CUSTOMER SERVICE RECOVERY
Putting the "Wow" Into Customer Service
By John Tschohl
Let's face it: Every employee and every business in the world
occasionally makes a mistake. What separates service leaders from the rest
of the pack is how they handle those mistakes -- how they meet the
challenge of turning a disgruntled customer into one who sings their
praises and becomes a customer for life.
This is called service recovery. It is apologizing, taking responsibility
and giving customers something of value as a way of appeasing them and
earning both their trust and their loyalty.
Unhappy customers can wreak havoc on your business. They reduce employee
moral and increase employee turnover, generate negative word-of-mouth
advertising, and destroy your bottom line. The good news is that, using
some of the strategies in my new book on service recovery, which will be
available later this year, you can quickly put smiles on the faces of
those unhappy customers and keep them coming back to you year after year.
Service leaders realize they are in the service business-not the banking,
restaurant, hotel, computer, airline, or health care business. They know
the value of a loyal customer. They spend time and money training their
staffs in the art of customer service and give them the tools they need to
do their jobs. They establish customer-friendly policies and procedures.
They hire people who genuinely enjoy working with people. They empower
their employees to bend and break the rules in order to solve customers'
problems.
Incredible service will give you incredible returns. If you doubt that,
you need only look at Amazon.com. In 1995, during its first year in
business, the company had sales of $511,000. By the end of 2003,
Amazon.com had sales of $5.26 billion and was expecting sales of between
$6.2 and $6.7 billion in 2004. What is driving those remarkable sales?
Service.
Happy customers will drive your business. You must care for them, nurture
them, and do whatever it takes to earn their undying loyalty. We all know
that advertising can bring a customer through the doors to your business
once. The challenge is to keep them coming back to you, to provide them
with service that is so exceptional they wouldn't think of taking their
business elsewhere. That includes solving their problems. Let me give you
an example of service recovery. While I was skiing at Vail Resort in
Colorado, the ski lift malfunctioned and left me and many other skiers
stranded for an hour. The resort people offered us two free lift tickets.
It would have cost us $140 to purchase those two tickets, but they
represented no out-of-pocket expense for the resort.
All too often, companies handcuff their frontline employees with strict
rules and procedures. Employees who don't follow those rules and
procedures are reprimanded, even fired. Service leaders, on the other
hand, have policies that say, "Do whatever you have to do to take care of
the customer." They train their employees and trust them. They praise
their employees when they break the rules and the result is a satisfied
and loyal customer.
Commerce Bank on the East Coast is a $23-billion bank with a 10-year,
31-percent annual return that knows the importance of service recovery in
operating a successful and growing business. In fact, the company pays $50
to any employee who identifies a stupid policy or rule that gets in the
way of serving the customer.
Empowerment is the backbone of service recovery. You must allow your
employees to solve a customer's problem on the spot. You also must
encourage your employees to give the customer something of value,
something that is so powerful they not only will keep coming back to you
but will tell everyone they know about it, as well.
What can you give your customers when you make a mistake? First, give them
an apology. Then follow that with something that has value for the
customer. Hotels can upgrade the customer to a suite at no extra charge.
Restaurants can provide a free round of drinks or appetizers. Airlines can
upgrade passengers to first class. Car rental firms can give the customer
one free day of rental. Car dealerships can provide a loaner car when the
customer's car is not repaired when promised. Internet service providers
can waive their fees for a month or two when service is disrupted. The
list goes on and on. The key is that you are giving the customer something
that has value in their eyes-and pocketbooks-but that doesn't cost you an
arm and a leg.
Price alone is not a competitive weapon. You must provide exceptional
service and service recovery if you are to survive and succeed. Practice
service recovery and you will be amazed at how often you can bring
customers back from the brink of defection and at the positive impact it
will have on your bottom line.
John Tschohl is an international service strategist and speaker. Described
by Time and Entrepreneur magazines as a customer service guru, he has
written several books on customer service, including e-Service, Achieving
Excellence Through Customer Service, The Customer is Boss, and Ca$hing In:
Make More Money, Get a Promotion, Love Your Job. John also has developed
more than 26 customer service training programs that have been distributed
and presented throughout the world. His bimonthly strategic newsletter is
available online at no charge.
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