How to Recover From Bad Customer Experiences

If there is one thing all customer service teams should expect, it's
that service failures will happen sometimes. Instead of denying this
truth, it makes much more sense to prepare and train our people to
handle cases of service failures. This makes recovery a very important
thing for your customer facing teams to learn. How we handle negative
situations can make the difference between keeping our customers or
losing them forever.Recovery situations are very stressful for you
customer service representatives. It is difficult to deal with
customers who are upset, frustrated and distrustful. It is not
unlikely that your team will have to deal with customers who shout and
who curse. Turning the situation around and gaining back the trust of
the customer is indeed, a tall order.Here are some things to keep in
mind when dealing with irate customers:1. Empathy.We need to
understand where the customers are coming from. Put yourself in the
shoes of your customers and imagine how you would feel if you were in
the same situation. Take a step further and let your customers know
that you understand why they are upset and that you would be too if
the same thing were to happen to you.When customers come to you
complaining, they want to be acknowledged. They want to talk to
someone who cares and understands what they are going through.
Apologize for the bad things that they are experiencing. By displaying
empathy, we show the customers that we are on their side. This helps
us gain their trust so we can work towards a solution together.2. To
your customers, you represent the company or the brand.When customers
appear like they are blaming you for the bad things that have happened
to them, don't take it personally. Understand that to your customers,
you represent the company. It doesn't matter who is at fault and it
doesn't help at all to tell your customer that it's the fault of so
and so from another department. Instead, what you should do is to
fully take on the role of being your company's ambassador and do your
best to help the customer with their problem.3. Help find a
solution.Once you've shown empathy and got the customer to see you as
an ally, the next step is to help your customers find a solution to
their problem. Get as much details as you can about the nature of the
problem. If it's something that you can solve by yourself, go ahead
and propose a solution. If it's something that you need to coordinate
with other people in other departments, inform your customers of the
steps you will be taking and a schedule of when you can update them or
when they can follow up.4. Do not overpromise.In our quest to pacify
irate customers, we may be led to grant requests or promise things
that are really beyond our scope. Do not fall into this trap. The last
thing that you want to do is make promises that you cannot keep. This
will make the customers even more distrustful and even more irate.5.
Follow through.To keep customers, we need to deliver exceptional
customer service. That is why following through is important. Fixing
the problem, following it up with the people concerned and returning
to our customers with updates will make our customers feel that we do
value their business and we try our best to keep them happy.