Winning Steps to Customer Service Recovery

Every company will occasionally deliver bad  service.  The real issue is, how is the company going to recover from this bad customer service experience? The customer will be irate and upset over having experienced bad service, and may never want to come back to this company. Also the customer will spread negative word of mouth to everyone they know, which is obviously not good. So how does a company try to satisfy the customer, when they have just had or are still experiencing horrible  service?


The most important issue, will be to properly detect when a customer is experiencing bad service, and then go to the customer right away. This is where you would need to ask some questions to ensure you understand what the exact issue is so  that it can be properly corrected, based on the customer feedback. This is the time where it is very important to listen  intently, to show empathy and to make sure you fully understand the service issue.


For example, if you notice an unhappy restaurant customer and find out  they  just received a cold meal, the first issue, would be to take that dish back and then have another meal  promptly cooked and brought  back out. The most pressing issue is to always solve the immediate service issue, then ensure the customer is happy with the resolution.


Once the immediate issue is resolved, then actions need to be taken to ensure the customer is happy, and will want to come back to the business. The customer needs to be assured that this issue will be corrected for the future, and that management will take their  feedback seriously. If the customer provides contact info, a followup call can be made to let them know what actions have been taken to correct the issue. This will assure the customer that the company took their feedback seriously. 


When it comes time for the customer to pay, this is where the manager provides  tangible evidence that they are serious about wanting to keep the customer happy. The manager  would provide a substantial discount  on the bill, as a token of goodwill. This would show the customer, that the company is really serious about wanting to keep their business and are really sorry for the poor service they experienced. Bad  service happens sometimes, but if the company solves the issue well, they will gain a very loyal customer, which is great for business.

What is the Cost of Bad Customer Service ?

Everyone knows the value of great customer service, but do we know the cost of bad customer service. Customer service that is horrible can cost a company in so many ways, which  reduces company revenue.


The most obvious is the loss of the current customer, but what can be even more costly is when the customer experiences bad service, they are going to tell everyone they know. So now you have negative word of mouth, which prevents a lot of potential customers from trying your product or service. This is clearly not good for business, so it should be avoided. Also the company would lose customer referrals, which adds up to a lot of money, over the lifetime of the customer. Indeed the loss of customer referrals, not only means the loss of revenue, but now the company is forced to spend more money to attract new customers.


When you add up the costs of losing the current customer, losing customer referrals, and losing potential customers due to negative word of mouth, you can see the high cost of bad customer service. Also do not forget, that the marketing budget will now have to be increased to find new customers, to replace all those lost customers. The costs will keeping adding up, if there is no strategy in place to ensure exceptional customer customer service is delivered to customers.


Clearly , companies will need to have a good strategy for implementing exceptional customer service, to avoid the high cost of bad customer service. This strategy will need to include a customer referral plan and have exceptional customer service guidelines, which would need to be monitored to ensure proper implementation. Once this strategy is implemented, it will lower marketing costs and increase company revenue. The true cost of bad customer service is so high, how can any company really afford not to implement an exceptional customer service plan to avoid the high cost of bad customer service.

Rewarding and Motivating Staff

Rewarding staff is a great way to keep them motivated and wanting to provide great customer service. Rewarding staff keeps their motivation high, which motivates them to provide great customer service. The goal would be to create a company culture that is known for providing superior customer service. This would allow the company to create a unique selling position, that would be hard for other companies to duplicate. This way the company can compete on something other than simply just price, which now makes it harder for the competition. . 


The rewards I am talking about are much more than just paying a fair wage. Though good wages can attract and keep staff, I am talking about rewards above and beyond the wages. Its good to get creative, and find out what would be some of the best rewards you could give the employees. The rewards keep staff happy, and motivate employees to provide the best customer service. For example. you hear of how an employee went above and beyond to help a customer and solve their issue. You would then reward this action, as this would send a message to other staff to deliver great customer service all the time.


Have a consistent and transparent rewards program, so that staff will view it as fair. The reward program should be based on objective monitoring and have objective criteria to gauge the level of customer service that is to be delivered to the customer. The criteria  needs to be very visible and known to all staff, so that it is perceived as a fair program, that rewards great customer service. 


This would begin with implementing the reward criteria into the training program. Staff would need to know that they would be expected to provide  superior customer service and that they would be monitored, to ensure this is implemented correctly.  Staff need to be fully aware of the reward criteria which would ensure they are motivated to provide great service. This training and monitoring would help to create a company culture of providing great customer service. Once the company becomes known for its great customer service, this would attract a lot of customers, which is clearly good for business.

Customer Win Back Program

Every business will lose some customers. The challenge is  to win  back those lost customers which can take a lot of money and hard work, but this will increase the customer base. Most companies do not have a customer win back program, but a company should have one, as it can help retain customers. Now the customer win back program does assume that you have a way of capturing customer information, so that a phone call can be done.


Not all companies are well suited to customer databases, such as a fast food restaurant, but most businesses can  and should have a customer database to capture customer information. This database  will allow you  to keep track as to when you are losing customers, and put those lost customers in a list form so that you can contact them with the win back program. Aside from  emails and letters,  I will focus on the people aspect of the win back program. 


You will need to have a team of highly trained customer service professionals to call these customers back and try to win them back as customers. The staff will need a fair bit of training before they call these customers back and attempt to win them back as customers. When training the customer win back team, it will be important to teach some sales skills to show staff how to convince customers to come back to the company.


The training will need to begin with proper questioning skills being taught, such as open ended and probing questions, to learn the real reason why the company lost the customer. These questions will also get the customer talking,  which allows them to reveal valuable information about why they are no longer a customer.  Now when the customer does begin to talk,  this is where strong listening skills need to be practiced. This needs to be emphasized as this will be needed to allow the customer to vent any anger about the company and gives staff time to show they really do care. Once the customer gives us the reason why they left, the staff need to work on that issue so that it can be resolved and then win the customer back.


There also needs to be a good win back  promotion to offer the customer as a  thank you, for giving the company another try.  Once the customer has decided to become a customer again,  followup with the customer to ensure they are still happy with the company. Once the customer is retained, the company can now use exceptional customer service to keep this customer smiling, so they never lose this customer.

Exceptional Customer Service

Exceptional customer service always gets noticed. Its great for customers and businesses alike. Companies often talk about wanting to give great service, but often fall short of actually providing great front line customer service. Sure you can ask for the supervisor, and often will get your issue resolved, but this can waste a lot of time. Why can  we not have the front line staff trained to think outside the box, and provide exceptional customer service. 


When a customer calls the customer service line with an unusual problem, they can be in for some  trouble.when trying to get the issue resolved. The agent will often just say, that is not possible, and its against our procedures. There is no outside the box thinking being done here, just staff following a set of rules, that will produce customer frustration. The customer just wants the issue resolved and is willing to take the time to work with the company to get it resolved.


Customers often will know that their request is unusual, and are willing to be patient as long as the company is willing to help. Customers will not be happy about having to fight with the front line staff and then the supervisor, just to resolve their issue. Customers are the reason the company is still in business, so they should try to make problem solving as easy as possible for the customer. 


Companies need to train employees to be solution oriented, so they can look for solutions to  problems, instead of reasons why the request can not be done. Aside from giving staff preset power and money limits to solve issues, staff need to be fully aware of who in the company they can ask to help solve an unusual customer issue. A company contact list could be provided to the staff, so that if they need to contact someone in a different department to help out a customer, it would be possible. This way the whole company can work together and be available to assist customers.


When front line staff can solve unusual customer issues, it saves the customer from having to talk to a lot of different people to get issues resolved. This way the customer has one person they are  dealing with, and do not have to keep repeating the request. Once staff know who are the company contacts that can help out with unique customer problems, they will be able to offer more solutions to those unusual requests.


The proper training will give staff the confidence to handle almost any request from the customer.  One stop problem solving will be great for customers, as it will save them time and produce happy customers. Companies will strongly benefit from this exceptional customer service, by producing many word of mouth champions. In a world where there is a lack of exceptional customer service, make your company stand above the competition with one stop problem solving.