How We Handle Negative Reviews: A Lesson from Black Friday

We believe that sharing both our successes and challenges helps us grow as a company and build trust with you, the worldwide tufting community. This week, we wanted to address a negative review we recently received and explain how we are learning from it to improve your experience.

The 2-star review reads:

“After my order they canceled some of the products three times so only got a fraction of my order.”

This feedback highlights a failure on our part during our Black Friday sale.

What went wrong?

Our e-commerce system was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of orders coming in during the Black Friday sale. It was pure chaos, when we launched our wool yarn at a historical discount. Selling out most of the stock in less then 3 hours – instead of it being available for about a week as we first expected.

While we keep our inventory very accurate, a few items were still oversold in rare cases. Because some orders that were processed seconds later were left incomplete because the stock had already been claimed. We take full responsibility for this situation and acknowledge the frustration.

How are we fixing it?

Any customer that had a part of their item refunded will receive a discount on a new order so they can still have the opportunity to claim their original Black Friday savings.

Behind the scenes, we have implemented changes to ensure this doesn’t happen again:

1. Upgraded Systems: We’ve introduced a new stock management system that handles order statuses more effectively. As orders move through stages like pending payment, paid, fulfilled, and shipped, the system now updates stock levels in real-time to prevent overselling.
   
2. Proactive Measures: During peak sale events, we’ve added safeguards to ensure that stock availability updates dynamically, even under high traffic. This will help us better manage inventory during future sales.
   
3. Improved Communication: If a similar situation arises—though we’re working hard to ensure it doesn’t—we’ll be quicker to inform customers about potential delays or stock issues and offer immediate resolutions. During our next sale, we will closely monitor stock changes.

Looking Ahead

While this was a learning moment for us which resulted in a (very valid) negative review, we’re using it to improve. We’re committed to growing and ensuring that your experience with Tufting Europe is seamless. To everyone who’s ever given us feedback, whether positive or negative, thank you. Your input helps us become better.

We’re excited to share that new yarn colors are dropping soon, and with our updated system in place, we’re ready to handle the excitement. Thank you for being part of our journey, and we’re looking forward to continuing to support your creative projects.