When you sell on Etsy, what’s the number 1 thing besides your product quality that impacts customer reviews and shop success? Dramatic pause…Customer service. Selling on Etsy means you handle all the communication with the customer, unlike programs like Merch by Amazon where they handle everything for you. How do you handle questions and concerns from customers and generate 5-star reviews? Stick around and let’s talk about it. 

Etsy – It’s Serious Business

Your Etsy shop is a full-fledged business, even if you’re a sole proprietor and don’t have a formal business entity like an LLC. It’s something to take pride in because you’re making all the creative and business decisions. Sure, you’re still subject to Etsy’s seller policies and rules, but you’re there because Etsy is bringing millions of shoppers to the platform to view your products, the same reason you would sell on any existing marketplace vs. starting your own site. It’s still a complete business that you are running. You are responsible for designs, sourcing a production partner to make and ship the products, setting pricing, shop policies and shipping, marketing and brand development, and of course, communicating directly with customers. 

The most important thing I could point out in this whole discussion is that good customer service in reality takes very little effort (gasp) even though it has a significant impact on your shop’s success. It may only take a few minutes for me to quickly respond to a customer’s question, so I answer as soon as I receive one, rather than saying to myself “I’ll respond to that later”. This minimal effort can make the difference between good and bad service. There are very few customer service situations that truly require a lot of work on your part to resolve. Even when a customer receives a defective or damaged product and wants a replacement or a refund, for print on demand at least, it only takes a few minutes of your time to resolve. Don’t let yourself pass off these small interactions as unimportant. That’s exactly what companies with reputations for bad customer service do. Instead, treat every interaction like it is important and put yourself in the customer’s shoes when thinking about how you are going to answer a question or resolve an issue for them. 

You’ll receive questions, requests, praise, and complaints, and how you respond to all of it has an impact on the image of your shop. Reviews from customers have a figurative and literal impact on your shop’s success, so you need to keep your customers happy and earn positive reviews. You will occasionally have to make some hard decisions, such as whether to make an upset customer happy and possibly absorb a financial loss, or let them stay upset and potentially leave a one-star review. Let’s talk through all the basics of customer service for Etsy so you can focus on all the other responsibilities you have as a business owner. 

The Impact of Reviews

I’m going to start by addressing reviews because nearly everything else we’re going to talk about in this episode can have an influence on what kind of review a customer will leave. Every interaction you have with the customer can impact the types of things they will say in their review, it’s not just about the physical product they receive. Of course, they need to be happy with the product, but if they communicated with you at all, that’s likely to show up in the review as well. For example, I occasionally receive a question from someone who is interested in buying an item from my shop, such as a question about sizing or color options. I try to answer promptly because they are making a decision about purchasing my product. I’ve actually seen comments in reviews left by these individuals after receiving their order such as “the seller was very responsive” in addition to their comments about the product. It’s important to note that this could have ended differently – if I was very slow to respond, I may not have made the sale at all but if I did, the review may have said “seller was not very responsive” even if it was still an overall positive review. Why does that matter? Because more and more, customers are reading reviews before deciding to purchase items online. So you want to minimize any negative comments in your reviews whenever possible. Customers who are considering buying something from your shop are likely going to scan over some past reviews and will be looking for red flags like comments about poor quality products, or a seller who is difficult to deal with. 

Reviews on Etsy have a second impact on your shop, because Etsy uses a seller’s reviews as a consideration in determining your listings’ search placement. Here is a direct quote from an Etsy help article called How Etsy Search Works: 

“Great reviews, completed About section, and completed shop policies can all help your placement in search.”

Source: How Etsy Search Works

They are telling sellers that reviews have an impact on how prominent your listings will be in terms of search placement. So it’s not only the public’s perception of your shop that will suffer if you receive several negative reviews, your chances of making future sales will be directly impacted by lower placement in search results as well. Now that we’ve covered the importance of getting positive reviews, let’s cover a few of the most common types of customer service interactions and best practices to keep customers happy. 

Let’s start with some good news. Print on demand platforms like Printify and Printful have full support teams ready to assist sellers when things don’t go as planned with an order. After all, they only continue making profits if you keep making sales, so they want customers to be happy with the products they receive too. If a customer receives an item that was missed in a quality-control check, they usually are quick to have a replacement made or provide a refund if you request it. There are a few things to be aware of to make it a smooth process for the customer and come out with a positive review. 

First and foremost, always apologize. Since you will never be physically involved in making the product, it will never be your direct fault that a t-shirt wasn’t printed correctly or a mug arrived broken. But you’re the face of the business so it’s up to you to let the customer know you wanted a better experience for them. It will take you only a few seconds to start a sentence with “I’m so sorry to hear that”, but it matters to the customer so never skip it. One important thing to note is that your print on demand platform is going to want at least one photo, sometimes a few, that show both the damage or defect as well as the full design on the product. They want this because it serves as proof that the item is defective, and also proof that it’s the item from your shop. There is no shortage of scammers out there, so they can’t approve every request for a refund or free replacement they get without some proof that there was actually a problem with the item. So if your customer didn’t provide at least one clear photo in their first message to you, be sure to ask them for photos before you submit your support request. 

You may occasionally get someone who questions why you need photos. In my experience this is very rare because if they’re telling you the truth, there’s no reason not to send a photo. However I still like to give them a reason why, and put a positive spin on it. I like to tell them that I would like photos because I share them with my supplier and it might help avoid the issue happening in the future. This is not untrue, because if someone made an avoidable mistake in the printing process, it can be shared with the appropriate contacts at the print provider’s facility. But more importantly, it preempts anyone questioning why I need a photo. 

Once you have the necessary photos from the customer, there’s one more thing to verify before submitting your support request, and that is whether they would like a refund or replacement. They may have already stated this in their original message, so be sure to check that first. If they didn’t say anything about this yet, then you can thank them for sending the photos and ask them if they would prefer a refund or a replacement. I like to say I’m happy to provide whichever they would prefer. Once they reply, let them know you’ll be in touch soon – either with the tracking number for their replacement or details about the refund. Now you’re ready to submit a request to your print on demand platform. 

Both Printify and Printful have simple user-interfaces for submitting a support request directly from the individual order record. I have a video on the YouTube channel about submitting a request when there is a damaged item so check that out if you want a walk-through of the process.

Be sure to indicate up-front whether the customer wants a replacement or a refund. If you’re requesting a replacement, you won’t need to message the customer again until you have the tracking number. If you requested a refund, you’ll need to go back into your Etsy seller account to process the refund for the customer as soon as support replies to confirm they are refunding the production cost. I also like to send a final message back to the customer confirming that I’m processing the refund and they will receive a separate email confirmation with that information. In my experience, after handling this situation for them and maintaining communication, customers are very appreciative of your prompt and courteous service, even though they ultimately have a delay in getting an acceptable product delivered. 

Customers may contact you for many other reasons, so let’s explore some more examples. 

Questions & Requests

I already referenced how answering a simple question can have a positive impact on the customer’s experience and lead to positive reviews so I won’t go too much further with that point, but I do want to point a couple other things out. When you receive a question from someone who has not made a purchase yet, don’t treat it as something that’s not worth your time simply because they haven’t bought something yet. A person asking you to verify estimated shipping times or the brand of apparel that you use or some other similar question might be planning to purchase one t-shirt or a hundred t-shirts, so give them the same attention you would give someone who has already placed an order. 

When it comes to questions from customers who already placed an order, your responsiveness can sometimes be even more important. For example, if your customer just placed an order and then realized they used the wrong shipping address, you need to address that quickly (pun intended). Let’s say that your print on demand platform is Printify and you have your account set up with automated order submission with the minimum hold period of 1 hour, so the order will be submitted to production automatically after a 1 hour waiting period. You only have 60 minutes to review the customer’s message and update the shipping address before the order is submitted. Once it’s submitted, you may still be able to get the address updated, but only if it hasn’t started in the production process yet. If you don’t review this quickly enough, you could find yourself having to tell the customer that you could not update the shipping address and it would be because you didn’t give their request prompt attention. In that case, you should expect to take some type of action to make up for it, like giving a partial refund or paying for a duplicate order to send to their correct address so they don’t have to wait for the original to be returned. This headache could have been easily avoided by reviewing and responding to their message promptly. If you have commitments other than your Etsy shop that prevent you from reviewing customer messages regularly, you may want to consider giving access to your Etsy account to someone else you trust to help with customer service, such as a spouse or family member that doesn’t mind helping out. I personally have a 9 to 5 job but I check my Etsy shop’s email a few times each day, but because I can’t guarantee that I will see a message within 60 minutes, I do not have my Printify account set up for automatic order submission with the 1-hour hold period.  

Requests could include requests to make changes to an order, or even requests for a custom order. These situations you can decide how to handle on a case by case basis, but always be polite and positive in your tone even if you are not going to do what the customer is asking. Print on demand has some limitations, such as being able to change an order after it has been sent to production. Most platforms don’t let you cancel or change anything about the order once the provider starts the process of making the item. This is to prevent losing money and it’s very understandable, but of course it sometimes means we can’t do something for a customer. If a customer orders a medium t-shirt and then 24 hours later sends you a message asking to change it to a large, you might be out of luck. If the order cannot be cancelled on the print on demand platform, then you would not be able to send them the different size without incurring a loss yourself. In this situation you would have to tell the customer that unfortunately, because each item is made to order and their order has already started the production process you won’t be able to change it. Depending on how they respond to that, you have a few options on how to resolve it. 

They may not respond at all, and that does happen. But if they do respond, they might be understanding and just say a simple “thank you” or they might complain that because the order hasn’t shipped yet, they should be able to change it. If it becomes clear that they will not be satisfied until you can change the order, it’s time to consider your options. You could choose to create a second order for the different size and absorb the cost because you could not cancel the first one, or you could try offering a compromise to the customer. Your shop policy on returns also becomes relevant in this situation. If you don’t accept returns, which is common for print on demand because there is no great way to handle returns in the print on demand business model (there is no inventory of finished products, after all), then your customer won’t be able to return that first shirt which is the size they don’t want. This will make them even less happy. One important factor for you to consider is that it would cost you even more to accept a return, because you will have to buy a return shipping label (customers never want to pay for return shipping). So on top of losing money on the order, you lose more on the return shipping. It’s actually cheaper to let them keep the shirt and send them a second one for free. But, there is a compromise that has worked for me in the past when a customer asks about exchanging for a different size. This compromise can work in those cases as well when the customer requests a different size but we couldn’t edit the existing order like the example we’ve been discussing. 

This compromise involves explaining to them (politely) that you don’t accept returns or exchanges because every item is made to order. But then you offer a coupon code which will reduce the cost of ordering a second t-shirt to your cost, so you don’t make any additional profit. I like to offer this because it shows that I don’t want to make any additional profit off this situation, I just want them to get the size they need by covering the cost. You just need to figure out what coupon percentage will get the revenue down to your cost after Etsy fees are removed, and you can use an Etsy fee calculator for that like the one on Alura’s website and that’s alura.io. Once you know the correct percentage for the coupon, Etsy actually makes it very easy to create it. Go into the Marketing tab in your shop dashboard, and then select Sales & Discounts. Use the option to create a coupon code, then select the percentage needed and give the coupon a name. You can make the coupon code valid forever (you can still deactivate it if needed) or expire on a set date. Then you proceed and add only the item necessary for the customer and save the coupon (for more info see this Etsy Help article). Now you can give the coupon code just to this customer and they will use it at checkout. Of course, you can wait until the customer replies to do this, because if they don’t take you up on the offer you don’t need to create the coupon. 

I’ve made this offer to at least a dozen customers since my shop opened in 2020, and I’ve had a few customers take me up on the offer, and others who did not. The reason I keep using this strategy is because it has never resulted in a negative review, at least not yet. I believe the simple act of offering something and being polite is enough to let the customer know you’re a reasonable person who doesn’t intend to dismiss or ignore them, and that usually prevents negative reviews. 

Now I’ve completely gone from the topic of requests & questions into handling a complaint or request to return something, but the strategy I use felt applicable for multiple scenarios so now you know how I handle those. But what about a real complaint, when the customer refuses to accept any compromise and has made it clear they won’t be satisfied until they get what they want?

Handling Complaints

Every once in a while, you might run into a customer who refuses every offer you can make and will only be satisfied if you meet their demands. This could be because they know they hold the power to give you a scathing 1-star review that other potential customers will see, or they could simply be that upset about their order experience. 

Let’s say a customer has ordered a sweatshirt from you and they send you a message that they are not happy with the size. They might say something like “this is way smaller than I expected and there’s no way I can wear it”. The first thing I like to do is try to identify if there’s a chance they were sent the wrong size or if there might be a defect. So when the size is the issue, I ask them to confirm they received the size they ordered, and then review the size chart in the listing and let me know if the measurements are significantly off compared to what they received. This may seem like I’m maying them jump through hoops but it serves two purposes – first, it reinforces the fact that I expect customers to review the size chart since my shop does not accept returns or exchanges, and I state this in all my listings. So it’s a very subtle reminder that we, as sellers, are not responsible for someone who chooses to purchase clothing online without properly reviewing the size information. But it also opens the door to possibly identifying a defect. The only way we can get our money back or have a replacement sent for free is to prove the item is defective. For example, if the standard size of a medium sweatshirt is 20 inches wide and the item the customer received is 15 inches wide, that would be well outside the manufacturer margin of error and if you can get a photo showing this measurement and the sizing label, you in theory could get a refund from the print on demand platform or have a free replacement sent. But if what they received is accurate to what they ordered, there is no chance of having a replacement or refund provided from the print on demand platform. 

Once we have exhausted that option and no defect was identified, we have a couple directions we could go here. One direction involves likely getting a 1-star review and potentially having a customer complaint case submitted to Etsy. The other direction involves cutting your losses and avoiding a bad review. Let’s consider both. If you choose to respond something like “I’m sorry, but since the item you received matches the size information in the listing, and because we do not accept returns or exchanges, I’m unable to provide a refund or exchange.” You could always offer the “get another size at cost” coupon strategy that I previously discussed, but for this example we’ll assume this customer would refuse that option. So if you go in this direction to hold firm on your shop policy, which is your right to do, this may result in a 1-star review with negative comments and potentially a complaint submitted to Etsy admin. Now, the customer would have no case against you because your shop policies are shown on every listing so they have no grounds to demand a refund when they are agreeing to your shop policies at the time of purchase. However it’s still a headache to have to respond to a formal complaint, and all future potential customers will see this negative review. Not to mention the impact negative reviews have on search which I addressed earlier. But some sellers choose to do this and it’s your prerogative if you feel strongly about sticking to your shop policies. However I prefer to go in the other direction.

When it comes to this point where I know the customer won’t be satisfied with anything less, I usually go ahead and provide them a refund and absorb the loss. I do not ask them to return the item because that would just cost more due to the return shipping. I like to suggest they donate the item after I process the refund. My philosophy on this is that I would rather lose the $20 on the sweatshirt and maintain my positive review history and search placement priority. The loss can be written off as a tax deduction, and I will avoid a headache. Now of course, you shouldn’t have to do this very often, and I only find myself resorting to this once every few months, and sometimes it’s for less expensive items. How you handle this one is up to you, but in my opinion it’s worth taking a loss once in a while to keep customers happy. 

Conclusion

If you apply the basic principals of good customer service and put forth the minimal effort it takes to respond to customers quickly and kindly, you’ll find that getting positive reviews with glowing comments is easier than you might have imagined. Providing a good quality product is only part of the equation when it comes to the success of your Etsy shop and you don’t control every aspect of product quality since print on demand is relatively hands-off when it comes to the physical product. However customer service is totally within your control, so don’t overlook it. 

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platform to be notified of future episodes and don’t forget to check out the POD Insights YouTube channel for print on demand tutorials and tips as well. I want to give a big shout out to all the YouTube channel subscribers because the channel just reached over 1k subscribers within the last week and I really appreciate all of you. It’s so great to think that sharing my learnings might be helping others get into print on demand selling because I really do believe it’s a terrific opportunity. Also don’t forget to check out the website for a full list of my recommended resources and transcripts of every episode.  

Thanks for reading.