Customer ServiceThe 9 Musts of Customer Recovery 

Trainers Note: Feel free to reproduce and distribute this article to managers.

Take off your manager’s hat for a moment. Think of yourself as an upset customer, walking into your place of business and interacting with your staff. Would your employees treat you with understanding, patience and respect? Would they treat you as a valued guest who has a problem to be solved? Would they go out of their way to turn you into a satisfied customer? Are you sure?

The truth about customer recovery is that your employees have to want to turn an upset guest into a happy and satisfied one. Your employees make a choice each and every time they are faced with an upset customer. They can choose a helpful and caring attitude and work to understand and solve their customer’s problem. Or, they can be indifferent and argumentative. How they choose to handle the situation means the difference between customer loyalty and customer loss.

Upset customers are never fun. But, with a little guidance and encouragement, your employees can learn to handle customer problems with confidence and poise. Check out these customer recovery tips and share them with your team.

1. Choose a helpful and caring attitude.

The biggest argument I hear about this first and most important step is that employees just want to be themselves. They don’t want to be phony or put on an act. And they’re right. They need to be sincere and genuine or they’ll feel uncomfortable and the customer will feel manipulated.

Putting on airs is not what this is about. You’re not pretending to be a wealthy entrepreneur when you’re really a working stiff like the rest of us. Choosing a helpful and caring attitude is about making a choice to do your job. We all know how to be helpful. We all have things and people we care about.

So, choosing a helpful and caring attitude at work, means making the decision to help and care while you’re there. It’s your job to help and care about your customer’s problems. When you choose to be helpful and care about what you’re doing, the upset customer in front of you will seem much less daunting.

1. Listen and don’t interrupt.

This sounds easier than it is. When confronted with someone giving us an earful, it’s human nature to want to verbally defend ourselves. As hard as it may be, it’s to your advantage to hold your tongue until your guest is finished venting. You’ll be surprised how your reaction affects your guest’s anger. Interrupting will only agitate your guest further.

Allowing your guest to speak without interruption will help diffuse the situation. And, it also gives you extra time to think. Stephen Covey said it best: “Seek first to understand and then to be understood.”

3. Check your emotions.

The easiest way to make a customer problem worse is to let your emotions get the best of you. Try not to take their words, the problem, or the emotionally charged situation personally. Just, remember it’s not about you.

You may think the customer is wrong. You may think the customer is acting like an idiot. But, if you let those thoughts grow, your emotions will take over and you’ll react. Instead, take a deep breath and leave your feelings out of it. Focus on your customer.

4. Put yourself in their shoes.

Sure, it’s cliché, but there’s truth in those words. Try to understand how your guest is feeling and why. That’s the easiest way to keep the focus off yourself and on your customer. It will also help you check your emotions. If you’re thinking about how your customer is feeling, you’re less likely to think about how you’re feeling.

5. Apologize.

Perhaps the wait was too long and you didn’t get help. Or, you ordered the wrong item. Or you served the meal before the appetizer was finished. In those cases, it’s easy to accept responsibility and apologize.

But what if the customer problem isn’t your fault? Why apologize for something you didn’t do? It’s not your fault the product was damaged. It’s not your fault the insurance company doesn’t cover that procedure. It’s not your fault the last chef special went to another table. That’s when it’s tough to say you’re sorry. And you’re not alone. For many people, apologizing is hard enough. But, saying sorry for something they didn’t do is even more difficult.

Think about it this way. You are sorry that the customer is upset. You are sorry the problem occurred. And, you’re sorry the customer is so unhappy and dissatisfied. Saying “I’m sorry” goes a long way toward diffusing a situation before it gets ugly and helps rebuild customer loyalty. It has nothing to do with blame.

6. Speak firmly but gently.

Chances are you’ve seen this in action. Effective leaders, teachers, professional speakers, and entertainers sometimes employ this approach when dealing with noise. I know of a couple of parents who approach their children in this manner when the children get too loud, rambunctious, or emotional.

And, I must admit, I am often surprised that it’s so effective. How can it be that lowering your voice a notch instead of matching their volume works to calm a situation? It’s because human beings often naturally match one another’s voice tone and cadence.

Therefore, you can help calm a situation when you are calm. You can help lower the volume of voices in a room when you lower yours. The same holds true for dealing with an upset customer. After listening, speak firmly but gently as you apologize and try to solve their problem.

7. Never say no.

Even when you can’t say yes, don’t say no. When you’re dealing with customers, the word “no” is sometimes too blunt and often unnecessary. And, it frames everything in the negative. Instead of saying what you can’t do, try suggesting what you can do.

Consider the following scenario. The customer is already upset about the wait. He has approached you about how much longer he and his guests will have to wait for a non-smoking table.

“We have been waiting 20 minutes already and you just seated a party that came in after us. Is the next table ours?”

“No. There is another party ahead of you.”
Versus
“I am sorry for the wait. We have a couple of tables that will open up in a few minutes and one of those tables will be yours. ”

As a customer, which would you rather hear?

8. Seek a solution.

This is the foundation of customer recovery. To make amends and increase the likelihood that your upset customer will return, it’s important to try to solve their problem. The most effective way to turn a difficult customer situation into a positive one is to make sure the guest feels that you’re sincerely on their side. That you want the customer to be happy too.

This ties into the idea that if you can’t say yes, don’t say no. Seeking a solution at its most basic sense is problem solving. Give options. Give control to the customer.

9. Thank them.

This is basic courtesy and goodwill. Find something to sincerely thank the customer and end on a positive.

“Thanks for your patience. ”
” Thanks for your understanding. ”
“Thanks for letting us work this out. We’ll see you next time.”

Dealing with an upset customer is never easy and it’s not any fun. But, if you have the processes in place that allow your employees to successfully help their customers, and if your employees understand the importance of choosing a helpful and caring attitude, customer recovery will be a reality for you and your team. Good luck.

Michele Eby works for Media Partners as a writer and training advisor. She has worked in the training and development field for more than 15 years. Media Partner’s management training programs, The Difficult Guest and How to Connect in Business in 90 Seconds or Less were the sources for this article.

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