Wise Words

"Customers don’t expect you to be perfect.

They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.”

Donald Porter V.P., British Airways

A service recovery is a term used to describe actions taken to take an unhappy customer and turn them into a happy (or at least satisfied) customer. This can be done in many ways, sometimes it means taking a hit to your bottom line (comping a meal, giving away gift cards) but it doesn't always have to be (a sincere apology can go a long way). Service recovery is probably one of the hardest things to master in customer service, but it provides the greatest returns. If a company provides consistent satisfactory customer service, or even great customer service some people may recommend them to there friends. It is when things go wrong and a company fixes them, or rather recovers the service, that they can make an impression that will definitely result in positive word of mouth.

Think about it. When you have had a negative experience, alerted the company, and then been pleased with the outcome, what do you do? If you are like me you tell everyone you see, for the next few days, at least. You spread so much positive goodwill for the company for what? A 2-4-1 coupon and a sincere apology. Often times this is as little as it takes to satisfy a displeased customer. The key is to be fair, be sympathetic and admit fault. That is usually all a customer wants. If you empower lower level employees to do this you can likely avoid a lot of headaches in the long run (but that is a topic for another post).

What you should take from today's Wise Words is that for the most part any customer is eligible for a service recovery and that making things right will pay high dividends in the long run.