Inventive ways to interact with customers

increasing credibility with little costs

[palain]

I make custom widgets.

I request clients to send me pictures to post on my website after about 1 - 2 months.

I get a few things back

1 - NO response (assume customer is satisfied)
2 - I get a picture and remark on how they love my product
3 - I get a dissapointed client because they didn't follow the instructions and ruined their widget.

2 increases my credibility and put pictures of proud customers on my web site.

but 3 is the most difficult to deal with.

I have decided to resend the item to the clients who are dissatisfied. I also remind them that I would appreciate a picture after they have successfully applied their custom widget.

Since this widget is used in groups (Police stations fire stations or rescue teams) it makes sense to do the extra work and give preemptive service - offering a replacement at no cost even while it was the customer's fault.

Anyone else have had such experiences?

What other ways do you use to increase your credibility besides a survey or having the customer write a review?

[HRoth]

I ask my customers to send in pictures of their widgets in use, and some do and they are usable, so for that, I give them $25 worth of widgets and I mention on the site that the pic was sent in by "first name" if they want, otherwise by "a customer." I should promote this more. I have thought of asking if people who send in remarks would let me put them up with, say, initials identifying them, but I as a customer am never impressed by customer remarks on sites unless they are reviews.

One shop I know has a neat thing where each product page has room for customers to add reviews below the fold. These are often actually helpful, as they often contain a bit more info than the page. Their site is a lot more sophisticated than mine, but I hope to redo it this summer. I am just not sure how they do that.