An e-commerce lesson from a local cafe
Every morning I start my day at work by buying coffee in one of Singapore's very familiar local cafes, Toast Box. I order two cups of coffee for me and my wife, the normal coffee with condensed milk & evaporated milk, to go or as they say it in SG, 'take away,' in separate plastic holders since we'll be bringing our coffee to our respective offices afterwards. That's my morning coffee routine.
After ordering almost the same thing for about two weeks in a row, the guy who makes the coffee when he saw me behind the person ordering at the counter looked at me and asked, "two kopi?" I said yes, and a minute later when I got to the counter and ordered, the 2 cups of coffee were waiting, according to how I've been ordering it After that, it's become an easy routine for me every work day. I just say yes every time the coffee guy asks me if I'm still ordering the same stuff and when I get to the counter, the coffee is there, ready to go, and I just pay for my coffee.
Amazing how a guy who makes coffee in a local cafe here in SG actually gets a very basic principle in e-commerce. This is how an online store should be. When a repeat customer comes back to your online store, you should be able to recognize them, have an good idea of what they wish to purchase again and make it as easy and smooth as possible, from the time they reach your store until they reach that point when they're about to pay for their purchases. If you do this, then your repeat customers will not only keep coming back, they'll be thrilled to tell others of their experience.
A Letter of Complaint for Cebu Pacific
For anyone who is into e-commerce, whether through online auctions, social media (think Multiply sellers) or a full transactional website with an online payment gateway, one important aspect stands out - return customers.
Having worked as an E-commerce Manager for a couple of years, I would always stress to clients and to audience in my talks that e-commerce essentially works because of trust. A buyer sends you their payment online trusting you will deliver the product or service you're offering. The first transaction is always the hardest because there is no relationship yet, but after that hurdle, once you deliver as promised, trust is established, a relationship is built, and you have yourself a customer who will most likely return and will share to their network of friends, family & colleagues the positive experience they have in your online store.
That's why I was so dismayed and irked by what happened to me when I recently bought an online ticket at Cebu Pacific. My letter of complaint below fully explains the details:
Dear Cebu Pacific:
This letter is to complain about service I recently received from your company with regards to errors in your online ticketing service and delays in refunding.
I bought an online ticket for my wife last October 5 for an October 11 return flight to Manila from Singapore for S$386.00 and received confirmation through email. The confirmation number for the flight was ZE3K5E. However, the following day I received another email which informed me that my online booking was invalidated because they cannot authenticate my credit card. I found this odd because this isn't the first time I booked a flight for my wife online and I already got a confirmation.
I called your customer care to inquire about the issue and was informed that you were experiencing some problems with your online ticketing service that time and had no way of authenticating foreign-issued credit cards (mine was issued by DBS, Singapore). I was informed that my only option was to buy from one of your sales offices here in Singapore. I clearly asked the customer care agent if what I bought was already charged to my credit card and was assured that it wasn't. Hence, I decided to just purchase my wife's ticket offline from one of your sales agents, particularly Pen Travel and Tours Singapore.
To my surprise and dismay, a month later I receive my credit card bill and still I get charged the S$386.00 for that particular online ticket with confirmation number ZE3K5E, the one that was supposedly invalidated because your online system could not authenticate it. I have called your customer care hotline three times already since getting my CC bill and every time, I get the same explanation from your representatives – they have informed your accounting department already but have no way to verify when I will be refunded.
Coming from the e-commerce industry myself, I fully understand issues in authenticating and verifying information (even though surprisingly I'm a repeat customer!) but what I don't understand is why there will be a delay in the refund when the supposed transaction took place more than a month ago and technically I never even purchased the said ticket because I was made to believe that it cannot be authenticated.
I expected a much higher level of service from your company, and I am very, very much disappointed. The way I see it, having to go through this ordeal, is that you don't trust me as a customer and you don't want to do business with me. I hope I won't have to spend any more time on this problem, I look forward to your response to my email and I expect my full refund. My friends, family and colleagues will certainly hear about this experience.
Sincerely,
Jonas de los Reyes
Just when will you ever get it Cebu Pacific?!
Update: This letter of complaint to Cebu Pacific was sent via email last week. I got a reply from a Ms. Daphne G. Ty (daphne.ty@cebupacificair.com) from Guest Services who expressed an apology in behalf of the airline and said they are coordinating with their Treasury department to ensure the amount was refunded to me in the soonest time possible. Today, I received an email from her again and to my delight and gratitude, I was informed that I have been fully refunded. I am happy and thankful that this has been finally resolved relatively sooner than I expected but the message still remains, Cebu Pacific needs to step up the way they handle customer information (know your repeat customes and make it easy for them to buy again, this is after all one of the advantages of e-commerce) and customer service (good customer care sense would actually mean giving the customer a token of apology for the inconvenienced they have caused) if they want to successfully make e-commerce work for them.
Remithome vs. Remit2home
What's in a domain name? Well, online it's almost everything (that's why Kevin Ham is what he is right now) and lately, more and more business have become very particular and protective of their online addresses. Which is why it didn't come as a surprise to me when one of Yehey!'s partners, remithome.com, a US-based remittance company, sent me a PR letter which stated in detail how they have won a court case versus Times of Money Ltd., an Indian company that owns and maintains the domains remit2home.com and remit2home1.com.
As the article stated, "The National Arbitration Forum of the United States affirms the trademark and domain name rights of remithome, a U.S. to Philippines online remittance service serving the remittance needs of Filipinos in the United States. The domain names remit2home.com and remit2home1.com are ordered transferred to remithome." For the complete article, check it out at Yehey! Finance.
The funny thing is, Times of Money Ltd. actually came to us before proposing a co-marketing deal, and they're one of Yehey!'s paying ad clients. When we mentioned this to remithome they actually expressed concern back then on the possible confusion the names can create. No wonder they decided to bring it court. Thankfully it's good news for them because the courts affirmed the registration and use in bad faith by Times of Money for the domains remit2home.com and remit2home1.com. And lesson learned for Times of Money, it's always best to build your own unique online identity rather than riding on another's popularity.
Send Your Love This Valentines!
Valentine's is just 6 days away and with all the hustle and bustle that this season brings, it's always refreshing to know that nowadays, you don't have to get caught unprepared because you can always go online to send your love to your one and only. 
The most highly recommended is Islandrose.net. Sending flowers is so easy with the different types and arrangements of rose bouquets to choose from, it offers free shipping and by clicking on the link, you can get a 5% discount by typing the code YEHEY-083024 upon checkout.
If you head over to PHGifts.com, you get to choose from different Valentine gifts (check out the teddy bears) and flower arrangements for that special someone. Again, if you type the discount code YEHEY upon every purchase, you get 5% off!
For more gift choices, check out Filgifts.com which offers (aside from flowers) cakes, jewelry, and even mobile phones (for the techie lover, hehehe).
Finally, if you're feeling generous this Valentines, you might want to give your girlfriend or wife aside from the standard bouquet of roses a pair of Melissa shoes. Go to Melissa Philippines' online store and discover the stylish designs from Grendene S.A., Brazil’s fashionable footwear giant. A pair of Melissa shoes will surely make your love one's Valentines day this year!
Spread the good news this Valentines and enjoy a truly happy hearts day with your one and only!
Withdraw Your PayPal Funds to Your Philippine Bank Account
This just came in the mail and it's good news for the growing e-commerce industry here in the Philippines. PayPal just announced its new withdrawal feature which now allows its Pinoy members to conveniently withdraw funds from their PayPal accounts to their local bank accounts.
According to the announcement in Ebay.ph, all local banks can be used to withdraw funds and it will take about 5 to 7 business days before the money is credited to your account. Also, withdrawals of Php7,000.00 and above will be free but for amounts less than 7k a fee of 50 pesos will be charged.
2008 really is the turning point for the e-commerce industry here in the country and this move by PayPal is just another indicator of the direction the industry is going. Let's see in the next few days how people will respond to the new service and how this will affect e-commerce here in general.