Thursday, May 24, 2012

Powerful Words - I Am Sorry!

Its amazing how powerful the phrase , " I am sorry"  can be in dealing with customer conflicts. Customers will always have various concerns or complaints with a company, but often a simple , "I am sorry", will help to calm the customer. Now to be sure, you have to be careful how you phrase the apology.so that it sounds sincere and is directed at the inconvenience the customer suffered. In addition, you need to solve the issue the customer has and explain the resolution process, but often the customer simply wants an apology.


You are apologizing for the inconvenience and stress caused to the customer by the poor service or bad product. Customers want to know that you care about them and that you fully understand their concerns. The customer service rep could offer all kinds of solutions to the problem, but the customer could still be very angry. This is because they feel like the staff are simply trying to get rid of them as fast as they can, by offering fast solutions, but without an apology. 


Customers are not like sheep that can be just quickly herded out of the store, so we can get to the next customer. Customers need to be treated with respect and shown that the company genuinely cares about their concerns about the product or service. This quote really applies well to customer service; "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care" - John C. Maxwell. Once customers know that you actually care about them, they will typically  be more responsive to the staff who are offering the solutions to their issues. Having staff say sorry to customers when needed will allow your company to keep more of your customers and create very positive word of mouth advertising.





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