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When the
customer is wrong…and RIGHT!
Oh
did the mighty customer service and marketing professional
speaker put his foot in it! I have a long-term client for
my print/promotion company. In fact, one of the owners of
this company used to be my business neighbor a long time
ago, hence I picked him up as a client.
Now
let’s just say that I talk about maintaining high emotional
trust accounts with our customers… and boy did I let emotion
take over! This gentleman’s partner decided to
order
some labels. There are several offices listed on this label
with phone numbers and he asked me to send him a copy to
make sure the copy was current. I sent the current label
copy to him and got an e-mail back telling me it was “insane”
that the phone numbers had not been changed when they had
moved and proceeded to tell me that they should have been
changed long before.
Now
let me tell you my thinking (OK, a big mistake thinking….and
it was!). First, this customer had been put on COD terms a
couple of years ago and everything had to be delivered with
a check being picked-up at the same time – so it was already
a minor pain to work this way. Second, they had changed the
telephone numbers in question at least two years ago and
they never caught the problem; Third, this label was part
of a pallet of goods with shipping documentation so no one
ever looked at them for a phone number. Fourth, he was
telling me I should know to change everything without him
telling me and that we had been doing his business cards and
letterhead for many years.
Of
course he forgot he had switched his business cards t
someone else and had just brought them back to me recently
since their price might have been lower but so was
everything else, if you get my drift.
Now
let me tell you what I did. I was pretty angry at that
point for being blamed for something two years old or more
(remember that emotion part) and shot back an e-mail that
basically said we were not responsible for changing copy on
everything and that it was his responsibility to tell me
when and how to change things…and then asked him if he
wanted to order or not. I also CC’d my response his partner
(my friend) with this
e-mail. I am fairly certain that a little voice in the
back of my head was telling me “DO NOT HIT THE SEND
BUTTON!”, but hey, I told you the emotions took over. I did
not like being accused of being “insane”….true or not!
Plus, I was probably only keeping them as a customer since
he was an old friend and long-term client.
So….. his partner (my friend) e-mails me back that he is
sure he told me to change the copy (two years ago) and that
I should have known that good customer service demands that
I am the responsible one for making changes, whether told or
not. Finally recognizing that I probably didn’t handle this
well (you think!), I called him to talk it through and
basically got reamed in the conversation. At that point I
e-mailed an apology to his partner and offered a significant
discount or an offer to send him back his artwork (corrected
of course) if he wanted to go somewhere else.
Was I
wrong in my assumptions…NO. Was I very, very stupid in my
response? ABSOLUTELY YES! I totally did not walk my own
talk. What is the first thing I always tell my audience when
there is a problem? Apologize for the problem. The
customer may be wrong, but you are not apologizing for
that. You are only apologizing for the client having a
problem. If I had just apologized for the mistake (mine or
not) and said I would make the change immediately, it would
have been the end of it, but I had to go get pissed off
about being told I sucked and went off on a customer because
I knew them too well. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! Did I tell
you I want STUPID!
Once
again class (and I am speaking to myself):
1.
Emphasize
and apologize that the customer has a problem.
2.
Listen and
get clear on the problem.
3.
If your
fault:
·
Offer
options or ask the customer
·
Decide on
best course and confirm with customer
·
Make it
happen quickly and easily for customer
·
Thank the
customer for bring this to your attention – send a
letter/gift
·
Follow-Up
4. If it is the customers fault, emphasize and don’t
make them feel bad.
5. If they are unreasonable:
·
Ask again
what they want
·
Comply or
simply tell them what you can and cannot do
If
they are a continuing pain in the fanny – politely send them
to a competitor for future business. Life's to way to short
to deal with you know what’s. I will have to decide in the
future if this client fits my profile of what I want and go
from there.
So
that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Oh how the mighty
have fallen, but you know, we all might think we know we
provide great customer service, but we all need to be
reminded sometimes. I just hope you learn from my example
and not have to live it.
Rodger B. Price
The
Primal Marketer
Click Here for my
Primal Customer Service program and others
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