Dealing with Unhappy Customers

Posted on June 14, 2007

Customers and clients are the life blood of a business. But your relationship with them doesn’t end with the sale. How you treat problems – and they will occur – will shape your company’s public image and have a hard impact on the bottom line.

All in all, Disneyland does a great job of caring for its visitors. My wife and kids love Disneyland, so I’ve been there more times than I care to admit. This last time we hit a few speed bumps.

Many rides broke down, and two of them while I was on them. Both times I was within a few feet of the operators, but they didn’t tell us what was going on. Even when we asked, they dodged the real answer. It was like they were afraid to that everything wasn’t perfect – even when it was obvious that it was not perfect.

Oops. It came across as being ignored and disrespected. With a tinge of honesty, they could have made us Disneyland insiders, divulging a few little secrets about how the rides work (and occasionally, why they don’t work).

Then one of my kids left a knapsack where we had his caricature painted. It took two visits to the lost and found and 90 minutes of waiting in line to recover the backpack. The desk was understaffed, and no sign of technology was seen. This was the same way lost and found must have worked 30 years ago. We only had at risk a favorite knapsack, two water bottles, two apples, and a pair of sunglasses. But others around me had wallets, cash, credit cards, annual passes, and more at stake. Trust me, they were restless.

All this reminded me about the underbelly of every business. There will be mistakes, goofed up orders, mishandled requests, technical problems and more. The question is this:  how will your team handle them?

Amazing recovery from problems is one of the leading ways to cement customer loyalty and prove that you really care. It’s not nearly as sexy as landing new big orders, but it can be as important. Are you measuring the issues, the quality with which they are resolved, and then touching back with customers to get their feedback about your firm’s process in resolving the issues?

Takeaways:

• Every business makes mistakes – it’s how you handle them that counts.
• Be honest with your customers about problems and act quickly to fix them.
• Take a hard look at how your business resolves issues and get your customers’ feedback.