Everyone loves dealing with happy customers but how does your company handle those times when you’ve made a mistake? The handing of that customer service situation can be difference between repeat business and lost sales.
Multiple surveys have found that unhappy customers tell lots of people about their experiences. This is free advertising you want to avoid. So how do we Clear the Path of this sticky situation?
In recent weeks, I’ve had several different experiences:
With Gillette, the plastic assembly at the top of a can of shaving cream fell apart in my hands. I learned that American Express had incorrect information posted on its website about where a card could be mailed. And website hosting company, Startlogic, mistakenly cancelled my account.
In each case, I reached out to the company. Before you say, “Switch to decaf, dude,” remember that if you don’t give feedback, frustrating situations are not likely to change. Here’s an overview of how the three companies handled my complaints.
Gillette immediately apologized for the problem and sent me a coupon for a free can of shaving cream.
I wasn’t happy with the confusing response I received on the phone from American Express. But later someone from the company’s social media division noticed an unhappy message I posted on Twitter. That person admitted that the company had a problem, thanked me for discovering it, and apologized. A few days later I received a call where someone else from American Expressed thanked me for my input and patience. She also told me that a gift card would be mailed to me for my trouble.
Startlogic provided me with a frustrating experience as I had to repeatedly explain the problem to multiple employees in order to get everything back to where it was. Still, the company did apologize and provided me with a credit, should I wish to continue doing business with them. But I never received an answer to my question: How did this problem happen and how will you keep from it happening again?
So what should you do? Think about these areas:
Compensation: Does your business have a policy for handling unhappy customers? Do you automatically give him or her the benefit of the doubt and issue a refund or other compensation?
If you’re nervous about spending too much on bogus claims, have someone serve as a customer advocate. That person’s job is to review the claim and decide whether it has merit.
Yes, this costs time and money but it might be less than the cost of losing customers. Make sure you have a some kind of process in place and that its fairly applied.
Apologies: A sincere apology can go a long way with customers. Most people just want some acknowledgement of a frustrating experience.
Does your team have scripts for apologies? Is it a smart idea to rely on your customer service employees to ad-lib these remarks? It’s also important to make sure apologies are delivered in a sincere and not a memorized fashion.
Follow Up: The most powerful thing you can do with an unhappy customer is to acknowledge the problem, investigate what happened, and then tell them if their comments led to a change or an improvement. Too often, I believe that businesses have acceptable levels of complaints, where nothing changes. The complaint is noted and perhaps put on a spreadsheet. But no action is taken.
This is a missed opportunity. People love to find out that they helped make something better. You pay big bucks for consultants to give you feedback, why not take the free information that’s coming from those who pay you.
Final Thought: If you don’t think it’s necessary to spend this much energy on unhappy customers, keep this in mind: The people who call or email you with complaints are the ones who take action and tell you when they are dissatisfied. Many won’t take that step. They’ll just leave and badmouth your business. See each complaint as a chance to fix a problem that many could be facing.
