The Recovery

It’s going to happen. Regardless of how hard you work to provide your customer’s with a great experience, mistakes and disagreements will occur and you will disappoint a customer. As strange as it may sound, this is your opportunity to build loyalty. Often, loyalty is earned not by what you do day to day but how you respond to these challenges; how you turn an issue into a WOW moment.

Diffusing a difficult situation and turning it into a WOW moment can be magical but it’s not magic. It requires careful planning, a customer-centric approach from the top down, and the ability and desire for every team member to put the customer first.

Without oversimplifying the process, below are a few key steps in turning the recovery into a WOW.

Acknowledge and fully understand the issue
Two simple words “I’m Sorry” are always a good place to start when approached by an upset customer,  provided you are sincere and are truly concerned for the client’s well being.  But don’t stop there. To truly address your customer’s concern you need to get to the root of the issue. Before you can adequately address a client’s problem, you need to know what the underlying problem is. It’s like painting over rust. Without removing the rust down to bare metal and applying a primer, the rust will soon show through the paint again. You’ve only covered up the problem for a short time. 

Take ownership of the issue
It’s easy when confronted by an angry customer to deflect the blame elsewhere; to blame it on policy, process or even on a coworker. The customer doesn’t want to hear excuses or be bounced around from one person to the next. They want to share their concern one time, be assured they were heard and feel confident their issue will be addressed. If you are not able to address the issue on the spot or if follow up is necessary by yourself or others, be sure to make them aware of this and establish clear expectations about when this will happen.

Identify customer expectations
After hearing about your customer’s concerns, it’s easy to assume you know what corrective action they are expecting. Here again is an opportunity to engage with your customer to ask them what they feel is appropriate recourse in correcting the issue. You may be surprised to learn that in some cases the fact that you listened and acknowledged their concerns may be the only action necessary. In all cases, regardless of the corrective action, the customer will feel better knowing they had some say in how the issue was addressed.

Take Corrective Action
Be swift and complete when addressing the issue. In many cases, on the spot corrective action is possible and is always preferred. If this is not the case, be sure the issue is addressed as quickly as possible. Your customer has taken time to bring the issue to you. Don’t assume they will continue to do so in the future if you do not include them in the correction. In some cases, where time is needed to address the issue, in a software upgrade for example, be sure to inform them when the issue will be addressed and provide periodic updates as progress is made or if the original date changes.

WOW
The client expects you will address their concerns meaning you’ve satisfied their immediate needs. Here’s where you can set yourself apart from your competition by providing a WOW; something the customer is not expecting. This could be as simple as a personalized follow up to make sure their issue was addressed. Other suggestions could include certificates, small gifts, credits or upgrades to compensate them for their inconvenience and to thank them for taking time to bring the issue to your attention; giving you the opportunity to correct it vs. them taking their business elsewhere.   

The Recovery could arguably be the most important part of any client experience. As hard as it may be at the time, every complaint should be looked upon as a gift. An opportunity to build trust and loyalty with customers who are giving you a second chance to earn future business.