It’s been a fabulous day at work. All the orders were ready on time and the seemingly endless numbers of transactions have gone by without a hitch. Ms. Bialek complimented us on how nice her white dress looks and was very impressed that we were able to get the nasty red wine stain out. You overheard Mr. Goodman telling another customer how great the tailoring department is. Customers are coming in and out and everything seems perfect. You glance at the clock and it’s already past 9pm. Rush hour is winding down and its time to go home. You go to get your jacket and one of your CSRs is calling your name. “Can you please help the customer on counter one?” You walk over to the counter and as you look up, you are met by a pair of charcoal black eyes, seething at the bits. “You creased my $300 True Religion jeans. They’re ruined! I wanted to wear them to a party tonight and now I can’t. I’m so upset right now you can’t believe it!”
One of the worst things about our industry is that complaints are fairly common place. No matter how well you run your operation, there are going to be times when a customer is going to be upset about the quality, pricing, a special request that wasn’t done, or an order that wasn’t ready on time. When problems arise and our managers are assisting an upset customer, they use a very valuable tool that we have been using for the past 30 years. It’s called the “6 Steps on how to handle a complaint.” It’s an effective way to calm down the customer and show them that we are sorry and that we will take the necessary steps to ensure that they leave happy.
How To Handle Complaints:
There is a very simple six step formula for handling complaints from a customer, and if you learn this easy outline, you can use it successfully to handle any complaint you meet in life, personal or business.
The six steps are:
• Sympathize
• Reassure
• Find out exactly what is wrong
• Personalize the error
• Rebuild the reputation of the company.
• Thank the complainer.
Sympathize – a complainer is angry and expects resistance. By sympathizing immediately you take the wind out of their sails. In catching a hard thrown ball, you do not advance your hands toward the ball – you let the hands give with the ball to take the steam out of it. You back up at first… “Well no wonder you are upset Mr. Jones, I would be upset too.” Do not meet them head on – back up and sympathize.
Reassure – the customer has expected resistance, and is afraid you will do nothing to fix the mistake. Their fear must be eliminated before they can talk reasonably with you. “Certainly you know, Mrs. Jones, that we will do all we can. I am here to solve this problem (do not admit guilt).
Find out exactly what is wrong – people with complaints almost always generalize or exaggerate. They will start off by saying all the work is lousy, when the fact is there is only one torn shirt. Get all the details of exactly what the complaint is – when, what size, material, color, everything having a bearing. Be specific.
Personalize the error – Customers can be mad at the company, but not at individuals in the company, so point out that this is an individual error. That we are human beings who do make mistakes sometimes. Make it personal even to the extent of blaming yourself and the customer will usually excuse the error.
Rebuild the reputation – So we goofed, but remind the customer that we handle thousands of garments every week without error. Remind them that we have the finest reputation in town for quality and that an error is unusual or we could not stay in business and anytime the human element is involved, occasional mistakes are inevitable. Build up the Milt & Edie’s name and reputation for the future.
Thank the complainer – Make the customer feel good. By now they are a little embarrassed that they created such a fuss. If they go away feeling that they have been a little silly, they may be too upset to even come back. Thank them for telling you about the problem. Tell them most people would just quit us and never give us a chance to make it right. Let them feel that they have been extra nice to cooperate with us so that this may be corrected. Build them up so they are on a cloud; feeling like they are good citizens.
It is very important that every customer walk out of your cleaners…happy.
If, for whatever reason, you feel the customer is about to leave and is not happy, find out why they are not happy and what you can do to resolve the situation.
Happy customers are our key to our success!
In our past articles, we’ve written about how we bring new customers into our plant and the retention programs that we use to keep them. With that in mind, it only takes one problem that wasn’t handled correctly by one of your managers or staff to lose their business. When you lose a customer, not only are you losing thousands of dollars of revenue, but your reputation will become tainted and they will tell other people not to use you. That is why the 6 steps of handling a customer complaint is a key ingredient in our customer service program and is an effective tool in helping us provide the best customer service possible.
Happy customers are our key to our success!
In our past articles, we’ve written about how we bring new customers into our plant and the retention programs that we use to keep them. With that in mind, it only takes one problem that wasn’t handled correctly by one of your managers or staff to lose their business. When you lose a customer, not only are you losing thousands of dollars of revenue, but your reputation will become tainted and they will tell other people not to use you. That is why the 6 steps of handling a customer complaint is a key ingredient in our customer service program and is an effective tool in helping us provide the best customer service possible.