You made a mistake. It happens. Unfortunately, in today’s competitive marketplace, there’s minimal room for error, a mistake can cost your business customers. Consumers now have so much choice that they rarely have patience with any company that mistreats them.
However, it's not over yet. People realize companies make mistakes. Therefore, you can take this unfortunate circumstance and turn it to your advantage if you know how to handle it correctly.
You need to reframe the situation and use it as an opportunity, rather than think of it as a misfortune. Implement these strategies the next time you need to say sorry to your customer online.
Always Agree with the customer
When your customer makes contact with you and complains, always start with agreement. It doesn’t matter about the type of problem or mistake – you must always agree with the customer.
If you start to get defensive, you’re just driving more nails into your coffin. Agreeing with them is everything. It lets the customer know that you think they are right. This attitude drops their defences and calms them down.
Take Full Responsibility
After the customer is calm and they are aware that you agree with their perspective, take full responsibility for the situation. There’s nothing more irritating to the customer than a company that doesn’t remain accountable for their actions. Even if you don’t agree with the customer’s point of view, keep it to yourself and accept responsibility.
Taking responsibility lets the customer know that you intend to provide a solution to the problem. You’ve made a mistake and your willing to take the fallout from them.
Provide Solutions – Not Excuses
Customers can’t stand it when you start to make excuses for your conduct. This strategy means nothing to them. They make it look like your trying to cover your actions, rather than provide a solution to the problem.
Customers don’t care about your excuses; they care about how you’re going to fix things. If you can’t think of a solution on the spot, that’s okay. Tell the customer that you will get back to them as soon as possible with a solution, and then keep your word.
Authentic Apologies
After you’ve presented the solution to the issue, make sure that the customer accepts your idea for repatriation. At this stage, you're back on a neutral footing with them. Now it's time to apologize for your company’s actions. Don’t be overly melodramatic with your apology. At this point, the hard work is over. All you need to do is issue an authentic apology and promise your customer that you’ll do your best to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Over-Deliver on your Next Opportunity
If you’ve done an excellent job of apologising to your customer and presenting them with a satisfactory solution, they should remain a customer. If they walk away, you haven’t done your job right.
For those customers that do stay at your side, use the next opportunity to over-deliver for them. It doesn’t matter what you sell or what service you provide. The key to this strategy is to bend over backwards for them on their next inquiry or sale with your company.
Wrapping Up – Sometimes the Customer is Wrong, But It Doesn’t Matter
We have all heard the saying that, “the customer is always right.” This statement isn't true. The fact of the matter is that customers aren’t always right. They are human just like you, and they make mistakes as well.
However, it doesn’t matter who’s right or wrong in this situation. Allocating blame is not the point of this exercise. What matters is how you handle the situation. Be proactive with your customer and find solutions that meet there needs.
Wrap up by asking your client to leave your company a review on your assistance with solving the situation. If you have handled the situation correctly, they should be happy to leave you positive feedback. You can use online review management software to check up on your customers feedback on how you handled the situation.
