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Customer Service Information |
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What To Do When Youve Blown It
It's bound to happen sooner or later - yes, even to you and your business. Sometime or other, you will make a blunder that upsets a customer. It may be an employee mistake (honest or intentional), it could be a defective product, it could even be an unreasonable expectation on the part of your customer. The cause really isn't important. What is important is that you have an angry customer on your hands. What, you ask, does this have to do with marketing advice? Everything. Because it costs you eight times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep an old one. Because your angry customer isn't going to stop at avoiding your business - she's going to tell everyone she knows just how sorry you are. Because if you have been getting a steady stream of new customers (at eight times the cost, remember) but your overall numbers aren't growing as fast, you are losing money. Bigtime. Here's an example: Jane is a regular customer of Joe's Bargain Dry Cleaning. Once a week she brings her entire business wardrobe in for cleaning. Since her entire business wardrobe isn't that big, she spends about fifty bucks every time. This week, a stain on her favorite blouse isn't removed, and Jane calls in to complain when she gets home. The employee Jane speaks to claims to be sorry (though she doesn't sound like it) and says that not all stains can be removed by the dry cleaning process. She will, however, give Jane a coupon for a free one-item dry clean. Well, Jane wanted to wear her favorite blouse tonight for her big date with Jim. Now she can't. Since she lives right around the corner, she asks if she can bring the blouse back now and have the stain treated. She is told that Joe's does not accept same-day orders after 10 a.m. Jane hangs up totally disappointed. Forced to wear a less-flattering blouse on her date, she is somewhat lacking in self-confidence (it's hard to feel good about yourself when you think you look bad) and her date does not go well. She vows never to darken the door of Joe's again. And she doesn't. Now, lets crunch the numbers: Jane was spending $50 a week at Joe's. Subtracting two weeks for Jane's vacation time, that means she was spending $2,500 a year at Joe's. Ten Jane's in a year (if Joe is really lucky) and that is Twenty-five thousand dollars Joe will not be putting in his back pocket this year. Ten more next year and Joe is losing $50,000. But if Joe had handled the situation correctly, Jane could have turned into one of his most loyal customers. Here's what he (and you, when it happens) should do next time: 1. Own up to the mistake. The sooner the better. It's hard for people, and businesses, to admit mistakes - but do it anyway. In the story above, the employee passed the mistake off to "the dry cleaning process." Never do that. Even if the problem is something completely out of your control, stand up and take responsibility. Yes, it may be hard on your ego. But what's more important: your ego, or your wallet? 2. Make it right. Immediately. Don't make them jump through hoops to get a refund or a replacement (or better yet, both.). Jane should have been allowed to come down right then and have her blouse treated while she waited. If the stain still wouldn't come out, she would know Joe's had done their best. 3. Make it better. Your customer hasn't just been irritated. She's been inconvenienced. Give her something extra for her trouble. After treating Jane's blouse while she waited, she should have been given an entire weeks dry cleaning for free. Joe would have been out $50 in the short term, but his $25k for the year would have been saved. And Jane would never even consider another dry cleaner as long as she lived. Following these steps will give you rabidly loyal customers. And when you combine that with steady new ones, your business will grow exponentially. Lisa Packer, author of "How To Dramatically Increase Your Business... Without A Blockbuster Budget," is an independant Copywriter and Marketing Consultant. To read more helpful articles like this one visit http://www.dramatic-copy.com
MORE RESOURCES: AI Chatbots Are Ready to Talk to Customers. Sort of. The Wall Street Journal Pricing, AI, DPA, Customer Service Tools; Bill Emerson Interview; Training This Week; STRATMOR CD Workshop Mortgage News Daily Samsung Electronics Canada Customer Service Wins Bronze in ‘Best Use of Omni Channel' at International CX Awards 2024 Yahoo Finance Qme secures $3M funding to streamline customer service across Africa Techpoint Africa Building Competitive Advantage in Customer Care Through AI The Business of Fashion 311 Customer Service Center City and County of San Francisco FTC Finalizes Order with H&R Block Requiring Them to Pay $7 Million and Overhaul Advertising and Customer Service Practices for 2025 and 2026 Tax Seasons Federal Trade Commission News Ikea expands integration with assembly services platform Chain Store Age JEA is inviting bids for 19-story downtown tower that used to be its headquarters The Florida Times-Union Consumers Demand Enterprises Modernize to Improve Ailing Customer Experience, Says Research Business Wire American Lamprecht Enhances Visibility for Air and Ocean Shipments Using Descartes Solution Supply Chain Dive Women in Fintech: A Conversation About Loyalty Ecosystems in Financial Services with Becky Hill Finovate Neterra Enhances Its Customer Service Monitoring System Total Telecom Gladly Named a Leader in Constellation ShortList™ for Digital Customer Service and Support PR Newswire QueueKiosk™: Saving Thousands of Active-Duty Man Hours & Improving Customer Service at the MPF Office Kiosk Marketplace Finally, hard data on a real-world AI business use case: It’s huge for customer service Sherwood News Liverpool reinvents customer service through digital platform ComputerWeekly.com CSPI & Nutrition Action Customer Service CSPI Newsroom Firm to expand customer service in Yorkshire with new service centre Golf Business News Textron Aviation to Open New Service Facility at Essendon Fields Airport, Expanding Capabilities in Australia Pittsburg Morning Sun Help Department of Taxation and Finance Six Game-Changing AI Customer Service and CX Strategies Hospitality Net Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) New York State Department of Health Cigna's customer-centric strategy could ripple across the sector Modern Healthcare Major AI Success Story: Giftify Achieves 40% Faster Customer Response Times with Enterprise AI StockTitan Contact Us About Your Bill myclearwater.com Customer Service Center apps.tampagov.net Customer Support | Department of Corrections Governor Tom Wolf 311 - Birmingham’s Customer Service Center City of Birmingham (.gov) 70% of customer service to rely on AI by 2028: Gartner Outsource Accelerator DESCO's meeting held to enhance customer service and power reliability The Business Standard Customer Service & Support Hillsborough County (.gov) My experience as a Customer Service and Sales Intern Toby Shapiro's Experience at A.D. Sutton and Sons Chapman University 3 Ways To Quickly Make $50 GOBankingRates Delta’s annual profit-sharing day spotlights ‘people first’ strategy The Atlanta Journal Constitution Welcome to Riverside Public Utilities City of Riverside (.gov) Celebrate Customer Service Week City of Riverside (.gov) Which companies have the best customer service? Amazon, Shein, Costco among top-rated brands USA TODAY Con Edison Proposes Investments to Meet Growing Demand for Clean Energy, Enhance Customer Support T&D World Fulton County Recognized as a 2024 National Customer Service All Star Fulton County Government Contact Reverb Support Reverb America's Best Customer Service 2025 Newsweek 8 strategies for using AI for customer service in 2025 Sprout Social Attorney General Bonta Demands Better Customer Service for Californians California Department of Justice AI for Customer Service Market worth $47.82 Billion by 2030 - Exclusive Report by MarketsandMarkets™ PR Newswire Can artificial intelligence rescue customer service? The Economist Permits–customer services King County Lifeline Support for Affordable Communications Federal Communications Commission Department of Transportation Governor Tom Wolf 11 key elements of excellent customer service Business.com Shep Hyken, HPU Customer Service Expert, Mentors Students and Staff High Point University Summer EBT | Department of Human Services Governor Tom Wolf How Intercom Achieves 86% Resolution Rates with Claude AI: A Customer Service Revolution - Anthropic Office of Developmental Programs Governor Tom Wolf Our Contact Centre achieves national recognition for excellence in customer service Royal Borough of Greenwich Start or Stop Residential Water Service City of Tucson What Is Nugget? Zomato Launches New AI-Powered Customer Support Platform For Global Businesses NewsX |
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