Business should own up to customer service flubs and make things right
NEW YORK Erika Wasser and her staffers arrived for a big appointment — hair and makeup for a bridal party of 11 — to realize someone had goofed and the salon space they share in a Miami hotel wasn’t available that day. And the bride was expected in an hour.
“We messed up HUGE,” is how Wasser, owner of nine Glam+Go salons in three cities, remembers the Saturday a year ago. She quickly pulled out her credit card, reserved a suite in the hotel, and “the bridal party and our team literally transported everything — dryers, chairs, everything basically not nailed down — from our salon and recreated an en suite Glam+Go.”
“If there’s ever a day you don’t want don’t want to mess up,” Wasser says, “it’s a wedding.”
Misunderstandings, mistakes and breakdowns can happen at any company — including a giant like Amazon, which had the embarrassment of its website not working properly at the start of its much-advertised Prime Day. Small business owners might not be able to survive negative reviews on social media, so when they have customer service disasters they need to try to not just mollify customers but please or even thrill them.
Luckily, the bridal party wanted to help, so the move was accomplished quickly. When the bride arrived, everyone told her she’d received a free upgrade. Wasser, who usually charges for champagne at appointments, paid for it. A disaster became a memorable party.
Facing a disaster of their own, Davis Smith and Brandon Carter fielded a phone call that Smith calls panic-inducing. The young entrepreneurs, who were cleaning grills in Austin, Texas, last year while preparing to start their company, inadvertently scratched a customer’s backyard grill.
“He was furious because we had ruined his grill, he said. We tried to offer a refund or a free cleaning but nothing consoled his loss,” Smith says. The two bought the customer a new US$600 grill. Although their College Grill Cleaners business had only made US$2,000 so far, the new grill turned out to be an investment in the future.
“The customer was extremely understanding, happy with how we handled the situation,” Davis says. The man also posted a positive review online and referred neighbours to the company.
When they mess up, companies should focus on building relationships rather than apologizing profusely, says Paul Fombelle, a marketing professor at Northeastern University. At the same time, owners shouldn’t ask, “what can we do to make you happy,” the equivalent of a blank cheque.
Fombelle’s suggestion is to say, “We screwed up. We want to keep you as a customer. Here are two options for what we can do now.” In trying to mitigate the damage, owners also shouldn’t make promises they won’t be able to keep.
When an angry customer calls or shows up, owners or employees should listen, not be defensive or condescending and not say, “I can’t help you,” says Nancy Friedman, who runs The Telephone Doctor, a customer service consulting firm. Staffers who don’t know how to respond should say, “I’ll get someone to help you.” And no one should ever make the customer feel like they’re being a pain.”
Sometimes, even good service can’t get the resolution a customer wants. John Holloway ’s insurance brokerage, NoExam.com, was honest with a customer that he might not get a life insurance policy because he’d had cancer.
Holloway and his business partner, Jonathan Fritz, searched for an insurer they thought would be a good match and helped the customer with the application.
After he was rejected, the customer called to vent once or twice a week for several weeks, and kept Fritz on the phone for up to half an hour.
Eventually, the customer stopped calling.