May 31, 2010

Letters That Dazzle

Most written responses to customer complaints merely quote company policy. They basically say “The reason you are upset with us is you don’t understand our policy (and if you did you really wouldn’t have gone postal on us!). Of course, all such replies just upset the customer off even more!

When a customer is upset with an organization, they don’t want to hear about “Company Policy” since it was the policy that probably created the frenzy in the first place.

Action Plan:
- acknowledge their pain. They need to FEEL that they have been heard.
- apologize for screwing them around.
- state the specific action that will be taken to make things right for them. Something concrete that removes the irritant is expected. Anything short of this will make matters worse. Did I say DON’T QUOTE POLICY?
- do something extra for the customer. Remember, successful Service Recovery demands that you “Fix it and Do the Unexpected”
- speed! Time is of the essence here. You have literally 24 hours to deal with the issue. Any longer will remove any possibility of redeeming yourself.

How about capturing this action plan and create a Letters that Dazzle course for your employees? Train people on the Service Recovery Process and teach them how to reply to a complaint in a way that actually builds loyalty and not destroy it?

It will be well worth the investment. Trust me. I have done it. It works.

Cheers, Roy
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Posted 5.31.10 at 08:00 am by Roy Osing | Read Comments (1) | Leave a Comment