Last week I bought some cookies

Really delicious, full of chocolate, vanilla-y chunky New York style cookies. They’re proper treat cookies (I found them on Instagram, need I say more?) They come in a sort of gift pack with some extras and one of the glass jars was broken on delivery.

I’m not about naming and shaming (so don’t ask) so I simply wrote an email to customer service telling them that my product had arrived damaged and asked them what the procedure was from here. I also went and had a look at the FAQs on their website. That was when I saw my first red flag. I read that the retailer took no responsibility for delivery of the product.

It was not a massive shock to me, then, that the response to my email was they would not replace the broken jar, their courier did not cover breakages, they considered their packaging adequate – but, as a concession, the next time that I order, I should get in touch and ask for the broken product to be replaced in that order.

While it wasn’t a shock, it was disappointing.

I’m the customer.

I expect, if I pay for a product, to receive the product in usable (eatable!) condition.

In fact, I looked up the Consumer Trade Act to see if it’s legal. (Spoiler alert, I don’t think it is).

I don’t know when (or even if!) after this experience I will order from this small business again. And I don’t think I should be out of pocket, or that it should be my responsibility to remember on a new order to get in touch with the retailer.

It’s just bad customer service all around.

At the very least, I expect, as a customer, to receive the product I paid for.

I’ve learned lots over the past few years, as a small business owner myself, working with people to support them in their self-publishing journey.

Probably the biggest thing that I’ve learned has been about service and customer service and what constitutes success in the kind of partnerships I form with my clients.

I used to think that I’d failed every time I worked with a client who did not write and publish their own book. That I did not provide the product that they had paid for.

I no longer think that.

What I’ve learned that not everyone is ready to write a book – so I have a free quiz (you can take it here: https://writenowwitherinchamberlain.scoreapp.com/ ) that provides me with all sorts of information so that I don’t take people on who are not ready.

I used to tie myself up in knots when people bought a programme from me and didn’t write and publish their book. I used to think it was my responsibility to deliver the outcome that I’d promised and that it was a failure on my part when my clients did not write or publish their books.

What I now know is that I show up, I help my clients with accountability, information, I give them a place to write, I help them make their publishing decisions. (Usually, I go too far with the information I provide. Hello boundary work that still needs to be strengthened.)

I’ve learned that when I’ve given everything I can, that my client must show up to write their book, must have the resources to publish their book and I can’t do that for them.

I might not always provide the outcome for my clients that I want them to achieve, but I give them everything I have to give.

I’ve learned that if someone buys access to my writing groups that it’s not my responsibility to make them show up to write. I am there, opening my zoom room, six hours a week. (Or if I am not, I’ve arranged someone else to do this for me.) I have provided my client with a product that is a tool to help them build a habit. But they need to show up and write there.

I used to get myself all tied up in knots when my clients would join The Write Now Experiment and not turn up to write.

I’ve learned that it’s not my responsibility, nor am I able to force someone to write when they don’t want to or no longer see the value in it.

Being a small business owner is a ride, isn’t it! Often a white-knuckled one, careering out of control down from the heights of the rollercoaster, collecting whiplash as you are thrust around a corner…

But I’m no longer taking responsibility for my clients who discover that they are writing the wrong book or that they can’t make the time to write or that they don’t have the capacity to follow through on their investment to publish their books.

If something arrives broken, ask me to fix it and I’ll do everything I can to make sure you have what you bought from me – no broken jars of disappointment here.

But I am showing up for my part of working with my clients.

All I ask is for is to work with clients who are all in too.