A few weeks ago, you read about my flight from hell with American Airlines (and if you didn’t, read it here). To sum up, American either delayed me by hours or stranded me on every leg of a flight to and from New York, and I didn’t find ONE sympathetic or empathetic face, gesture, or word from any American Airlines employee. No apologies, no acknowledgement that they had done anything wrong.
Last week, on a flight home from Atlantic City, Southwest (which had gotten me to my gate early on the previous legs of the flight) was delayed by about 30 minutes on the leg of the flight from St. Louis to Kansas City. That’s not great, of course, but in the grand scheme of things it was minor. But what struck me was that the Southwest captain and crew apologized not once, but FOUR TIMES during a one-hour flight (in addition to several from the people at the gate) for getting into Kansas City late. This, plus a later discussion with someone, illuminates my thoughts on personal accountability and within there is a huge lesson for salespeople.
When I told the story of the American flight to a friend of mine, he asked, “Do you suppose they’ve been trained NOT to show empathy or say that they’re sorry? I once worked for a company that forbade saying ‘I’m sorry’ to a customer.” My first instinct was to say that, no, the people I encountered were obviously unhappy people who had probably banished the phrase, “I’m sorry” from their vocabulary a long time ago, but I have heard of training of this sort.
But why would any company train its employees not to say that very important phrase? Simple. They’re avoiding accountability. Some companies approach customer interactions like they are testifying in Federal court, where the object is to admit nothing. That’s probably a decent strategy for keeping your butt covered, but what effect does it have on the customer?
The answer to that is in the end of my article on the American flight. Trust is broken and I spent money to buy a ticket on another airline even though my fare on American had already been paid.
You see, here’s what those types of trainers – and the American Airlines employees I encountered – don’t realize. When you are standing in front of the customer, you don’t represent the company. You are the company. An upset customer at a desk at an airport doesn’t have immediate access to the CEO, the President, or even the corporate headquarters building. Usually, teeth must be pulled to gain access to a supervisor of some sort. Therefore, the customer doesn’t care about the pilot that showed up late, the mechanic that was too slow on his maintenance, etc. They care that the company has inconvenienced them or not lived up to its promises, and YOU are the company.
Does this scenario sound familiar? When we have a problem with a customer, it’s all too easy to blame “the supplier,” or “the production department,” “shipping,” “HR,” or whoever else. That’s a great way to lose a customer. Instead, get in front of the problem, take the bullet, and then work back-channel – out of the customer’s sight and hearing – with other departments to resolve the problem.
Good customer conflict resolution isn’t that tough. It simply requires a few very human steps.
- Own the problem. We’ve already talked about this. Don’t blame other departments and don’t transfer the person to someone else. YOU be the person that makes the problem go away.
- Yes, that means saying that you’re sorry that this happened to the customer. And don’t weasel out with one of those crappy non-apology apologies, such as “I’m sorry that you’re upset by that.” What you’re really saying there is, “This happens a lot and our smart customers just deal with it.” No, give a real apology and mean it. Remember, YOU are the company. Does the company regret the problem? They’d better.
- Let them vent. If the customer needs to vent, let them do so and don’t interrupt unless they become abusive. To me, ‘abusive’ means personal name-calling and so forth. You don’t have to put up with that. But let them vent and gain understanding of where they’re coming from.
- Engage them in the solution. If there are multiple possible solutions, engage the customer in deciding which one would best solve or address their concerns. Making the customer a partner in the solution gives the customer back what they value the most and they feel they’ve lost – control.
- Offer a make good if possible. Sometimes, there is a small gesture or act that you can give your customer to attempt to make the problem right. Maybe a shipping discount, maybe a token of appreciation, etc. Just make sure that the make-good is in proportion to the inconvenience.
- Follow up on satisfaction. Finally, make sure that you got the problem fixed on the second try.
As I said, good customer service isn’t tough, but it can sometimes be very rare. Do it right and you can keep customers while putting the problems behind them.
