Scenario #1: One of our services is called City Landing Pages. With this service, we bring in one of our copywriters to create 10 landing pages on a member’s site. The typical timeline for this service is about 5-7 business days and includes you being the main point of contact for the member throughout the service, even though you’re not the one actually doing the work.
You had a writer confirm that they wanted to take on the project but they missed the due date and haven’t done any of the work. After multiple follow-ups, you can’t get any response from them and have to take matters into your own hands. You’ve already told the member when they can expect to receive their completed pages (let’s say that day is tomorrow).
What do you do? How do you rectify the late delivery of the service with the member? How do you get the service completed? Please type out a draft of an email that you would send to that member.
Response:
Victor, good morning.
I wanted to let you know that, due to an unexpected lapse in communication from the copywriter who originally agreed to the work, we will likely miss our targeted delivery of your landing pages on 12/22. After repeated attempts to reach the initial copywriter this week with no response, I have assigned a new copywriter and will be in close communication with them to ensure minimal delay and that your landing pages line up with our high standard of quality. I will keep you closely updated on our progress and update your billing date accordingly. This certainly does not reflect the service we strive to deliver and I apologize for the delay!
If you have any additional questions or would like to call, please let me know and I will be happy to answer. Again, I apologize for the delay in your project and will see to it that these pages will be finished as soon as possible.
Thank you, Taylor
Scenario #2: Another one of our services is called a Quickstart (QS). Our sales page for this service very clearly outlines the 13 points of what we do and explicitly states that the Quickstart does not include any content edits on the member’s site.
Bob orders a QS and submits his intake form with the necessary information. Upon completion of the service (you’ve done everything perfectly and followed the process to a T), Bob reaches out expressing frustration that there is no content on his site focusing on probate targets.
How do you deal with Bob’s frustration? What do you do to clear up Bob’s confusion with the service that he purchased? Please type out a draft of an email that you would send to that member and your solution to the problem.
Response:
Hello Bob,
I appreciate you letting me know about your experience with the Quickstart service and apologize if it was not clear that content editing is not included—if I had realized this was your understanding at any point in the project, I would have certainly reached out to explain and assist! The intent of the Quickstart service is to provide the 13 most important things for your website in order to make it ready for business—as noted on our Quickstart page, the exclusion of content editing helps keep the cost of the service down to make it affordable and accessible to our members.
While content editing is not included in Quickstart, we have a wealth of resources available to help you edit your site now that it is up and running, starting with this link to Carrot’s Site Tutorial page here. We want to ensure you are fully empowered to make it your own, and outside of our tutorials, I suggest taking some time to look at our new visual editor feature (linked below) that is free for all Carrot members—it’s an awesome tool that I believe will really help with adding content to your page and being able to see those changes in real time!
https://carrot.com/blog/visual-editor-announcement/
Thank you again for reaching out, Bob—I hope this addresses your question and gives you a good start on how to begin adding and editing content to your new Carrot website. As always, you can reach out to our Carrot Support team if you have any additional questions from 8am-5pm Mon-Fri (PST) here.
Thank you, Taylor
Scenario #3: It’s Thanksgiving week and you have Thursday & Friday off. Yay! Unexpectedly, one of your team members has a family emergency and is out the entire week. Meaning you’re covering all incoming/outgoing orders Monday – Wednesday. It’s now your responsibility to juggle your already heavy task load as well as covering for your teammate. That includes getting in the trenches and responding to their emails, making sure due dates are hit, orders are processed, etc.
What are some strategies that you would use to make sure that you’re correctly prioritizing tasks?
Response:
I find thorough communication is key in understanding and setting expectations for both myself and the customer:
- First, I would review communication between my teammate and Carrot members they were assisting to map out the current state of projects, delivery deadlines, and any potential speed bumps. I would use this to create daily task list, outlining what I would need to accomplish Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in order to successfully deliver all projects and complete tasks on time.
- Next, I would read over any communication between the teammate and copywriters to ensure I’m not missing any details and fill in as needed.
- From there, I would contact members to establish myself as the new primary contact and update them on any changes or interruptions, with a clear goal of 100% on time delivery.
- Each day, I would evaluate the task list and adjust as needed, keeping close communication with both client and copywriter. I typically set reminders for emails that need responses by the end of the day to ensure no questions are left unanswered and no assumptions made.
I understand this would likely mean putting in some additional hours to ensure my teammate and my own projects are both sufficiently covered. This is something I would be happy to do, with gratitude for a team that I know would do the same for me and an understanding that life’s circumstances require us to call in for some backup now and then.
