Going Beyond Customer Service

Almost all customer service training includes the same instructions for dealing with unhappy customers. These steps usually include the importance of listening without interruption and the need to empathize, validate, apologize, take responsibility, and agree on a solution. I hope you do all of these - with a smile - when working with dissatisfied customers.

I got to thinking about why some stores are so much better than others at turning unhappy customers into happy loyal customers. Two different stores that seem to be following the same steps often show very different results. I've even seen different results in the same store with different sales associates who have been through the same exact customer service training.

I've come to understand that the best retailers and retail associates add an additional step that helps turn a negative experience into a positive one. Sometimes I'm not sure the people who do this even realize what they're doing; it just comes naturally. The extra step is easing the inconvenience. It's an important part of the solution but it's a step that most people overlook.

For years when I worked in a store I didn't always understand why customers were still mad after I agreed to fix their problem. "Sure I'll swap out that massage chair, sir. All I need you to do is box it back up in the original packaging and bring it back to the store." Why did my unhappy customer remain unhappy? I had listened, empathized, apologized, taken responsibility, and given him a solution! What's the big deal? Obviously the big deal was that I didn't ease the inconvenience. The problem remained a problem for the customer even when given a solution.

To successfully turn unhappy customers into happy loyal customers you need to assess what inconvenience the problem is causing the customer. Will the problem with the product cause the customer any inconvenience? Will the solution, or any part of the solution, cause the customer any inconvenience? Why would I not think that boxing up a defective chair and bringing it back to the store was asking a lot of a customer who was already not too happy about the situation? Obviously if I had asked myself those questions about my discontented massage chair customer I would have offered to swap the chair out in the customer's home.

Try to create a solution that will both WOW the customer and is fiscally responsible. If my car is the shop and the dealer offers to call me a cab, that's not much of a WOW. Giving me a ride somewhere is better, but the biggest WOW is to loan me a car since it does the most to ease the inconvenience. Of course offering me a loaner if I'm only getting my oil changed in my Yugo doesn't make financial sense regardless of how much it WOWs me.

Unfortunately many retailers now look at solutions that ease the inconvenience as a profit center, not the extremely important customer service and experience tool it is. Nothing is less productive than trying to squeeze money out of someone who is already unhappy. Not good. Retailers need to ask themselves if the short-term revenue is worth what the loss of a customer will cost in the long-run.

By the way, the best part about easing a customer's inconvenience is that it makes you a hero in the customer's eyes. And if you make "ease the inconvenience" a regular step in working with unhappy customers, you'll be a hero in mine as well.

This is from our weekly newsletter The Weekly Retail Experience.