4 Essential Customer Service Recovery Measures

It is almost impossible to avoid fallouts in customer service. A sandstorm might not allow you to deliver a customer’s product to the delivery address. Your computer system might crash and mess up all the orders. An important employee might resign without notice and leave you with essential work that has to be completed on a strict deadline.

For any organization, these matters are of great concern. Yet, they also provide a great learning opportunity. Breakdowns in customer service are inevitable, but they give you an opportunity to make your customers loyal.

Research suggests that customers who have had a service failure resolved quickly and completely by the customer support team are more loyal to a company than customers who have never had an issue. This goes on to show that companies which have invested in training their support team, and are willing to go the extra mile to resolve problems faced by their customers tend to generate better goodwill as well as highly loyal customers.

Therefore, it is important for your business to know the following imperatives when it comes to resolving crisis situations.

Acknowledge the Issue at Hand

Businesses which acknowledge the situation and take responsibility for their actions fare better than the ones which try their hand at being defensive or ignorant to the customer’s complaints. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and understand the problem. Talk to your customers and accept your mistake, explaining to them what the issue is and everything that you are doing to rectify the mistake.

A little empathy goes a long way in making sustainable business relations. When a business ensures that it is taking responsibility for a problem faced by the customer, it shows that it values its customers more than the product or service sold to them.

Take Quick Action

When faced with irate customers hoping to have their issues resolved, it is essential for businesses to make sure that they quickly decide how to rectify the problem and not let it escalate. The person handling the complaint should be the one to make sure that the issue is handled right at the spot, and not let the customer get frustrated.

Formally Apologize and Be Willing to Pay for Damages

A real and true apology from a customer service representative goes a long way in calming the customer down. It also shows that the company takes full responsibility of its actions and wants to make sure that its customers are treated with respect and care. Also, if the problem faced by the customer revolves around a certain product which was perhaps damaged during delivery or before use, the company can use this opportunity to compensate the customer in full and as a result, gain loyalty.

Follow up for Feedback

After the issue has been resolved, a very important step to take is following up with the customer. This needs to be done because the customer was previously let down by the company, and needs to feel that a wrong has now been rectified. Getting feedback from customers after resolving their issues also gives an opportunity to the company to note down what went wrong, how it was rectified, what needs to be done in the future, and how to better train customer service representatives to handle such situations.