Disappointed Customers? How to Win Them Back [Part 2]
In Part 1 of this discussion, we discussed three excellent ways to sooth the angry customer and hopefully retain their loyalty. Handled properly, this is entirely possible. Now let’s continue on with several more ways:
1) Empower your Employees.
Often employees do not know what they are allowed to do to help the customer. They may feel obligated to pass the complaint on to their supervisor. But what if the supervisor is not available? This leaves the employee with no recourse to assist when the customer is most angry or unhappy. It means that customer may walk away from your store, perhaps forever, and worse yet might tell everyone they know about their experience. When planning your customer satisfaction policies, leave some wiggle room for frontline employees to soothe ruffled feathers before having to call in the higher-ups.
2) Be Aware of All Customers Affected by the Problem.
If your best customers are distraught, they are likely waiting for you to acknowledge the problem and explain what you’ll be doing to remedy it. They’ll also want some evidence from you that you’ve taken steps to ensure they remain loyal to your brand. Whether this is an in-store incident, an online problem or something even bigger, be sure to acknowledge all customers who have been affected.
3) Communicate Often and Sincerely.
Get the word out—anyway necessary- to let your customers know what has happened, what steps you’re taking to correct it, where they can go for help, and who they can contact for additional information. Hiding your head in the sand is simply not an option.
4) Start From the Top Down
Any corporate policy created will never be successful unless it begins at the top. When executives, managers and employees see that top brass believe in their policies and personally deal with people in the same way in which they are asking employees to do, this instills confidence in corporate leadership and has a positive effect on the morale of the entire organization. Customers can feel it. And they will want to do business with you, even if you goof.
Be serious about taking care of your customers- the happy ones and the not-so-happy ones. Studies show that unhappy customers who are treated fairly and see a speedy and sincere resolution to their problem often become more loyal customers in the end. A sincere apology can be the start of a beautiful customer relationship.
Tags: Customer Experience, customer satisfaction, icc client exchange