Lets face it, none of us like confrontation. We all like to go through life with as little anxiety and stress as possible and whether it be in a personal or in a business relationship we hate the prospect of having to deal with someone who is annoyed with us for one reason or another. In business you have plenty at stake and must ensure that you take on this kind of problem immediately should it arise.
Here are eight steps to take, to initiate damage control and to recover your unhappy customer:
1. The first thing that you must do is fully understand what is going on. Listen and gather all the facts, at least as far as they appear to the client, and be neutral. You can’t express any opinions, one way or the other unless you know what the problem is, but rather as you listen, summarize and make sure that you understand the issue in its entirety.
2. Strike while the iron is hot. Never leave an extended period of time go by and expect the situation may defuse somewhat through the passage of time. This is never the case and will likely exacerbate the situation. A rapid response is essential and will in itself be seen by the disgruntled client in a positive light. No matter how the situation could potentially have been resolved, a certain amount of damage will be done in any respect if you do not respond promptly.
3. Take responsibility for what is happening. The issue may well involve one of your staff, but understand where the buck stops. You are the one who has to do the damage control here and must understand that every element of your organization is within your control. The client will invariably see this as well and you must take ownership of the problem.
4. Apologize. At the very least, you are apologizing to the client that something has happened to make him or her upset in the first place. This does not necessarily mean that you are internally accepting blame for the entire situation, but you must be empathetic and come across as being so. Never be defensive and trot out a whole bunch of excuses at this stage.
5. Find a solution. This should involve your client as much as possible and you should be prepared to look at several alternatives and potential outcomes. This is where some skill will come into the position and you will have to be prepared to “think outside of the box.” Do as much as you can, within reason of course, to find a solution that will more than satisfy the disgruntled client.
6. Try not to pepper your discussion with a whole bunch of excuses. You may have to elaborate on a few reasons for the delicate situation, after all part of this dialogue is rebuilding confidence between you, but don’t be tempted to appear as if you are “passing the buck” or providing a rationale to explain why this happened. Again, be diplomatic.
7. Offer a gift. Without going overboard and “giving away the farm,” you can often offer the client some kind of discount or additional benefit as atonement, in part. Again, you do not necessarily have to appear as if you are paying for your errors, but a subtle yet meaningful offer is often appropriate.
8. Maintain communication. If you have an open and regular dialogue with your clients, situations like this may not arise in the future. When you are trying to get closure for the recent situation, you should definitely follow up with clients to see that things are now proceeding more smoothly. However you can, make sure that a similar situation does not arise again.
If you follow these steps, you should defuse the situation and it should even strengthen your relationship. Bite the bullet!
Have you got any tips to recover an unhappy customer?
Adam Toren
I think it’s also important to ask yourself if the customer has a legitimate reason for being upset. If not, he/she may simply be a problem client who whine, complain, and nitpick no matter how good of a job you do.
The follow-up question is: “If he/she is a problem client, is it worth trying to keep his/her business?” 90% of the time the answer is no. Sure, the money may be good, but is it really worth all the extra time and effort it takes to keep him/her placated? Is it worth the constant headache? Is it worth the possibility of legal action down the road?
If you add up all these costs, odds are you’ll realize you’re losing money on the problem client. Making amends with clients is important – but not when that client is going to be more trouble than it’s worth.
These are sound steps to overcoming service conflicts that happen in any business. Timeliness and continued communication are the ones that are most often neglected but are the most critical. I do agree with Jeffry that you need to first assess whether the customer is a constant problem customer who you may want to cut ties with or not but I think regardless, the above rules apply.
Overall, I agree with your logic however I would carefully assess the situation before doing anything, so point # 1 is of the utmost importance. Afterward, much can depend on the situation and the customer.
Thanks, Adam. Excellent article.
I would add…
ASK TWO POWERFUL QUESTIONS UPFRONT
Having handled 100′s of complaints, it’s my experience that people often (but not always) have a solution in mind.
What works very effectively is to ask them upfront:
a) What the problem is? (often they just tell you);
b) What would make it right for them?
Among the many advantages of this proven tactic are:
1. Shared expectations: You clearly understand what the customer’s expectations are about the solution (rather than guessing a solution that is way under, or way over their expectations);
2. Solution-orientation: Many people are solution-oriented and immediately value that you even bothered to ask them upfront what will fix it;
3. Resources-efficient: Many times the answer to this question is something like – “Oh, nothing. I just needed someone to hear me out.” This then obviously saves you and the company time and money implementing further customer recovery processes. Even if this is only 5-10% of customers, it can have massive impact on call-waiting times in high volume call centres for example.
Best to you and all your readers who make customer’s lives better,
Robin
Good tips! I especially agree with “striking while the iron is hot”. Nothing will upset a customer even more than having to wait for the resolution.
Great tis indeed, specially number 7 offering a gift thats wonderful. I’m an IT student in south africa and your web side is helping me so keep up with the good work. ooh if your wondering why an IT student is viewig this webside thats becaue I’m doing Business communication as well