FROM DISSATISFACTION TO DELIGHT : THE POWER OF SERVICE RECOVERY

SERVICE/ A good salesperson is one who not only attends and fixes the customer’s complaints , but also manages people and their emotions effectively says Ramesh Venkateswaran

In workshops on Customer Service I  ask participants to share  experiences where they have been  delighted as customers – situations where they believe the sales or service providers made a very positive impact on them and the experience has been memorable for them  .  Some responses from a recent workshop :

O  I had made a booking at a hotel where I was going on a holiday.  When I landed at the hotel with my family late in the night they said they had no booking in my name and the hotel was full. The manager however asked us to wait , called another hotel at that late hour , arranged for a room  and also arranged a taxi to take us there.  We were really very happy  and  felt good and relieved . The manager did a great job.

O  I bought a table top grinder. On the second day the grinder packed up. I called the company with my complaint . They sent me  a replacement the same evening and picked up the defective grinder and sent it to the factory. No questions asked. I thought that was fantastic and I was delighted .

O  I bought some cloth for a pair of trousers and got the trouser stitched at the same shop. When I collected the trouser I found to my shock that the tailor had got the measurements wrong and the trouser did not fit me properly. The tailor immediately apologised and said he would stitch a new pair of trousers for me. Even more interesting , he told me that I could get the material for the trouser from any shop and he would pay for it – I did not have to take it from his shop.  No conditions , no budget. I thought this is superb service .

In all the above situations, the customer felt very good after the incident and the way in which  the sales person / service provider handled a situation. The customer left with a very positive experience with the organisation and the service person. In each of the cases , if you asked the customer if she would buy from the organisation again , the answer is a definite yes. Would they recommend them to friends – the answer is again yes. In short , what we have is a set of satisfied , loyal customers.

Interestingly , look closely at the incidents above .  What do they  have in common ? In all cases there was a failure on the part of the service provider in the first instance. Yet the customer is actually happy after the incident and the net result is very positive , both from the service providers point of view and of the customer.

What have these organizations and people been able to do ?  They have  been able to turn adversity into an opportunity . They have used a service failure situation to their advantage.  In each of the cases above , there was a potential dissatisfied , angry , upset customer . And yet by the end of the transaction through a well executed Service Recovery strategy , they have ended up with delighted and loyal customers. This is a very important lesson for companies  - if managed properly , product / service failures can in fact be used as opportunities to   build customer loyalty .

Organizations will have problems with customers. There will be product  and  service failures . Studies however show that 55 – 70% of customers would do business with you again if you solve the problem . Up to a staggering  95% of them will do business with you again if they think  you acted quickly.

What this tells us is that , what makes customers unhappy is often not a problem per se  but the way in which a problem is handled. Customers – people like you and me – do realize that problems will occur. Products are likely to fail –however rare or infrequent they may be.  We  will make allowances for these failures. We  also know that many failures happen for reasons outside the control of the immediate person handling us – the front line sales or service person.

So what would we really look for in such situations ?  Do they realise the inconvenience they put the customer to because of a failure on their part – either of the product or the service ? Does the sales or service provider show concern for the customer? Is the service person interested in responding to the customer problem   ?  Will the person resolve the problem quickly so that the customer can get on with their  work ?

How often have service engineers promised to come at an agreed time and not turned up. And the customer has had to make a change of plans to suit the convenience of the service engineer. All to get the problem  resolved – which should not have happened in the first place.  We often see customer service representatives jumping  to quick solutions / conclusions on failures without taking the trouble to understand the customer problem or point of view. Typical customer statements that express unhappiness / dissatisfaction are – he did not even bother to call; they don’t even take a little trouble to understand my situation; they really don’t care.

Organisations  need to lake a serious look at their ability to manage product or service failure. They need a good Service Recovery Strategy.  This would include :

·       Processes that will capture customer problems and field failures .

·       Systems that will ensure effective response and resolution of customer complaints. 

·       People with the right attitude to deal with problem situations and upset customers

·       People trained to handle failure situations  

In the final analysis, complaint management is not only about fixing problems but also about managing people and their emotions. As was very well said by Xerxes Desai of Titan some time ago  - When there is a failure and  a customer comes for a repair , there are three repairs that we have to do. Repair the product . Repair his feelings. Repair the  image of the company.

Organisations that recognize  and sincerely follow this have the competitive advantage of converting potential customer disaster to customer delight and loyalty.