designing strategies newsletter

                                May – June, 2019                                 Volume 16 –  Issue 89

It’s definitely a no-brainer to understand that customers are the most important thing your small business has going for it.  Without them, there will be no sales, no revenues coming in, no cash flow and no profit.  Furthermore, there will be no satisfied customers to act as brand ambassadors for your company. How can we take better care of our customers?  Well, learning from customer service tips by others who have figured some of it out is a good beginning.

Happy Customers are Better Than Unhappy Ones

You know, happy and unhappy customers alike tell friends and colleagues about their experiences with your firm.  The good news is, happy customers will share their favorable experiences with eleven others.  Unhappy customers, unfortunately, will share with fifteen or more friends and colleagues.  Who would you rather have spreading their opinions about your firm?  Yeah, me too – I prefer the happy ones. Their messages are far more pleasant and complimentary.  Think of it as free marketing and publicity for you to have a number of pleased customers share positive experiences with other potential clients and buyers.

Things can go smoothly with the majority of your customers, but sooner or later something will go wrong.  In spite of your, and your staff’s best efforts, things go wrong. It may be something minor that you or one of your staff did or overlooked.  It might be something that you could not personally have had anything to do  with.  Forgetting to deliver a crucial part of an order can result in delays that irritate a customer and mess up his/her schedule.  Even if the situation was not of your making, customers can become irate and blame you anyway.  But, what you can do is take responsibility for the error and do everything possible to remedy the situation.

Positive Experiences Are Long Remembered

Several years ago I was traveling to Arizona for a speaking engagement.  Our trip was delayed by the airlines and we arrived at the hotel later than expected.. We were tired and a little irritable.  All I wanted was to soak in a hot tub and hit the sack.  But, our room had been given to someone else and they were now fully booked.  But, the Doubletree Hotel went out of their way to make things work for us.

Sometimes, however, problems arise that are not your, or your staff’s responsibility.  You could not have stopped the error or problem from occurring, no matter what.  But, it is your customer and you want things to go right and to keep them content.  So, you are faced with making things right for them as quickly and pleasantly as humanly possible.

All customers don’t necessarily keep a cool head about them when things go wrong.  Some will call in and calmly report the problem, giving you the opportunity to rectify the problem.  Others aren’t so cool.  In fact, some customers can work themselves into a major frenzy, get hot under the collar and then call you in a rage.  Why would they do that?  Who knows, but they do.  And, it has to be dealt with in a calm, professional manner.

Forget those ‘expletive deleted’ phrases you want to rattle off at them.  That is definitely not the way to go.  You need to maintain control of the situation – and your own temper.  The hotter the customer gets, the cooler you need to remain to get the problem solved.  But, how can you do that?

customer service tips

Customer Service Tips: Keep Cool When Customers Are Angry

  1. Remain in control.  Always control the situation, don’t let it – or the customer – control you.  You can be assertive without becoming aggressive or passive. You can certainly state what you mean and mean what you say.  But, do so without being mean when you say it.  This falls into that ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ category of communication.  Stay confident, cool and in control, presenting yourself as professional at all times.
  2. Start out slowly. Wait a few seconds before responding to the irate customer. You are not looking for an uncomfortable ‘pregnant pause’, just a few moments to take control of yourself and the situation. Responding immediately to difficult or tactical customers may result in you saying something you will later regret. Before you respond, take a deep breath, wait at least 2 seconds and think about the best response and the best approach.
  3. Speak slowly and clearly. You will come across much more clearly to the customer and you can think more clearly by speaking slower. By slowing down your rate of speech, you increase the level of control and confidence you display to the angry customer. Speak slowly and methodically to maintain poise during difficult conversations.
  4. Give yourself a mental pep-talk. This might sound a lot like a Dr. Phil solution, but I’m very serious.  Instead of saying to yourself, “I don’t get paid enough to put up with this (bleep).”  Think something more positive to calm yourself like:  “This customer really needs my help.” Thinking positively helps you respond more positively and professionally.  Negative thoughts lead to negative words.  Why let things spiral into a highly negative situation with two mature adults shouting at each other?
  5. Take a time-out. Remember when your parents sat you in a corner for a time out when you went ballistic with them? Pretty soon, you were calmed down and ready to re-enter the happy family circle.  Pretty simple solution, wasn’t it?  When you sense that raging customer has pushed all your buttons, take a break.  Tell the customer you need to put him on hold while you review a file, pull up their order or whatever excuse sounds good at the time. The point is to get away from the customer for a few seconds so you can re-group and regain control over yourself and the situation. Come back online with a cheerful “OK, let’s see what we can do.”
  6. Be the Super Hero You Know You Are. Most successful companies train their customer service staff. They learn early on what they can do without additional input from their supervisors or managers.  These are your powers.  Let’s assume your company gives its customer service staff the right to terminate phone calls with abusive customers.  You know you can do it, but only if and when it becomes necessary.

Losing Control Just Makes Things Worse

Irate customerIt’s easy to shoot back at the irate customer:  “If you don’t stop yelling at me, I will terminate this call.” Maybe you’ll feel better for a few seconds, but your customer who was angry, now is really, really, really mad.

He’s ready to hop online and write a scathing review of your firm on Yelp or some other review site.  Then, for the next few days, he’ll tell everyone he knows or runs into how terrible your company treats its customers.  Think about the Power of you saying instead:  “I want to help you, but when you shout and cut me off, you make it difficult for me to help you.”  This message will get across to the customer when delivered in a powerful way.

Even when we have our own bad day, we still need to deal with customers in a helpful, professional manner.  Nothing is gained by lowering ourselves to the level of a screaming banshee who really just wants to have a problem solved as quickly and easily as possible.

Be Strategic About Your Customer Service Process and Staff

Develop a strategy around how your company will handle customer service.  It is one of the most important positions in your company.  Not everyone is cut out to deal with customers, especially angry ones, so hire cautiously for these positions.  Those with short fuses are not the staff you want dealing with situations that can start with some level of negativity.

It is up to customer service staff to diffuse hot situations and change them into something positive.  Don’t just throw an employee into the arena with no training.  ‘Trial by fire’ is not the way to help a valued employee learn their job.  Take the time to train them, or get them some training for this very important position. Your Return-on-Investment will be well worth the training.

Doing Customer Service the Right Way

The Ritz Carlton luxury hotel chain understands the importance of satisfying customers.  When something goes wrong, their employees are empowered to spend up to $2,000 per customer to make things right.  That might be a free stay, a discount, or whatever it takes to be sure that customer stays satisfied.  Take a look at this article covering ten companies that learned how to do customer service at an exceptional level.

Then, consider what you can do to empower and enable your staff to keep customers happy.   What is a happy customer worth to your business?  Some of the examples in the article may go beyond what your small business can afford.  But decide how you might adapt one or more of them to help your staff keep your customers satisfied and coming back again and again.  Remember, it is far less expensive to keep a customer than recruit, nurture and retain a new one.  Stay cool.