Winning Steps to Service Recovery
7 Winning Steps to Service Recovery To Snatch Victory From The Jaws of Defeat!
Almost anyone who’s been in a customer service delivery position has had the opportunity of running into either an irate call or person...or a situation that at its beginning , is not pleasant. There is plenty of potential however for a turn around and taking a customer from being upset to being loyal for life
Even though it may not even be our fault, a member of your staff's fault, your organization's fault , anyone's fault, all staff members still need to know how to recover from the situation.
Here are the Telephone Doctor’s , Nancy Friedman's, an expert in the customer service field, 7 Steps to Service Recovery that will help make your staff's day a better one!
Do you know how many organizations lose customers forever over one unresolved breakdown in customer service?
Do you know how powerful it is to provide a customer not only a solution to their problem but a lot more than they bargained for in customer satisfaction ? Here's how:
Act Quickly and Take Responsibility
1. It IS your responsibility. If you have answered the phone on behalf of the company, you have indeed accepted 100% responsibility. At least that’s what the caller/customer believes. So get off the "it’s not my fault" syndrome. And get on with the "what can I do for you?" position.
2. "I’m sorry" DOES work. Every once in a while, I hear from a CSR that tells me they don’t feel they should say "I’m sorry" when it wasn’t their fault. Well, as stated above, in the customer’s mind, it is your fault. Saying you’re sorry won’t fix the problem, but it definitely does help to defuse it immediately. Try it. You’ll see.
3. Empathize immediately. When someone is angry or frustrated with your company, the one thing they need is someone to agree with them, or at least feel they’re being understood. Be careful, though: "I know how you feel" is NOT a good thing to say unless you have been through exactly what they have experienced. Try – "That’s got to be so frustrating" or "What an unfortunate situation."
4. IMMEDIATE action is necessary to make a service recovery. Don’t make a customer wait for good service. Get whatever it is they need to them immediately. Overnight service if it’s necessary. That’s recovery.
Be Empowered and Compensate
5. Ask what would make them happy. In a few rare cases, the customer can be a most difficult one. If you have tried what you considered "everything," simply ask the customer: "What can I do to make you happy, Mr. Jones?" In most cases, it may be something you’re able to do. You just may not have thought of it. So go ahead and ask them.
6. Understand the true meaning of Service Recovery. Service Recovery is not just fixing the problem. It’s making sure it won’t happen again. It’s listening to the customer. It’s going above and beyond.Remember a great working definition of Quality Service is satisfying a customer's physical and emotional needs and then adding value.Explore ways in your organization how you can appropriately compensate the customer for their trouble.
7. FOLLOW UP. After you feel the problem has been fixed, follow up. After you’ve made the customer happy, make an extra phone call a day or so later. Be sure to ask them: "Have we fixed everything for you?" "What else can we do for you?" Be sure they’re satisfied. When you hear: "Thanks, you’ve done a great job. I appreciate it." Then you know you’ve achieved SERVICE RECOVERY!
A process for effective service recovery is a key component of a customer service culture and winning customer service strategy. Customer service training for ALL staff members is not something that can be done once and trusted to sustain its value forever. Customer service training must be done on a regular basis to be effective and drive your customer service culture.
Staff members need to know that their organization is" not kidding "about its customer service focus and demonstrates that by on-going training and empowerment of employees to act to recover from tough customer service situations. The training needs to be interesting ,have lots of participation and exercises, be fun and fresh and not the same old programs over again.
Communication Strategy has a video assisted 3-4 hour workshop dealing with service recovery that will train and inspire your staff to turn difficult customer service situations around and make your customer loyal for life. This program can be delivered by us or members of your staff.
If you are interested in finding out more about this customer service recovery training program, or one of our other customer service training programs, many designed for specific industries, e mail info@communicationstrat.com or call us at 212-362-5215.
Contact: David Hellman (David@communicationstrat.com)
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