You might have read our recent blog post on word of mouth marketing where we talked about providing a great customer experience. Unfortunately we aren’t all perfect and we can’t provide a great customer experience 100% of the time. So what can you do when something falls through the cracks and for some reason you let your customers down? There is a way to win your customers back and even transform them into promoters for you. In this article you will learn the steps that you need to follow to achieve this.
I recently received an email from American Airlines that read: “This is a time when apologies aren’t enough”. The email was a great example of how to recover from a situation that creates frustrated customers.
As consumers, many times we are unhappy with the products or services that a company provides, however we are usually open to giving companies a chance to make it up to us.
There is something called service recovery. This is the business term for the process to win a customer back after losing them because you did something wrong. After you have damaged the relationship with your customer, you must act fast and follow these steps if you want a chance to turn that bad experience into an opportunity:
Following those three simple steps can help you not only get a customer back, but also gain a lifetime evangelist. By showing a customer that you care, you are generating more goodwill than you might think. Once a customer is heard, he feels understood, he feels that you care. The fact that you accept the problem, apologize, and then not only solve the problem but actually go the extra mile to make it up to them will leave a long-lasting positive mark. This type of loyalty is hard to get, but once you have it, you will have a happy customer who will promote your business for years to come.