What was that rather large lady doing, standing three paces back from the counter in the middle of the BP shop saying “I’d like to speak to the Manager please” over and over in quite a loud voice? A couple of other customers gave her funny looks, one bloke rolled his eyes, but she didn’t seem to care that she was making a spectacle of herself. It turns out that she’d been overcharged $2 for a car wash. She hadn’t noticed the anomaly when she was served, but spotted it while she was sitting in the middle of the car wash.
She went back to the counter, waited patiently for over five minutes until the cashier who originally served her had finished an obviously private phone call and then explained, in a nice, non-confrontational way, what had happened. The cashier wasn’t interested in refunding her the $2 because she’d already been through the car wash. The lady stuck to her guns and after it became obvious that the matter was not closed, the cashier leaned forward and very quietly said, “OK, I’ll give you the f***ing $2. It will be worth it to get you out of the shop, you f***ing fat bitch.” Probably not an optimal example of conflict resolution.
What do your customers have to do to get your attention?
How easy do you make it for them to complain?
There’s a school of thought out there that if you can make it difficult enough for them to lodge a complaint, customers will give up and go away. It may be true that they go away, but don’t think for one second that they give up. Oh no! They tell their friends and colleagues and if the infringement is bad enough, you not only lose the business of the original disgruntled customer, but also reap the fallout from their circle of acquaintances who now also won’t buy from you.
I have a slightly different way of looking at things. I believe that customers who complain are worth their weight in gold. In voicing their complaint a number of things happen that wouldn’t have happened if they’d just shut up and gone away.
1.) Firstly, we find out that there is a problem. This is helpful because for every one customer who complains, you can bet that there are many others who are dissatisfied and don’t complain. So now that we know about it, we can do something about it.
2.) Secondly, we have the opportunity to make it right for the complaining customer. If we do a good job fixing their problem, they’ll become our advocate. They’ll tell all their friends about how good we are at sorting things out for them. The story is no longer about their problem, it’s about how happy they are with the solution.
3.) Thirdly, we gain a loyal customer. We fixed their problem, therefore they’ve learned that we’re trustworthy and because we’re trustworthy, they’ll do business with us again and again. They don’t have to risk going elsewhere because they know if they ever have another problem, we’ll fix it.
So it’s worthwhile considering ways to encourage complaints from your customers, but don’t forget to train yourself and your staff in resolving them, if only to avoid having fat ladies camping out in the middle of your premises, loudly and firmly demanding to speak to the manager.
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First of all, I am appalled that an employee would actually have the nerve to say that to a customer. Any manager would not approve an employee to treat a customer in that fashion if they really cared about loyal, advocate customers.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, this blog post sends me back to every job I have had growing up until now. Every different and unique manager I have worked for has always said the thing, "the customer is always right." Word of mouth is huge! A "bad experience" is much more spoken about then a good one. By letting a customer leave your store or office upset, you are allowing them to have the ability of sharing it with everyone they know, which could potentially be a large number of people.