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Photo by Fribbleblib
“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.” -Dalai Lama
When customers reach out to us with their problems, we know that we should apologize for their experience and work with them to fix the situation. But what exactly should we say to cheerfully acknowledge their problems and convey our willingness to rectify things?
Juliana went online and ordered some tools. Once they had arrived and she began to unpack them, she found that one component seemed a little dirty around a seam. After taking the pieces apart to investigate the issue, she found that the interior was inexplicably wet and there was rust beginning to form. She immediately called the retailer’s service line and explained what she had found. “The man that I spoke with sounded just as surprised as I was. He told me, ‘That doesn’t seem right at all. Let’s get this replaced for you right away. I’m very sorry for the hassle and additional wait it’s causing you.’ and then he also refunded me $5 for my ‘time and troubles’. I was very impressed by how easy he was to deal with. I was expecting I’d have to somehow prove that the problem really existed and wasn’t something I did to the tool.”
Juliana’s representative did everything right when handling her case: he mirrored her feelings, understood her needs, apologized, provided a solution, and made a gesture of goodwill to further strengthen the customer relationship.
Corbin had a tech problem. He had previously called tech support to troubleshoot the issue, but after continuing trouble, he called back in to speak with customer service. “When I called in, I told the lady right away that I’d already spoken with someone about a week ago. She asked if she could take a minute to read over the notes so she wouldn’t have to make me go over everything again. I was really surprised by that – normally I have to insist reps take a look at notes in my account because I don’t want to repeat myself.” After getting a feel for Corbin’s case history, the representative asked if his issues had been resolved or were persisting. “I told her that my software still was not working well with my system and I didn’t know where to go from there, but I did not want to waste more time troubleshooting it. She didn’t push back at me, just agreed that it shouldn’t be that hard to work with their product and offered to refund the purchase or replace it with another product I might be interested in. I ended up just cutting my losses and getting a refund, but I appreciated how easily she offered to let me decide what I wanted the company to do.”
Corbin also had an outstanding service experience because his representative utilized the case notes without being pushed to do so and then followed his lead in proposing resolutions for him to choose from.
Customers have busy lives and many retailers to choose from, so the easier we can make their interactions with us, the more positively they will feel about our companies and the more likely they will be to remain customers. How else can we approach cases to simplify our customers’ experiences?[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]