How to Deal With Disgruntled Customers

It is a sad fact that there will always come a time when your customers will be disgruntled. Despite all the effort and hard work you invest on ensuring that you keep your customers happy, some will not be happy with your service. It is inevitable that there will be the occasional disgruntled customer now and again. So, what can you do under such circumstances?   
 

Stay Calm and Remember It's Not Personal

When a customer is upset, remember that it is not a personal attack. This is business it is nothing personal. They are not mad at you as a person but are not happy with the service rendered. Give them the opportunity to talk for as long as they need to, not only to get it off their chest, but to thoroughly explain the problem. What will you be doing in the meantime? Listen!! Listen carefully! You cannot fix what you don't understand, so be sure to ask the customer enough questions to learn what is bothering them. By simply listening, the customer will realize that you are interested in their problem and he/she will eventually calm down enough to discuss the situation in a positive manner.

Apologize and Empathize

Once you understand why the customer is upset, apologize. Some business people do not like the idea of apologising. They feel it is an admission of guilt that you have messed with the customer. Even if you don't agree with their complaint, apologize. When you do this you are letting them know you validate them and will work towards a resolution. This also separates the emotion from the problem. As a general rule, the expression of empathy to the customer should come right after the apology. When you feel you fully understand, restate your understanding of the problem at hand.

Resolve Their Problem, Not Yours

Your business should have policies in place to prepare people working the front lines to deal with customer service issues. Empower your staff to resolve all customer related queries in a satisfactory manner. However, not all situations are the same and therefore not all remedies should be the same either. If the disgruntled customer has made it clear what will satisfy him, then do everything within your power to accommodate that customer. This shows your commitment to resolving their problem.

Follow Up

Whatever promises you make to the customer to resolve the issue, be sure to follow up. Call when you said you would call. Even if you don't have the resolution, let the customer know you're sticking to your word. This shows the customer that his/her business is important to you and you're actively working towards getting things fixed.

 Learn From Mistakes

Dealing with each unpleasant customer should be a learning experience. Customer feedback should be viewed as an opportunity for change. Keep in mind that not all customers can be pleased. Some people are just complainers and nothing you do will change that. But everything you can correct about this situation will help with future events. Keep improving in areas over which you have control. 

Even though the customer is upset, this is still a sale. He or she has already made a purchase and you have their money, so make sure your response is timely and respectful. Customers with complaints simply want you to be aware of the problem and take the necessary steps to correct it. Sometimes there are no substitutions, discounts or freebies you can offer that will keep the sale. Although you may lose this purchase, the attempts you've made to win over the customer may help retain future sales.

The writer Ed Masau is a Customer Service International Champion who is passionate about improving the customer experiences offered by organizations. He writes in his personal capacity and  can be contacted on eddymasau@gmail.com.

Good Customer Service Is No Longer Good Enough

Your business would not exist without customers. And if you have customers, you need to have not just customer service but  superior customer service. Everybody talks about the importance of superior customer service, but few seem to follow through on it. Customers want products and services fast and cheap from whoever will provide them. Scarcity of products and services is now a thing of the past. That means  the competitive advantage is now in your ability to keep your customers and build repeat business. 

With the coming of social networks especially the popular Facebook and Twitter followers it has become easier for customers to spread their dissatisfaction with your service to the rest of the world. Make the customer angry and chances are they will post a nasty comment about your shoddy service on their Facebook or Twitter account. In a click of a computer mouse the whole world is able to see that post and make comments about it as well. You cannot afford to have that happening, do you? But instead you can utilize the platforms to have them talk about your superior service.

Good customer service is no longer good enough in this day and age. It has to be superior, it has to be WOW, it has to be an unexpected exceptional service. This means doing what you say you will, when you say you will, how you say you will, at the price you promised-plus a little extra tossed in to say "I appreciate your business." There are as many ways as there are businesses on how you can accomplish this. You can use a scorecard to record, for example: decrease in  customer complaints,   referrals generated from current customers, increase in  repeat business , changes in response time/turnaround time on orders, increased productivity and less rework on customer projects, and ultimately savings on damage control costs. There are many, many options available. All you need to do is get a superior service customer consultant  to assist you or just figure it out on your own – THINK, be creative!

Ted Levitt from Harvard Business School once said, “If you are not thinking about your customers, you are not thinking.” Think about it. What is your executive team constantly thinking about? What are you spending the majority of your time talking about? Return on investment (ROI)? The bottom line? What is it that consumes the bulk of your time? Be customer focused, think and talk about your customers. Are they happy to do business with you? Are your processes customer friendly? Are your employees empowered to offer superior customer service? These and other customer related questions should occupy your thought processes and your actions should reflect it.

Superior customer service is dependent on three things: customer-friendly policies set by the organization's executives, training offered to the staff, and the attitude of the staff about their own organization as generated by the way their company treats them.  What happens if any of these is out of sync. If executives don't actually know or see how their policies get executed on the frontline, they're often shocked to discover the actual results of how the policies get carried out. If people aren't trained on specifics (not just smile and use people's names), they don't know how to build customer loyalty even when they want to. 

Customer service can become the result of poor employee treatment. Employees can be spiteful. If they get pushed around and treated unfairly, they "get even" by doing things to drive your customers away . Ensure your staff have the right attitude to deliver superior service. Give them flexible policies that empower them to serve customers. 

If your service of late has been bad and your customers are complaining and firing from all cylinders, what can you do? Fix it before bragging about it. The mistake most managers make is to  announce  their intentions to improve customer service without the new systems, policies and training in place, so nothing really changes for the customer. Customers' high hopes are dashed. Then they become even more hostile and disappointed in the service. So, the first step is to fix the problem, train the staff to deliver superior service, and then announce the change to your customers as you set about proving it to them. 

Just put your money, time, and commitment where your mouth is. That's often the most difficult part. Everybody believes in superior customer service--in theory. The real difference develops when people actually commit to carry out their intentions. Here is your opportunity to really make a difference in the kind of customer service your company provides. Make sure your people actually commit to carrying out not just good but superior customer service. The customers deserve it, after all they are the ones who pay the salaries.

The writer Ed Masau is a Customer Service International Champion who is passionate about improving the customer experiences offered by organizations. He writes in his personal capacity and  can be contacted on eddymasau@gmail.com.

Stop Complaining Do Something About it

I have been reading about the so called critics in our midst who have mastered the art of complaining and whining about the goings on in the country. "Such and such organization is not giving us the best service we want, I wish there were other alternatives available." "I have no choice I have to put up with their crap because I am patriotic blah blah blah.........."

My message is simple. Stop complaining and do something about it. The world over, the best brands we have were created by individuals who did not just watch shoddy service going on. They did not just complain instead they went a step further and did something about it. That is what you need to do. Get up from that armchair and do something about it!!

The brand of American cars known as Chevrolet today was started by a Swiss emigrant Louis Chevrolet. He had been hired for his reputation as a racing driver by Buick owned by General Motors founder. Louis didn't like the engine of the Buick car he was using in the races instead of complaining perennially he started to build his own engine in 1909. He built an overhead six-cylinder engine in his own machine shop and in 1911 the Chevrolet Motor Car Company was established. Today Chevrolet is the most profitable line of cars for General Motors and the Chevrolet Cruze was voted the most economic car in the world for 2010.

If Louis Chevrolet had not set to do something about correcting the anomalies found on the car he was driving, today the world will not be enjoying the luxuries of cruising in a Chevrolet. This is the kind of mentality that you need to have. Do something about what is going on around you. Do not just be a spectator.

I see a lot of business opportunities around if only we, i.e. you and me could adopt the entrepreneurial spirit and go out there to make it happen. Your financial prosperity is there in your hands. No one will ever control your economic destiny for you.You have to do it yourself by developing the entrepreneurial spirit. Your family and the whole economy depends on you doing something to emancipate yourself from economic slavery.

What are you waiting for?

JUST DO IT!!!!!!

6 WAYS TO LIVE LIKE A BILLIONAIRE

Some people who clearly can afford to be big spenders choose a much more frugal lifestyle. Maybe they know something the rest of us could learn writes Ed Masau.

Carlos Slim Helú, a telecom tycoon and billionaire with well-known frugal tendencies, has a net worth of $60.6 billion according to Forbes. Assuming no changes in his net worth, he could spend $1,150 a minute for the next 100 years before he ran out of money.
To put this in perspective, he could spend in 13 minutes -- what a minimum-wage earner brings home after an entire year of the daily grind.

How to make $1 billion
Granted, the world's billionaires (all 1,011 of them) are in the position of having, quite literally, more money than they can possibly spend, yet some still live well below their means and save money in surprising places. Even nonbillionaires can partake in these spending tips from frugal billionaires.

1. Keep your home simple. Billionaires can afford to live in the most exclusive mansions imaginable -- such as Bill Gates' sprawling 66,000 square foot, $147.5 million mansion in Medina, Wash. -- yet frugal billionaires like Warren Buffett choose to keep it simple. Buffett lives in the five-bedroom house in Omaha, Neb., that he purchased in 1957 for $31,500.
Likewise, Slim has lived in the same house for more than 40 years.

2. Use self-powered or public transportation. Thrifty billionaires including John Caudwell, David Cheriton and Chuck Feeney prefer to walk, bike or use public transportation when getting around town.
Certainly these wealthy individuals could afford to take a helicopter to their lunch meetings, or ride in chauffeur-driven Bentleys, but they choose to get a little exercise or take advantage of public transportation instead. Good for the bank account and great for the environment.

3. Buy your clothes off the rack. While some people, regardless of their net worth, place a huge emphasis on wearing designer clothes and shoes, some frugal billionaires decide it's simply not worth the effort or expense.
You can find Cheriton, the Stanford professor who matched Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to the venture capitalists at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (resulting in a large reward of Google stock), wearing jeans and a T-shirt.
Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of the furniture company Ikea, avoids wearing suits, and Caudwell, the mobile phone mogul, buys his clothes off the rack instead of spending his wealth on designer clothes.
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4. Keep your scissors sharp. The average haircut costs about $45, but people can and do spend up to $800 per cut and style. Multiply that by 8.6 (to account for a cut every six weeks) and it adds up to $7,200 per year, not including tips.

These billionaires can certainly afford the most stylish haircuts, but many cannot be bothered by the time it takes or the high price tag for the posh salons. Billionaires like Caudwell and Cheriton cut their own hair at home.

5. Drive a regular car. While billionaires like Larry Ellison (co-founder and CEO of Oracle) enjoy spending millions on cars, boats and planes, others remain low key with their vehicles of choice. Jim Walton (of the Wal-Mart clan) drives a 15-year-old pickup truck. Azim Premji, an Indian business tycoon, reportedly drives a Toyota Corolla. And Kamprad of Ikea drives a 10-year-old Volvo. The idea is to buy a dependable car and drive it into the ground. No need for a different car each day of the week for these frugal billionaires.

6. Skip luxury items. It may surprise some of us, but the world's wealthiest person, Slim -- the one who could spend more than a thousand dollars a minute and not run out of money for 100 years -- does not own a yacht or a plane.
Many other billionaires have chosen to skip these luxury items. Buffett also avoids these lavish material items, stating "Most toys are just a pain in the neck."

What we can learn
Some of the world's billionaires have frugal tendencies. Perhaps this thrifty nature even helped them keep some of their money.
Regardless, they have chosen to avoid some unnecessary spending (at least on their scale) and the 6.86 billion non billionaires out there can follow suit, eliminating excessive, keep-up-with-the-Joneses style spending. No matter what your income bracket is, you can usually find ways to cut back on frivolous spending -- just like a few frugal billionaires do.






About the author
Ed Masau is a budding entrepreneur, investor and business coach based in Harare, Zimbabwe.