How Not to Treat Your Customers
Want a shining example of how NOT to treat your customers? Just this weekend I learned that Flothemes is discontinuing their support of their website themes, which is the website that I have. Did you know that they actually announced this on THEIR website and Facebook page/group in September of 2023? I am never on their website nor do I visit their Facebook page often (again, because I loved my website!). They didn’t even email me, a happy customer, with their announcement so I’m finding out about this a good 6 months later. WOW. Just, WOW. Thanks so much.
Flothemes got bought by Pixieset a couple years ago and back then, they said nothing would change. But instead, they decided to discontinue supporting Flothemes websites for their 40K customers, and asked us not to update WordPress. That’s the fix to ensure our websites still work (!!!) . And then on top of this, they invited us to migrate (or maybe it was purchase) to a Pixieset site. After being treated like this? Are you kidding me?
So if you read all the comments on their Facebook page, even photographers who used Pixieset as their gallery storefront are leaving in droves and moving over to Pic-Time. Their trust in Pixieset is ZERO. (Luckily I was already with Pic-Time and LOVE them!)
We all know that gaining a new customer and keeping a customer is dependent on the Know, Like, and Trust model. If a customer doesn’t know about you, they won’t know to hire you. If they don’t like you, they won’t hire you. If they don’t trust you, they certainly won’t hire you, even if they knew you and liked you before. And the number one rule in customer service is taking care of your customers, wouldn’t you agree? We work to build and KEEP their trust.
So if you’re in this same situation like I am, consider this a learning experience (after you’re done being pissed). What am I going to do? Read below:
Two things:
- I am pivoting. I researched all my options for a new website and I see two good ones. Move to Showit and keep my Blog on WordPress (I’ve heard Ah-mazing things about this set-up.) or stay with WordPress for everything and stay with Siteground hosting (love them!) and move to a Kadence platform with Stylecloud.co. (They have a sweet solution for Flothemes customers who don’t want to leave WP and they’ve been fantastic to chat with! – talk about GREAT customer service!) I also don’t want to screw up my SEO I’ve worked so hard to build, nor do I want to spend a ton of time and money on something I wasn’t planning on doing anytime soon. Grrrrr.
- I am taking a good, hard look at MY customer experiences and making sure I am giving them the best service possible at all touch points. When have you last done this for your business?
Okay, end of my rant. I try not to be negative in my posts, but this was worth sharing. I hope you have found some helpful nuggets in here.
xo always,
Kim
Kim Hildebrand
Photographer & Online Educator since 2007
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