Service Recovery is a theory that suggests that a customer who has a bad experience – and receives a prompt, effective response to their issues – will be a more loyal customer, than a customer who had no bad experience at all.
The reason for this is a bad experience provides an organization the opportunity to demonstrate how valuable the customer is. Poor customer service is common in many organizations. It happens from poor training, ineffective performance management and having the wrong people in critical positions.
Customer Service Failure Response and Recovery
It is important for you to recover your customer service mistake as unpleasant experience from your customers can lead to breaking your relationship with your customers. A solid customer service failure response is the best customer loyalty program that any organisation can have.
Here are 3 tips that are important for your customer service recovery:
1) Listen Carefully
It is important for you to always LISTEN to your customer before you speak. You should listen to what they have to say so that you can get more information as to why they are unhappy with your service or products. When customers are angry, they will tend to be aggressive and loud – it is ok! Put yourself in their shoe to understand the whole situation. Always try to show empathy to your customers. At this point, you should listen to the message keenly and ignore the inappropriate conduct of the customer. Interestingly, some customers complain about what they aren’t upset about. Having soft skills like empathy is essential when working in customer support.
2) Use Communication Channels
Every communication channel has its advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, start by respecting the communication channel that the customer chose to use. Your first response should be through the channel the customer felt favourable to use. In case you feel the channel is not the most appropriate method for handling that particular situation, and provided you have accommodated the customer, you can politely request the customer to allow you help him or her through the channel you find more suitable. Giving your customer a personal phone call would be good and fast to resolve issues. For example, if the customer complains through your website’s online chat, the problem should be dealt with there first.
3) Focus on the Solution
Beginning your response to a customer service situation by telling the customer what you can’t do and why you can’t do it is not an effective recovery strategy because it makes the customer feel trapped and unappreciated. Instead, you should focus on the solution that you can provide by explaining to the customer what you can do to help him/her. This means that if you can’t accommodate the specific requests of your customer, you can quickly jump to what you can provide for him or her. It is an effective service recovery tactic for providing your customer with alternatives if you feel that you can’t meet his or her desires.
Source:
Service Recovery – 5 Tips For Successful Service Recovery
