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From Complaint to Raving Fans
| Guest post by: Edward Abel |
Article Overview: One of the hallmarks of world-class customer service is how your company manages customer service failures. When a customer speaks up with a complaint, it's time to listen. Think of the complaint as a gift, and you will see it as an opportunity to learn rather than something to avoid or resist.
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Free Download - Are Your Goals SMART? By Edward Abel |
From Complaint to Raving Fans
One of the hallmarks of world-class customer service is how your company manages customer service failures. When a customer speaks up with a complaint, it's time to listen. Think of the complaint as a gift, and you will see it as an opportunity to learn rather than something to avoid or resist.
The few courageous customers who complain are giving you the gift of their feedback and their experience. It doesn't matter if they are right or wrong. They are being courageous in their willingness to speak up.
Your goal is to turn customers, who experience service failures, into raving fans. You do this by applying the customer service skills, such as listening and asking questions, to the situations where customer service failures occur.
The most important aspect of managing a complaint, regardless of how upset or angry the customer is, is to stay calm. If you get defensive or uptight when a customer approaches you with a complaint, you will probably make the situation worse.
Action Steps - Follow these steps when you receive a complaint:
- Listen carefully to the complaint.
- Express empathy.
- Offer a solution.
- Ensure the solution is implemented.
- Follow-up with the customer to make sure he/she is satisfied.
- Notify the proper people within the company (or your vendor) so that this type of complaint doesn't happen again. This ensures future, lasting change.
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Article Tags: business coach, business coaching, business consultant, business owner, business owners, business training, entrepreneur, ideas for small business, opening a start how to business plan
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About the Author: Edward Abel RSS for Edward's articles - Visit Edward's website Determined to find a way to educate and advise others in the construction and sustainability of a vital business, he founded ABEL Business Institute. Over the course of this process, he developed The SkillPreneur Business System, a systematic approach to the construction, maintenance, and growth of a business's--an approach that has become the philosophy and methodology of ABEL Business Institute. Ed is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurial studies at New York University (NYU) as well as the Director of the business division at the world class Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). At iPEC, Ed directs the business division that is responsible for supporting the graduate coaches in their business development process. Click here to visit Edward's website   THE 5 REASONS SUPERSTAR ATHLETES HAVE A SECRET WEAPONAND WHY YOU SHOULD TOO Money Mindset for the Small Business Owner Product Differentiation A Success Story Are you Prepared to Sell Taking Aim with your Business |
Related Forum Posts
a legacy
- sounds like your grandfather left a real legacy.
It reminds me of Dale Carnegies famous quote, 'people dont care how much you know, until they know how much you care'
An interesting side bar is the idea of customer loyalty. I recently worked with a large bank on their new 'loyalty' program. I called it like I saw it, they didnt have loyal customers....they had hostages.
If anyone reading wants to learn more about delivering great customer service, they should read
"Raving Fans' by Ken Blanchard and "how to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie
Two of my favourite resources...
The third resource I can always count on was my dad. Although he died almost 18 years ago, he raised me and my 5 brothers and sisters with a strong work ethic, a respect for people of all backgrounds and a healthy respect for time. In fact, I am often teased for always being early or at least very punctual and I find it sad that in today's world, we seem to have lost a lot of the basic tenets of common sense and courtesy.
Re: a legacy
- [quote="TheRainmaker":36ce5c3z]sounds like your grandfather left a real legacy.
It reminds me of Dale Carnegies famous quote, 'people dont care how much you know, until they know how much you care'
An interesting side bar is the idea of customer loyalty. I recently worked with a large bank on their new 'loyalty' program. I called it like I saw it, they didnt have loyal customers....they had hostages.
If anyone reading wants to learn more about delivering great customer service, they should read
"Raving Fans' by Ken Blanchard and "how to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie
Two of my favourite resources...
The third resource I can always count on was my dad. Although he died almost 18 years ago, he raised me and my 5 brothers and sisters with a strong work ethic, a respect for people of all backgrounds and a healthy respect for time. In fact, I am often teased for always being early or at least very punctual and I find it sad that in today's world, we seem to have lost a lot of the basic tenets of common sense and courtesy.[/quote:36ce5c3z]
Very true - its important to create loyal customers and I've always felt that great customer service is a great way to start that process. If I deal with a company and its clear they don't care about my business and they don't support me, I look around for someone who does. Why support a business that won't support me?
Chris
Re: Facebook Fan Pages
- Hi Terri,
I haven't yet started a Fan Page of my own (it's on my to-do list), so I don't have any tips to share yet.
What others have mentioned about giveaways is a good idea. I also think updating your page with useful content on a regular basis is a must to keep Fans interested and coming back. This can easily be done if you have a blog because they allow you to import RSS feeds on your page. Every time you make a new blog post, your Fan Page can be updated.
Re: Twitter vs Facebook
- I use Facebook pages for Business and rarely ever use Twitter. I hace lost count of the no. of Hotels that I have visited, regarding their marketing campaigns, that may have 5k Facebook Fans and only 100 followers on Twitter. It is a lot more difficult to engage with people on Twitter and thus harder to gain traction. If you are a business like Nike, then Twitter is great, but if you are an SME, then focus on Facebook or LinkedIn (if you are providing a professional service.)
You can always have your Facebook feed directly in to Twitter, so you can have a presence on both, but do the work on one. Also check out ping.fm for managing campaigns - it is a free tool, and a great time saver.
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