The Prescription for Satisfying Unhappy Customers

It’s nearly impossible to please all of your customers all of the time.? Bad things happen; some bad things are outside of your control, and some bad things are of your own making.? The vast majority of your customers, the unreasonable aside, know that the business world is full of challenges and are fundamentally prepared to deal with them.?The question is how to satisfy an unhappy customer?

The key to retaining unhappy customers is how you react when bad things happen.? Your response to an unhappy customer will determine whether you retain them and convert them to loyal, happy customers.??

Let me couch this post with the assumption that you know delivering high-quality products and services is always the objective.? It’s a given that you are working to delight your customers, and this Prescription for Retaining Unhappy Customers is for the relatively rare occasion that something’s gone wrong.??

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.? You are serving the Lord Christ.? – Col 3:23-24

We’ve all experienced disappointment as consumers.? Recall your feelings about the worst customer experiences you’ve had and what really burned you up inside.? It’s rarely the initial event that results in severe heartburn but more often the response by the offending party.? Cold, impersonal Customer Service Reps or even business managers who just don’t seem to care about anything but making you go away so they can move on to the next victim; that’s how it feels anyway.? It’s a terrible feeling and assures the customer will seek alternative options for their next purchase.??

But we’re not as bad as “those other guys!”? Of course not; we care about our customers and want them to be happy, but sometimes there’s just nothing we can do.? Where there may not be a simple fix available to offer the customer, shrugging your shoulders in a defeated “there’s just nothing we can do” gesture doesn’t help the frustrated customer feel that you care any more than “those other guys.”??

There is always something you can do to let the disappointed customer know you care and that you have a remedy for the problem.??

The Prescription

The Prescription to remedy customer disappointment has three ingredients or elements, all of which must be addressed with the customer for a successful problem resolution.? If you skip any of the steps, you greatly increase the risk that the customer does not recognize the relief you hope to offer.? Administer the remedy exactly as prescribed, and you maximize the likelihood that your customer sees that you are doing all that you can to retain them as a loyal business partner.? So here it is…

1. ACKNOWLEDGE THE PROBLEM?

The customer needs to know you understand the problem and how it is causing them pain.? Summarize the circumstances and associated problems from the customer’s perspective and state plainly you understand and agree that this is not the outcome either of you wants.??

Avoid any tone of offering excuses that may cancel out the principle of “acknowledging the problem.”? It’s critical that you accept accountability for your part in the undesirable situation.? No responses that may sound like “I’m sorry you’re upset, but I didn’t really do anything wrong” to the customer.? There is no benefit to you nor the customer in defending why you have a bad situation.??

Demonstrating understanding of the problem and accepting accountability is the critical first step of the Prescription as it allows the frustrated customer to move past assigning blame and toward a solutions mindset.??

2. DESCRIBE WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO REMEDY THE PROBLEM NOW

The customer wants action.? Tell them what you are doing right now to move toward a solution.??

Sometimes, this is easy, where problems are relatively simple or inexpensive to remedy.? Often, providing an immediate remedy is just not possible or practical.? The most important thing is that you put serious thought into action that moves toward an improvement of the situation.? Recall from the first paragraph of this post that the Prescription is for reasonable people.? You will, at some point, find those who simply can’t be satisfied, and that is a subject for another post.??

In step two of the Prescription, you need to do what you can do to fix the problem in the here and now.??

Examples include actions like the following.? Changing the shipping method to overnight a late order; Expediting a replacement order through the shop for a part that was made wrong; Issuing a credit for a billing error.? The remedial actions of step two will not always fix the problem immediately, but the action needs to be immediate to demonstrate your sense of urgency in taking care of the problem.??

3. TELL THE CUSTOMER WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO PREVENT THE PROBLEM FROM RECURRING

As a customer, I’m typically pleased that a vendor acknowledges accountability for problems and fixes the problem with reasonable action.? Does that mean I’m eager to experience the same situation again?? No.??

For customer retention and the future business relationship, it is very important to assure the customer that you have taken proactive steps for the prevention of past issues.? This is the step where you make lemonade out of the lemons.??

Rather than leaving the question of whether they are going to be disappointed if they continue patronizing your business, show the customer that you have now taken action to ensure they are not disappointed in the future.??

Common examples for step three of the Prescription include the following:?

• Changing a procedure to address the root cause of the problem
• Additional training and coaching of an employee who made a mistake
• Updating the system pricing to eliminate the cause of a billing error

The Prescription for retaining and satisfying unhappy customers is critical knowledge for any customer-facing employees in your business.? It takes just a little practice to hone the skills required to effectively navigate upset customer dialogue, but the payback is worth the tiny investment.??

Ask your employees how they handle these conversations now and see where you can help them improve.