Successful Service Recovery Strategies (3)

(continues from last post)

In this moment of truth, you and your employee can apply the following tactics in restoring their confidence in your product/services:

1. Acknowledge the problem.
First thing is to acknowledge that there is a problem. If you try to convince customers that there is no problem, you are actually making them look stupid.
Sometimes the source of the problem might be from the customer. It doesn’t matter. Whether the customer didn’t understand certain aspects that are noticeable from your organization’s point of view or took the wrong step to perform a task, it’s the customer that has a problem and if you want to retain this customer, you need to take him/her serious.

Assuming a customer buys a product/service from you and didn’t properly follow your instructions when using it and something eventually goes wrong. What do you do? Do you scold the customer or proffer a solution?

To be sincere, some problems can be quite difficult to manage but the customer will never understand these. Just acknowledge the problem and proffer a reasonable solution.

2. Empathize with the customer.
Try to understand the problem from the customer’s point of view.Put yourself in their position. Just imagine that you were the one that had the problem.It's only then you'll be committed to helping them out,even the good book says"Love your neighbour as yourself".

Front-line employees, who are the first points of contact with the customers, should try to create an atmosphere that supports and enables a positive solution to a problem.

3. Apologize.
Front-line employees should be trained to apologize to customers even if they are not responsible for the problem and then direct them to the appropriate personnel that will handle the complaints. Saying sorry on behalf of the organization is essential.
I have often heard some employees tell angry customers that it’s not their fault but their colleagues’. I’m not saying it’s wrong to defend yourself, but apologize first and then absolve yourself based on the degree of the problem.
What I mean by degree of problem is that, there are situations where life is involved and after apologizing on behalf of the organization, the person responsible for the problem should be sorted out and disciplined, if necessary.

The truth is that, in most situations, the customer is not interested in who is responsible for the problem but wants solution.
Let me share this story of what happened to me and my friend one evening at an eatery. He placed order for three fried snails but one of the fried snails has sand in it. He took it back and laid the complaint. The first statement from the attendant was, “it’s not my fault. It’s the lady in the afternoon duty that prepared it”.
Of course my friend was not interested in who prepared it. He just wanted a solution. There was no apology, no solution.

(to continued in next post)