So, what happened, happened. But don’t you think it’s over when customer already walked away? Not yet. You can still gain back their love for your brand. I’, going to show you some good tips in mending your relationship with customers after leaving a bad experience for them.
Let customers know they’re heard
Blaming is the worst way to fire up your customer’s distress. Be a wise listener and take your responsibility. Issue an apology. Be sincere and willing to listen to your customer’s complaint. Letting them rant over the problem is a way to both understand the problem and cool down their dissatisfaction.
But how can you be a smart listener and how to make your customers feel like they are being heard?
Sometimes jumping right into finding the solution for the bad customer experience is not the best way. When your customers are ranting, they need someone to listen to them and understand their words first. Tell your customers that you know how they feel, like “I know that this might be really frustrating for you to unable to checkout after trying so many times on our website”. Tell them that directly before letting them know any other things.
Oh, don’t defend yourself. Blaming and defending a bad customer service are only the act of stupid team.
Find out the root of the bad customer experience
Does your product not work as promised? Does your service end up being idle for too long due to some unexpected reasons while your customers need your help?
Whatever the reason is, try figuring out as fast as you can. Ask your customers about the details of the problem. The more information you have, the more precise solution you can offer your customers.
Fix things right, quickly
Don’t explain what was wrong and why customers had a bad experience to them. The only thing they want to hear from you is how you fixed the problem. So when there is something wrong with your service and you know why, work restlessly to patch things up then let your customers know.
Do you know? Many companies gain much respect back from their customers by quickly owning up to the situation and then providing a solution in time.
Make them happy and feel important again
The best solution is: give your customers more than what they expect.
Amazon always takes the first move in solving bad things happened to their customers. Like, send a new product package to customer without charging them double. Many times the fault is not Amazon’s at all. But they still do that to make their customers happy. It shows how much Amazon values their customers over any other things (and in return, they receive far much brand credibility from customers that might require a lot of money for marketing to buy).
However, if you don’t know what you should do in this case, ask your customers! Ask them what you can do to make up for your mistake and what can make them feel whole again. This way, you can make them feel like a part of your team and at the same time, know what to do to make your customer smile again.
Should you add a personalized gift for them? As an apology for bad experience, of course? This is one of the best ways to show your goodwill after messing with customer experience. However, you need to be careful since this tip is also a double-edged knife. If you don’t offer it skillfully, you might sound like trying to mouth-shut your customers about your mistake. And this is definitely not good.
Wrap up
You can’t always gain back dissatisfied customers but you can always do something to help your image become better in their eye even after they leave. I hope that those tips above are helpful to save your customer service in sensitive cases.
For more useful tips in similar scenarios, you might want to take a look at “The Different Types of Customers & How to Make Them Happy” and “How to Clean up a Bad Customer Service Case and Regain Your Brand’s Reputation”.
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