Talk to your customers and actually listen

I had a very interesting exchange with a NicSocks.com customer recently.While reviewing failed subscription orders I noticed that two orders back to back were from New York and both customers had canceled their orders at the final checkout hurdle. This struck me as odd so I decided to contact each of them.One of the customers responded to me almost immediately. He explained that the shipping price was firstly not stated on the product page and secondly was unexpectedly high in comparison to the monthly cost of the subscription.I immediately apologised and explained that shipping to countries other than South Africa was a costly thing to do.Fortunately I don't work alone at NicSocks and Jen noticed that the site was set up incorrectly for this particular order and was charging this particular type of customer for shipping when it shouldn't be.If I hadn't have taken the time to email a customer who had chosen to cancel an order we would never had discovered this mistake. We have since rectified the error and I have contacted the customer to thank him for helping us discover this little bug.In short - contact your customers, listen to what they have to say and respond.