customer’s concerns, or we don’t. The best way to do this, is by swapping perspectives with them, and attempting to see their point-of-view. This is a bit more than just ‘feeling what they are feeling’, as we also want to understand why they felt that it was important to take action, when approaching us with their concerns. A is for acknowledge. This is where we state our understanding of the customer’s problem. “Yes, I can see that there is a problem here. As I understand it, the problem is …”. This step lets the customer know that we have been listening, and it allows us to check important points. Handled well, this is the moment when we can completely defuse a tense situation, and start winning back the customer. R is for resolve. This is our time to really shine. What can we do to fix the problem? How can we make things better for the customer? Many years ago, I was in a shop when a customer came in and complained about a product. The staff member knew the store’s legal obligations, and immediately offered to replace the item. “No”, said the customer, “I don’t want a replacement.” Quick as a flash, the staff member went to plan B, and offered to refund the customer’s money. “No”, said the customer, “I don’t want a refund.” Well, that pretty much exhausted the staff member’s list of options. So, what did the customer really want? As it turned out, the only thing that the ABOUT THE AUTHOR Phil Sales is specialist business coach, interested in 'cool stuff' in the business development sector. For more about Phil, see https://iact15.wixsite.com/iactltd/who-we-are can we win them back, but we can get information from them that we just couldn’t get through any other means. Remember that the customers who didn’t complain just walked away, without saying a word. The only ones who bothered to speak up were the ones who complained. Isn’t that interesting? In effect, our complaining customers gave us something that money just couldn’t buy. They gave us extremely useful market insight, and they gave us the opportunity to win them back. Now, wouldn’t that be a really great way to make somebody’s day? customer wanted was to ensure that the next person didn’t have the same negative experience. By trying to be too responsive, the staff member had tried to resolve the problem without gathering all of the facts, or by involving the customer in finding the solution! Good customer service can be something of a balancing act, and (like most complex activities) it requires some measure of anticipation and rehearsal. Interestingly, there is strong evidence that if we act promptly and provide an appropriate solution, then we won’t just retain the customer. We will also win their emotional buy-in (after all, haven’t they just helped us to fix an important issue?), and they will probably tell other people about how good we are! Best of all, our complaining customers have alerted us to a problem, which we might not have otherwise known about. This, then, is why unhappy customers who complain are so important to us. Not only September 2022 { 35 }
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