The holiday shipping season is always a bit difficult and this past one had additional layers of complications.  However, most customers understand that this is the world we are now living in.  

They only ask that you communicate with them.

Let your customers know what is going on with their orders, let them know what is going on with the shipment of those orders, let them know that you haven’t taken their money and disappeared into the night.

Communicate.

Customers, employees, managers, every person anywhere just wants to know what is going on.  They may not like what they hear, but they’d rather hear something than nothing.  If a package isn’t going to make it to the destination on time, a customer would rather know sooner rather than later.  This gives them time to figure out a solution.  Time is something we don’t get back.  You can offer a monetary refund, but you can’t offer a customer their time back.  So don’t waste theirs.  Communicate with them.  Inform them of anything that they might need to know.  Trust is created when we know that the other person is being honest and forthright with us.  Don’t you want your customers to trust you?