How to convert a disgruntled customer?

Sometimes, we try so hard to please our customers, we can actually forget the little things that makes them tick… The little things, the conveniences that makes their interaction with us (and hopefully the subsequent purchase) a lot more pleasant… It’s so easy to overlook these little things, and cause our potential and present customers to be (at the best case) slightly annoyed, and even (in the worst case) leave us, disgruntled, with a bad taste in their mouth…

As consumers, we have different expectations from service providers, and we get disappointed with what we perceive as poor customer service, because we’ve grown to expect a certain level of service. From some service providers (like doctors, lawyers, accountants – generally speaking) we expect to wait in the waiting room, until they are willing to see us, regardless of the appointment time. From others (like Telcos for example) we expect to have intermittent service quality, and poor customer service experience even if we complain. If we get the level of service we expect – everyone’s (sort of) happy. This is what is called “expectation management”. When things go according to what we expect – good or bad – we don’t really think too much of it. When our expectations aren’t met is when things happen. If we expect reasonable amount of service, and don’t get it – we feel disappointed, angry, and have the urge to do something: complain, tell everyone we know, plan our sweet revenge… These are all natural feelings to have, and business owners need to come to grips with it, and try their hardest to manage the expectations of their customers. At the very least! Actually, what businesses and business owners should do, is to exceed  their customers expectations, but this is quite challenging…

But this is really business text book stuff. What happen in the real world, is that we know all of that, and still miss. We continue to run our businesses to the best of our ability, trying to pacify everyone, from customers to creditors, from team members to our superiors… In many cases we realise we can’t make everyone happy all the time, and we provide feedback mechanisms, like website forms. The question is -what do we do with them?

I once read a book called “a complaint as a gift” – it’s a straight forward concept: when a customer complains, it gives us the opportunity to fix things, and make the experience better for our customers. In many cases, it also makes our staff feel better about what they do, as now they increase the chances of getting a compliment, rather than a complaint. But I had too many examples of companies who receive complaints (via the mechanisms they provide) yet not paying enough attention to the feedback. They may reach out to the customer to pacify her, but not do much to change the experience for others, future customers.

About  a month ago, it was a quiet time at the office. Coming to year-end, it was time to plan for the new year. As a company, we are very customer centric, but we know what we don’t know, and I sought the help of the world-leading expert on Customer Service – John R. DiJulius III, from Cleveland Ohio. It was a personal recommendation from someone I really respect, so my research ended on this website: http://www.thedijuliusgroup.com/. After reading the credentials, I knew I’ve found what I’m looking for – a World Class Expert on Customer Service. I went to the product page, with credit card in hand, ready to purchase!

To my horror, I wasn’t able to buy! The website didn’t cater for international customers (a website doesn’t know state or country borders, and is available worldwide!). Having a Kindle account, I didn’t even have the option of downloading a digital copy of the books (which are available on Amazon.com). What’s going on?? Why won’t you let me buy from you, Mr. Customer Service man?

I chose the first customer approach in this case, and used the Contact Us form on the website, and wrote the following note:

Attn: John himself.

Within a few hours (there’s a bit of a time difference between Sydney and Cleveland!) I received an email from John himself, apologising for my inconvenience and asking for my home address to send me some sort of compensation. That was nice.

What was better, is that the next day, John’s Chief Marketing Officer, wrote me an apologetic email, with the same request for my shipping address. This time, he had forwarded me the note John DiJulius sent him:

We need to fix both of these ASAP!

This filled me up with excitement and hope: my little website form comment made a real difference in their business (or has the potential to). Being late December, and knowing the level of undertaking it will be to add international and digital commerce to a website, I know it make take a few more weeks before we can see the change. In the mean time, I have received a parcel in the mail containing the two books, a bonus DVD, and a personal note.

Not only I’m not disgruntled anymore, I’m now an advocate of John R. DiJulius III, and his approach to customer service!

What can we learn from this experience? These are my takeaways:

1. Nothing is perfect. There’s always room for improvement.
2. We need to provide mechanism for feedback, so we can get better…
3. We need to understand the core of the issue, and not only pacify the complainer (which has to be immediate, and wholeheartedly thankful!), but make sure we act to fix the problem. Going even one step further, is to make sure the person who complained, can see the impact he had on the business, and keep them updated on the resolution of the problem.
4. Always strive to keep on top of customer’s expectations. Keep up with technology, “World is Flat” concept, and cater for different types of purchases. Money is money. If a customer wants to pay -LET THEM!

Your thoughts?