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By Letzen Maldonado
Sunday, June 22, 2003
Many businesses teach their employees how to deliver
good Service. Yet, many also fail to teach how to effectively
resolve customer problems, and that's where the customer-business
relationship many times falls apart. It won't matter
how much you charm customers if you cannot effectively
resolve a problem when it arises.
Let's look at this frequently quoted fact: A customer
who has a bad experience that is not corrected
will tell 10 people of that experience. A customer who
has a good experience will tell 3 people.
Do the math, and you'll notice that for every uncorrected
negative experience, you'll have to have at least 4
positive ones to "counteract" and "surpass" the
negative word-of-mouth. Put some dollar figures on those
numbers, and you'll see that this is an expensive proposition.
The loss of customers, and potential customers, means
lost revenues, while acquiring new customers to replace
lost ones will prove costly.
Service Excellence seeks to correct negatives immediately,
follows up to ensure satisfaction has been achieved,
and takes steps to ensure such experience will not be
repeated. True, problems cannot always be resolved immediately.
In such cases, you should establish a minimum period
for resolution, such as 72 hours. The longer a problem
goes unresolved, the more you risk alienating the customer.
All attempts should be made to diffuse and resolve
conflict situations. Conflict situations should be addressed
with a sense of urgency and diplomacy. To achieve this,
your employees should follow some simple procedures:
- Do Not interrupt the customer. Let the customer
vent out the anger and finish speaking.
- Actively listen to the customer. This means stop
what you’re doing; show interest in the customer;
hear what the customer is saying
- Listen to the customer's tone of voice to know how
he or she is feeling and how you should respond. Does
the customer sound tired, irritated, or angry?
- Read the customer to determine the best way to
personalize the interaction. What is the customer's
face or body posture telling you?
- Ask questions to gain more understanding and clarify
what you are hearing. Never assume you have understood
the message.
- Put yourself in the customer's shoes. Empathize.
Try to understand how the customer is feeling and
tailor your message accordingly.
- Show concern, care and respect through your voice
and expressions. Make sure you don't come across
as condescending.
- Make the customer feel wanted and appreciated
by thanking him or her for bringing the situation
to your attention.
- Apologize for any inconvenience and help them
solve the problem. Maintain a "Can Do" attitude.
- If the problem is complex, inform the customer
you will have to research the situation and will
have with an answer within a specified time frame.
- Promptly follow-up on the situation. If possible,
call the customer to ensure you satisfied his or
her needs or to inform of the status of the resolution.
Always notify others that might come in contact with
this customer of any problem situation - whether through
a note on a customer database or on a "Problems" section
in a shift checklist.
You will also want to have a set of procedures for
responding to problems by letter providing managers
with letter-writing guidelines and maybe even some standard
sample letters. Apology letters should at least:
- Thank the customer for contacting you and bringing
the matter to your attention.
- Apologize for any inconvenience or for not meeting
the customer's expectations (vs. admitting to fault).
- State what your business' standards are in that
matter and what you are doing about the situation.
- Thank the customer again for sharing the matter
with you, reassure their value as a customer and offer
further assistance.
-- This
article is available for free reprint in exchange for
credit to Letzen
Maldonado and link to managementaides.com.
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