Should You Take a Loss to Make a Customer Happy?

Today what I want to share with you is if you should take a loss to make your customer happy.


A few weeks ago I made a sale Dropshipping and ran into a serious problem.  My supplier Home Depot ran out of the item online my customer bought.
I had a few options, first being to buy the item with express shipping and spend over $100 for a $40 item, to buy from another place such as Amazon for $80 or to go pick it up at the store, pack and ship the item myself but at least I wouldn't lose more than $5.

In reality I had two options that were "good" I could either 1: cancel the order all together and not lose any money, and leave the customer possibly pissed and not in any way happy with the result.  Or 2:  I could pick it up, get the item ready and ship it out to the customer.

Obviously I chose the second option to lose a few dollars and make someone happy with their purchase.  Why would I do this?

- First off the customer is number one
- If I lose a few dollars but the customer is happy he/she has a better chance of leaving a good review for me.
- If I lose a few dollars and the customer is happy he/she is also more likely to purchase from me again in the future for the service I have provided here.
- I am a service based business and look at the other persons situation. (If I was to purchase an item and someone "ran out of stock" because they would lose a few dollars I would be pissed!)  Wouldn't you?

Since I would like to get to the point and make this really simple and easy for you if you are struggling with or have to make this decision yourself is me asking you one question.  How much money are you willing to lose to make your customer happy?  This number will be different for everyone, for you it could be $5 or $500.

Closing thoughts.
I hope this blog helped you with your selling and made you and your customer happy.

Thanks for reading!
-Brian