When a customer is unhappy, communication with them is vital to keep them coming back, according to a panel this week at Service Opportunities Learning Days (SOLD) at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas.
“Communication is one of the most important parts of your business and in all aspects of it,” said David Saline, vice president of sales, DRIVE consulting group, and panel moderator.
Walt Sherbourne, vice president, marketing, Dayton Parts, stressed the importance of contacting an unsatisfied customer to open up the line of communication.
“Listen to him. Let him vent if he has to vent and then figure out how to solve the problem,” Sherbourne said. “If you go on the offensive, it makes matters even worse. You really need to understand the problem and then you can make a determination on how you’re going to handle it.”
Jon Robinson, board chairman, Rig360, and vice president, Foley, said early in his career he would be distraught when an upset customer would call, but now he welcomes that call.
“I have learned it’s a good thing because they’re actually talking to you. The ones you need to worry about are the upset customers that never tell you. If they’re upset and calling you, they want you to listen and take care of it,” Robinson said.
Listening, empathy and tone go a long way, he added.
“Make sure you truly understand [the problem] and the next step is to follow up. Sometimes it’s simple and sometimes it’s complex. Whatever it is, we have to take accountability,” Robinson said.
Addressing the concerns of upset customers becomes even more important if they decide to air their grievances in the form of reviews on Google or other websites.
Sherbourne said he doesn’t read the positive reviews. He is looking for the reviews that give the company one, two or three [out of five] stars. In some cases, Dayton Parts is able to determine who the customers are and the company reaches out to them.
The goal is to fully understand the situations and rectify the problems, if possible, in the hope the customers will be satisfied and change their reviews and give the company another opportunity to serve them. “You have to be communicating back and forth even with the people who are upset,” he said.
Fleet consultant Peter Silva said, “As a business owner, you ought to have an Internet strategy around what you’re going to do in the event you get a bad review because people read them, there’s no doubt. When I read reviews and there’s a response from a company saying, ‘We understand you’re upset and we would like to make it right,’ that tells me the company is looking at the reviews and they care.”
Saline outlined steps to take when a company gets a bad review online. The first step is to identify the customer and take the matter offline.
“Talk to them over the phone or through an email and try to get them to respond so you can handle the issue,” he said.
If a company can’t identify the customer, it can flag the review. If the customer wrote anything inappropriate, the company can check the website’s terms and conditions. If the customer violated them, the company might be able to have the review removed, according to Saline.
The third option is to reply and keep it positive by “saying you’re sorry you ran across this problem. It’s not how you operate and that you want to make it up to them. Keep it very simple but don’t leave a response that starts an online battle … [because] every customer you have can see that online. Keep it positive,” Saline said.
