We always spend half of our meetings laughing and the other half drinking! OK, that was another half-truth – we only spend some of our meetings drinking.
Lady has been an inspiration and mentor to me, reminding me about the inevitable ups and downs of business ownership and she owns a jewellery store so she’s always adding a little sparkle to our work and my fingers.
A couple of days ago Lady and I were working in her home office – her dog nibbling on my toes and the two of us bantering about how to brand a new line of incredible products she’ll be launching in store and online in the coming weeks.
Between plotting out her social media strategy and tossing about names for the jewellery line, Lady received a customer complaint by e-mail. It wasn’t her first. It won’t be her last. It wasn’t as nasty as it could have been, but we were both upset and disheartened by this terse e-mail which complained about the business Lady built with her bare hands, blood, sweat, tears, sterling silver, and all that.
While she attempted to craft a polite response, Lady said all the things you would have expected. “Who has so much time on their hands that they would choose to send this?” “Who the heck (that was not the word she used) is this person?”
“Doesn’t this person know how hard I work to make every customer experience an amazing one?”Perspective isn’t easy when you have a corporate promise to get back to people as quickly as possible.
Between the two of us, we responded to the e-mail. Within minutes, the customer replied thanking Lady for the quick reply, admitting the complaint was probably a misunderstanding on their part, and saying they would be back to shop for a gift in the coming weeks.
All three of us walked away from the encounter feeling great about the experience.
I share the experience because the response we created should be a template for business owners to deal with a poor customer experience. Lessons learned were;
1. Respond quickly: Lady promises to respond to customer concerns as fast as possible. It’s a good rule of thumb to remove the potential for that sour taste to linger when a customer makes a complaint,
2. Be polite and respectful: The response was above all polite. It complimented the customer’s desire to shop local and ethically, as a responsible and appreciated behaviour.
3. Just apologize: While Lady had no cause to apologize for the perceived slight, she wrote that she was sorry the customer felt the way they did. An acknowledgement of the customer’s feelings is often enough to satisfy them.
4. Include contact details for follow up: The response was wrapped up with the contact information should the customer want to discuss their issue further. It’s another outlet for a complaint, but most people are not interested in continued confrontation and are satisfied with any response at all.
5. Call to action: Finally, Lady invited the customer back to have another experience in the shop, which the reply indicated they would.
Customers will always complain, but by taking a step back, my favourite client and I gained perspective, created a strategy for dealing with customer complaints, which can be used in the future, and retained a loyal customer. Like a lady.
Lady has been an inspiration and mentor to me, reminding me about the inevitable ups and downs of business ownership and she owns a jewellery store so she’s always adding a little sparkle to our work and my fingers.
A couple of days ago Lady and I were working in her home office – her dog nibbling on my toes and the two of us bantering about how to brand a new line of incredible products she’ll be launching in store and online in the coming weeks.
Between plotting out her social media strategy and tossing about names for the jewellery line, Lady received a customer complaint by e-mail. It wasn’t her first. It won’t be her last. It wasn’t as nasty as it could have been, but we were both upset and disheartened by this terse e-mail which complained about the business Lady built with her bare hands, blood, sweat, tears, sterling silver, and all that.
While she attempted to craft a polite response, Lady said all the things you would have expected. “Who has so much time on their hands that they would choose to send this?” “Who the heck (that was not the word she used) is this person?”
“Doesn’t this person know how hard I work to make every customer experience an amazing one?”Perspective isn’t easy when you have a corporate promise to get back to people as quickly as possible.
Between the two of us, we responded to the e-mail. Within minutes, the customer replied thanking Lady for the quick reply, admitting the complaint was probably a misunderstanding on their part, and saying they would be back to shop for a gift in the coming weeks.
All three of us walked away from the encounter feeling great about the experience.
I share the experience because the response we created should be a template for business owners to deal with a poor customer experience. Lessons learned were;
1. Respond quickly: Lady promises to respond to customer concerns as fast as possible. It’s a good rule of thumb to remove the potential for that sour taste to linger when a customer makes a complaint,
2. Be polite and respectful: The response was above all polite. It complimented the customer’s desire to shop local and ethically, as a responsible and appreciated behaviour.
3. Just apologize: While Lady had no cause to apologize for the perceived slight, she wrote that she was sorry the customer felt the way they did. An acknowledgement of the customer’s feelings is often enough to satisfy them.
4. Include contact details for follow up: The response was wrapped up with the contact information should the customer want to discuss their issue further. It’s another outlet for a complaint, but most people are not interested in continued confrontation and are satisfied with any response at all.
5. Call to action: Finally, Lady invited the customer back to have another experience in the shop, which the reply indicated they would.
Customers will always complain, but by taking a step back, my favourite client and I gained perspective, created a strategy for dealing with customer complaints, which can be used in the future, and retained a loyal customer. Like a lady.