“A happy customer tells a friend, an unhappy customer tells the world!” I am not sure who said that but the statement is more accurate today than ever. With the myriad of social media outlets available on the phone in their pocket, tablet in their hand and laptop on their…well, lap, customers have never had more power to have an influence on your business than ever. The question is, will it be a positive or negative influence? How YOU react to the situation will have more impact than the angry customer.
Here are some facts and figures I came across on line:
- After a poor customer experience over 25% of customers post complaints on social media
- Almost 90% of the time a customer moves to a competitor it is after a poor customer experience
- Customer experience is cumulative- it is comprised of the effort of many individuals and all of those individuals play a critical role.
I believe that an issue with a product or service or an angry and upset customer can be a blessing. You read that right. Deep relationships are made in times of trial. Think about a team you played on that worked hard together to win a championship or a time you and your spouse had to work hand and hand to get through a tough situation or the life-long bonds that are formed on the battlefield. I am not saying selling software compares to the life and death of a battlefield situation but I am saying that how you and your company respond to a customer in crisis can determine the outcome of the relationship. Will you do the right thing and step up or will you let the “sorry, it is company policy” and the “It’s not my job” attitude prevail? The customer can be angry and demanding but believe it or not YOU are the one in charge of the positive or negative outcome.
Handling an upset customer can seem tricky at the time. As my friend Micheal Burt says sometimes it is “hard to see the big picture when you are in the frame.”
Customers can and do get very emotional about these types of situations and we need understand that this reaction is normal and human. It is the salesperson’s job to tap into their own empathy and understand what the customer is experiencing. The key is to see things from your customer’s perspective. Please understand, I am not saying give in to every whim of a unreasonable customer. But I am saying that if you can keep your personal emotions in check you have a great chance of moving this customer from angry to happy and from happy to loyal. This monumental movement from P.O.’d to promoter can happen if you are prepared.
I’d like to tell you about my experience with an upset customer. I worked for the same Value Added Reseller (VAR) for all of the 2000s. I had a customer that was depending on me and my company to deliver on a complex multi-million dollar project. My portion of this project included the sale of hardware, software, consulting, design, project management and professional services. Needless to say it was highly visible in the customer’s organization and a success was a must. One piece of the hardware that we recommended came from a global manufacturer with a great longterm track record. The manufacturer had outsourced production of this hardware and in a very short time my customer’s units failed twice after thousands of dollars had been invested in implementation. The customer had a multi-year relationship with the manufacturer and asked for them to cover the cost of my team having to rebuild the hardware twice. This totaled about $10,000. Now to me $10,000 is a good sum of money but to this 11+ Billion dollar manufacturer it was nothing- yet they refused to work with the customer on the $10,000. I spoke to my CEO and we determined we would cover the $10,000 as a credit on the next services invoice from us. In essence we took this issue off the customer’s “To Do” list and put it on ours. We took ownership of this issue. This was, without a doubt, the best return on investment of $10,000 that I have ever made. The customer told me that “Your company is more of a partner than XYZ will ever be.” Who do you think they call when they have a need my company can fill? I still do business with that client today- more than 13 years later. We have built a fantastic working relationship and because we did the right thing then and continue to focus positive outcomes for them-they have continued to be one of my largest customers year after year. Now, is refunding the customer the “Go to” answer? Of course not! That is rarely the answer. But in this case it was the right answer. What you and your company do when a customer is in crisis will depend on your specific situation. I would, however, ask that you think long-term and not with short-term emotion.
5 steps to handling a customer problem
- Assume positive intent- In the world of business accidents happen, mistakes are made and poor decisions come with consequences. If you are in sales you have, are or will experience an angry customer. Know that most of the time the customer’s anger is not directed toward you personally. In sales you are the face of your customer and you are on the front lines to hear the news unfiltered and straight from the customer. In all the cases I have experienced, the customer was genuinely upset for what they felt was a legitimate reason and was not trying to pull one over on me.
- Remove your emotion- As you listen to the customer explain his frustration focus not only on the words he is using but the emotion behind the words. Try to understand not only how this impacts his company but how will this issue impact him personally. Will this outage cost him a bonus? Is he going to have to work through the night or over the weekend to get this fixed? Is he going to miss his daughter’s recital or have to delay his family vacation? These are all additional pressures he is facing and the emotion and anger may have very little to do with you and your company. Remember this, let the customer vent and listen intently but never reply to their emotion with your emotion. When we reply in an emotional state it provides us opportunity to say things in the heat of the action that we may very well regret.
- Avoid Excuses and Own it- Let the customer know that this is as important you as it is to them. At the time the issue happens you may not have an answer and that is OK but don’t make excuses. Most of the time your customer will understand and will be glad to give you some time to formulate a plan of action. This is the starting point where you get to step up for your customer. Make sure you clearly communicate that you own this…but be prepared to actually work to take care of the issue. Nothing is worse that telling the customer in crisis that you have his back and then you let them down. Most likely that will be the last interaction you have with that person and their organization. Remember IT in most cities is still a “Small world.” Your reputation can be impacted and if the person whom you failed moves to another company you may never have a shot with their new employer.
- Act on it- This may be the most critical part. Do what you say you are going to do. The majority of the time you alone will not be able to resolve the situation so gather the correct team as soon as possible. Clearly convey the issue AND the impact of the issue to the customer’s company and to the customer personally. Make sure your team understands the importance of finding an accurate solution in the shortest amount of time possible. Once you have a plan be sure to vet it out, double check for the unknowns and “Gotchas.” You don’t want to offer up a solution that doesn’t fix the issue or worse, introduce additional problems to the scenario.
- Debrief- Once the issue is resolved and life is back to normal for 24-48 hours schedule some time with the customer to debrief. In a debriefing session the idea is that all participants are equal and you are not looking for someone to place blame. The goal if the debrief is to understand the situation, why it happened and how to ensure it does not happen in the future. This is an opportunity to show your commitment to your customer’s success. If you want to look different from every other sales person this is one way to do it, especially if the issue was caused by your software, an employee of your company or something you sold or provided the customer.
These steps or some variation of them are the keys to accelerating a relationship with your customer. If you follow this plan when your customer has a major issue you will look different from the normal sales person. Your will have proven to your customer that you are someone that can be counted on, someone who will get in the foxhole along side them and fight through the issue to resolution and has just as much passion as them to get this fixed correctly. The bottom-line is that your customer knows that you genuinely care about their success and that you genuinely care about them personally…and what customer doesn’t want someone like that beside them in the heat of battle.
Ken Caughron has over 20 years of technology sales experience. He has more that 20 years sales experience if you count the “Sales Leadership Club” greeting cards he sold door to door starting at age 8. The goal of his posts are to help and encourage other sales people to strive to reach the top of the sales profession.
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