that custom work costs money, but want it for free I usually respect this too and tell them that they may give me tips at the end if they think my work was worth. It is better to do this than the possibility of losing a future customer, as I have observed that people who buy once wil probably buy one of my products a second time. Also, surprisingly enough, tips are usually bigger than any amount I'd have asked for

I must say I have had incredibly good experiences with clients in SL, and many of them are now my friends. I think this has a lot to do with being extra-polite with your clients. It makes them happy and makes you feel well with yourself

If someone is having a problem, I try and help them out - if there are technical difficulties that can be fixed (a bug - some setup probs) I offer assistance.. if they need some coaching or a walk through - I try tomake time....

If they go beyond the bounds of what I think is reasonable - (something the item never did nor was advertised as doing but they want it to do anyways) I offer a refund...

If they persist or are rude - the Australian in me comes out and in no uncertain terms I tell them to go play a rousing game of hide-and-go-fuck-themselves, roll that $1 US up thier freckle, ignite it, and procede to do the dance of the flaming arseholes for all I care.

This doesn't happen often (maybe once a year) - on the whole I'd say 90% of my customers are fantastic - polite - encouraging - and patient.. This last update I had the chance to chat one on one with many of my return customers, and I think they are great.

I have two words of advice. But unfortunately one of those words is filtered.

I do software consulting/development in RL, and what prak said is absolutely correct and in my experience makes your relationship with customers far better. Mutual respect is key.

I've seen a couple of RL companies collapse because they got into the free customization business and it stopped new product development.

Having said that, IMHO if your builds have bugs or other problems, it's your complete responsibility to fix them or take them back. This also means you need to describe very clearly what your product does so people can make informed decisions.

I create solutions - sometimes very difficult - but one pissed off customer can do more harm than 5 satisfied customers.



_/_/_/

Yep. I do offer customization on some of my items, but requests are rare.
One person wanted a custom 'sabretooth' skinned version of my Maverick.
I said my prices start at about L$3,000. He could, of course, mod it himself.

there will always be that one person who cannot be satisfied. no matter how hard you try, how much you offer them etc, they just can't be pleased. the only thing you can do is thank them for their interest/business, offer them a refund, refer them to another builder, etc. sometimes it's just not worth killing yourself to try to please someone that can't be pleased.

As for complaints....

When I sold the Maverick (and subsequently the Sklunker) to Jaime, she had a problem with people driving off with the Maverick. I was offline for a week and couldn't fix it. So if course one or two very ignorant people filled up my Offline IM buffer with complaints.

Tip: WRITE A FULL F*CKING MESSAGE THEN SEND ONE TIME ONLY, AND WAIT FOR RESPONSE.

Contract, contract, contract

I would make a contract just like in real life. You have to be clear on what is your obligations and what is the customer obligations. Any breach is then dealt with appropriately.

There will always be unsatisfied customers at some point in time.. A contract is there to protect you or the customer. Without it, it is difficult to find middle ground.

Some of the things that i would put in a contract

PRODUCT
1- what it's suppose to do (be very specific)
2- estimate of cost (specify that cost can increase or decrease up to a margin of orginal estimate) and itemised all works that needs to be done.
3- delivery date ( and possible penalties if above the date)
4- etc..

PRODUCT SUPPORT
1- product defect (specify that only if defect is from original untouched product - any attempt by customer to modify would void this and then you can charge for time to fix)
2- Timeframe for maintenance IF APPLICABLE. Make sure you specify if maintenance is included in the original fees and how long the maintenance window will last.
3- specify also if there is a warrantee period if applicable. Meaning you say to the customer that he can "test' the product for a time period which he can return it with some refunds

One thing you can do is create different level of maintenance.. for example a gold level will give a customer let's say X hours of free maintenance per month, silver would give Y...etc... Of course the orginal fee of the item you create would reflect this maintenance agreement (gold fee would be higher.. etc...)

have fun!

Tip: Don't do custom work.



Often I'll make something along the lines of what a customer wants as a new product for my shop. If it's going a bit out of my way, or I'm really busy (like nowadays) I'll charge for doing it.

*Very* rarely I'll do 'proper' custom work, and charge scary, scary, scary high for it. I let the customer see it as it progresses, and make clear there will be one, or maybe 2 mods at most once I've finished a stage of it (prims, textures, scripts).

Once in a blue moon, a customer asks me to make something I consider 'fun' - I want to do it - and I charge them whatever they feel like paying.

Lastly - if it's a 2 second modification, I just mod it for them and say have a nice day.

It sounds to me like you're going above-and-beyond already, Andy. If you're that cooperative and considerate of even 2/3rd of your customers, that word will spread.

I take general requests, but I stopped doing any custom work. It simply isn't worth it financially, it eats up too much of my play time, and too many times the customer can't settle on what they want, which ends up taking all the fun out of doing anything, not to mention costing time and money.

Customer service is important, but there comes a point when you have to decide how much their money is worth to you. I'll gladly help my customers with most requests, and sometimes I'll toss around free stuff just to let them know I appreciate the return business, but I won't take shit from them. Bad attitudes and snotty demands will be met with a 'bugger off' and a banning from the property.

Charge by the hour.

Most people I buy from, if I needed a small change, if it's not too much they would be nice enough to do it. Like... I bought some swimtrunks from Tortuga. They were pants, I needed, because of they way I roll, underwear versions. I asked the creator, and she was kind enough to make them for me when she had a spare minute.
Thanks Baby.

Munchflower Zaius was kind enough to make a quick mod to a skin for me, I needed the area around the eyes lightened. People kept asking me if I'd fallen down some stairs.

So, funny story...

I run a free event center, where people can host events for free, without paying me anything. Mind you, this is a free service, and is no charge, and costs $0.

So anyway, I've had people come to me and say.. "Wow, this is nice, but what I REALLY want is a (for the sake of example, lets say..) fooball stadium. Usually, except for the giant genitalia, I have said.. "You know what, I'll build you a fooball stadium, because I like to build and it's a neat challenge and I can reuse it later if anyone else needs it. No charge, come back next week."

So, next week comes, and I'm just starting the fooball stadium, because, like, I have a life that doesn't work to SL's schedules. "That's not a very good fooball stadium, is it?" Well, no, I'm just starting, thanks, and might I point out that you haven't even booked your event yet, so it's not like there's a deadline.

Another week, I have a neat little fooball set up. I have grass and goal posts and chalked lines on the ground and even some bleachers and a hot dog stand. There's even some fake people sitting in the stands and everything. "I wanted something bigger!" Oh, well, sorry about that. This is really as big as it can get in this space, what with the private residents on all sides. I even blocked off part of a street!

This is where it gets surreal: The person a) wants their money back (what money??), b) wants a full-perm copy of the fooball setup since it was does 'for hire', c) feels I've ruined their ability to even have this un-booked event (umm, go somewhere bigger?), and d) will now badmouth me and tell everyone to boycott me.

This is actually the second time I've been boycotted (the first was after sim-banning someone who was repeatedly ramming one of the paying tenants). And you know, it's really put a crimp in my income.. well, it would if I made an income from this free service, that is. But the end result is because I did something nice for someone (but not nice enough), I'm now an evil rat bastard scum licker.

Yeah, it's pretty much like first life.

I feel for ya Casey! Thanks for all the responses. I think I was mostly blowing off frustration. Although I feel for you all, I am perversely feeling better knowing I'm not the only one. Thank ya thank ya thank ya

I have a few jobs on the waiting list and then may just take a break from it all--that sounded like the most peaceful suggestion right now.

Man, reading this makes me reconsider me publically advertising the fact that I do custom work on my vender over at Lost Furest...But it is just clothes and jackets so far, haven't got too much into building things for other people.

If it is a small, quick fix or modification then its not a big deal and I usually don't charge. For instance I had a customer who wanted the blue highlights removed from my panther skin. No biggie, five minutes in PS and I have a happy customer. If they are not happy with it or even if it isn't what they expected (although I use lots of pics and descriptions) I refund their money. I ask them to delete the item but there isn't any way to verify and I am cool with that. I have had maybe 6 in the last year and a half, most of which have been because they didn't read the description.