Putting Your Customers' Needs First

o When receiving an irate phone call, it is important to recognize that the caller is NOT mad at YOU…he or she is upset at something that your company did or did not do. o In most situations, the customer calling you does not even know who you are so their anger is NOT really being directed at you; perhaps the customer simply is having a “bad day”. o Unless you have “walked in the customer’s shoes”, you may not fully understand why they are as upset as they appear to be. o LET THE CUSTOMER VENT … let them tell you what is bothering them … do NOT interrupt their tirade. o The KEY is to LISTEN to their complaint, concern, or comments … not to JUDGE them! o Eventually the customer making the complaint will “run out-of-gas”; they will exhaust their frustration when describing their dilemma to you. o At that point, YOU can simply say “I am sorry that the experience you had did not meet your expectations” … keep the apology simple and direct … knowing that YOU personally did not necessarily fail to serve the customer properly and maybe it is not even your company’s fault, but you are NOT apologizing for your failure or your company’s failure to perform BUT you are apologizing for the NEGATIVE experience that the caller or the caller’s company or end customer has endured. o NOW … simply say … How would you like us to resolve this issue/problem/situation? o This question tends to put the complaint back in the complainer’s lap in that it basically says … if you were in MY PLACE, what would you WANT ME TO DO FOR YOU? o At this stage of the conversation, 99 times out of a 100, the person lodging the complaint is in a much better frame of mind. Once they realize that you are not trying to JUDGE the merits of their complaint or JUDGE their reason for calling in the first place, they tend to “calm down” and reflect more realistically on the situation at hand. o Once they express how they would like the situation to be resolved, you now have the information at hand to determine how closely you can accommodate their wishes/needs based on the merits of the complaint and the company policies and flexibility you have been empowered with. In most instances, you will be able to fully satisfy their concerns and resolve the immediate issue at hand to your customer’s satisfaction. o Part of your Call Wrap Up should always be to thank them for calling you and bringing

the problem to your attention so that you could promptly address it for them. ALWAYS…thank them for doing business with YOUR COMPANY!

Too often, companies tend to measure customer satisfaction by how many calls are handled, resolved, how many minutes on the phone, etc. However, the true measure of customer service should be based on CALL AVOIDANCE. How many systemic problems in your business can you identify and resolve so that future complaint calls on these matters can be eliminated altogether? Whether the problem relates to a product specification that caused the user to select the wrong item, whether it was a shipping problem or a material defect, whether the problem