April 20, 2012
The Art of Creating ‘Permanently Delighted’ Customers
Earlier this year, the National Retail Federation and KPMG released the Benchmarks for 2011, Forecasts for 2012 report, which found that 82 percent of retail executives listed improved customer service as their top priority for the year. Sixty-seven percent said customer satisfaction was their top strategic goal.
One opportunity for improving service is in how companies deal with unhappy customers. Those whose customers come along "preemptively unhappy," according to Michael Hess, CEO of Skooba Design, writing for CBS MoneyWatch, often represent the greatest opportunity to be turned into "permanently delighted" customers.
Mr. Hess outlined four guidelines he believes are involved in turning unhappy customers into happy ones, a process he refers to as "slingshotting."
- Defuse – Start by responding with words that seek to settle the fuming customer such as, "I hope you’ll give me the chance to try to help you."
- Don’t get defensive – Any tone that suggests you are not looking to genuinely deal with a situation will reinforce the unhappy customer’s preconceived notions that this exercise will only lead to more jerking around.
- Do something – In some situations, you may be able to resolve the situation to the complete satisfaction of the customer, but even when that is not possible, find some way to respond. Doing something is always better than doing nothing.
- Do something extra – Deal with the customer’s issues and then give them something extra — a future discount, a service/shipping upgrade, etc. — to demonstrate your sincerity and create loyalty that goes way beyond the gesture.
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Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions: What do you think of Michael Hess’ recommendations for turning around “preemptively unhappy” customers? Do you have any other suggestions to add that would help retailers?
Poll
I think these are good steps. The best practice is to empower associates at every level to make it right for the customer. A key phrase is sometimes just “what can I do to make this right?”
Recovery from an issue is a good way to create a raving fan.
If your business is plagued by “pre-emptively unhappy customers” as the rule rather than the exception, you are the problem — not necessarily the customers. So the place to start is to ensure that your customer service standards are high enough to head off most negative situations before they occur.
If the next steps described by Mr. Hess don’t solve the issues completely, it’s worth acknowledging that some “worst customers” are not worth the trouble. It’s OK to “fire your customer” if he or she simply can’t be satisfied and is a drain on the morale of your service team.
This is common sense. If it’s needed, it’s a sad commentary on retail. The keys to making customers happy are respect, honesty and consistency.
‘Nuff said.
While there’s nothing really new or groundbreaking in this ‘slingshotting’ approach (gotta luv the name though), it’s a valid approach.
In a world of free shipping and free returns, retailers need to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy. The only instruction to the front line staff should be that they have the right and the responsibility to make the customer happy before they leave the store. Yes, there are those customers who will try to take advantage of such generosity, yet they are the very minor exception. The cost of refunds pales in comparison to the amount of money retailers pay to the credit card companies each year. It’s a cost of doing business.
This is something I’ve taught for years in a simple formula http://www.retaildoc.com/blog/how-to-handle-a-customer-complaint-in-four-easy-steps/
Giving yet another discount encourages “unhappy” customers. Why is this the answer to everything in retail from marketing to social media to making a happy customer? It’s not the answer, it’s the problem.
All are great suggestions that will go a long way towards mollifying an unhappy customer. The biggest challenge for retailers might be in motivating their sales associates to offer great customer service. That will require retailers to treat their associates with respect and to offer them compensation packages that encourage them to stay, rather then treating retail as a stepping stone to something more important.
Apply common sense — Eureka.
Allow your employees to apply common sense — hmmm … still waiting on that one, I guess.
Michael is right, and it is important to follow upon customer complaints. The other issue is separating the legitimate complaints from the chronic complainers. This problem exists in every retail environment, and by documenting repeat complainers, it may weed out the few who you can never please. It is not going to get any easier in the future, so be prepared to handle all situations properly.
Unhappy customers are not a problem, they are an opportunity. Exceeding their expectations and giving them exactly what they want AND MORE is the essence of great retail customer service. It is not about minimizing the store’s loss or “flipping” the situation” into a large sale. On the contrary it is looking at a one on one marketing opportunity and buying a lifetime customer … often at the expense of squeezing the most out of the situation at hand. This allows store personnel to authentically partner with customers instead of being put at odds with them.
I think what’s missing is to tell the customer you’re sorry they’re unhappy. Telling a customer you’re sorry doesn’t necessarily mean the store has done anything wrong or has made a mistake. It’s just expressing regret that the customer is upset.
An apology is extremely effective in turning around unhappy customers and doesn’t cost the retailer any margin. Never underestimate the power of saying I’m sorry.
Well, not sure of the first two. The first thing you need to do is to acknowledge the legitimacy of the complaint. You can do it in a non defensive way, but if you don’t do this, the customer will go ballistic. Step 4 is the most important idea, but is straight from Tom Peters … nothing new there.
The steps outlined for “delighting” customers are right on. However, it’s a shame that proper handling of a complaint should be a delight, something beyond reasonable expectation by the customer. I’m sensitive to this because in my “Three Purchase States (Modes of Purchase Hypothesis,)” I identify “Surprise & Delight” as one of the three states, but point out that it is the spice in the shopping “meal.” One can’t expect shopping to be one continuous experience of delight. The other two states need their own strategies, which properly managed might constitute delight. So delight is a normal part of shopping.
Bob Phibbs steps are right on! I can’t imagine using the phrase, “I hope you’ll give me the chance to try to help you.” This would be just an awful response! It would be a huge turn off to me as a customer. As a customer, I would expect that the retailer would try to help. How about after listening, acknowledging, and understanding, “I am going to help you.”
I also believe that offering “something extra” is too often used as a means of resolving a problem without doing anything to resolve a problem. The last thing a customer wants is “something extra” when they are stuck with what you’ve done. Why would they make a return visit if they haven’t been satisfied.
Some two years ago I was taken to Outback for a birthday dinner. In short, it was awful. They served what has clearly warmed up food that was likely left from the previous day. The solution was a $50 gift card for a return visit. I have not returned to Outback since.
Sadly, teaching the wrong steps can be as damaging as teaching none at all. Few likely teach this activity to begin with. Too often it is considered common sense. It is not. It’s not complicated, but it is not common sense to employees that have never been in the situation. A good employee, untrained, may react the way that they would like to be treated themselves. Most likely don’t know how to react at all. Even more so, few retailers give their employees full autonomy to solve a an issue with an unhappy customer. Retailers that understand how important that is and trust their employees, have huge success. Anyone who has ever talked with a Zappos employee knows exactly what I am talking about.
I agree with many of the previous comments that the “guidelines” noted above are obvious common sense. But let me go further: the title of the article cheapens and creates confusion around the important concept of customer delight.
First, most of those points have nothing at all to do with delight. Fixing a problem in a satisfactory manner is not a source of delight — it simply eliminates frustration. Those are very different notions.
Second, the idea of “permanent delight” is ridiculous. It would be akin to creating a state of “permanent surprise” — that makes no sense at all. And even if a retailer could do something like that, I doubt that it would be an efficient/effective way to run a business.
Every retailer should have different elements of “customer delight” in its tactical arsenal, but let’s not belittle it by linking it to obvious day-to-day tactics (that customers fully expect already), or suggesting that retailers can (or should) do more than occasional surprises in appropriate situations.
First and foremost: Even the most brilliant and facile service recovery practices cannot create a fraction of the benefit derived by serving the customer properly in the first place. Mr. Hess has some commendable suggestions here, but the first mission is to minimize the number of service recovery incidents by establishing practices that virtually ensure shopper success.
Being reliably in stock, with desired assortments and sizes is a good start. Quibble-free return policies; non-stressed, empowered, knowledgeable sales associates; short checkout lines; and yes, clean bathrooms all come to mind.
Do these things right, and by all means train store employees to deal cordially and capably with the few shoppers who remain unhappy. A successful recovery may even be an opportunity to win a customer’s loyalty. But sincere apologies and compensatory gifts seldom result in a delighted customer.
Mr. Hess has a great list of things to do, but left out the first and most important step. First ACKNOWLEDGE the customer’s feelings about what went wrong. A customer will not stop complaining until she feels she has been HEARD.
Wow, basic, decades-old stuff here. It is true that we cannot depend upon common sense to guide employees. Corporate culture, leading by example is one of the most tried-and-true methods of getting good behavior pervasive throughout the company.
What does preemptively unhappy mean? Who are these people? If this means consumers who are unhappy at a specific point in time regarding a specific issue, then these recommendations are quite useful. If this means people who are chronic unhappy consumers then it is critical to determine whether those consumers are valuable before using this process. If they are chronic complainers and not valuable maybe it is better to lose them.
As usual, Mike’s suggestions are insightful and practical and any retailer would do well to follow them — in fact any business serving customers could use the same approach, including airlines, hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, etc.
Retailers could dramatically reduce the need to use this approach by focusing on some key retail fundamentals in-store:
1. where customer service is required to assist shoppers — have staff there and motivated to engage appropriately.
2. ensure that merchandise is in-stock.
3. help customers get through any line, POS or otherwise, quickly and efficiently.
By focusing on these three factors, retailers would not only have happier customers, but sales and profits would increase as well. Several retailers have proved it works and used their cultures, management systems, and reward systems to support ongoing performance.
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I think these are good steps. The best practice is to empower associates at every level to make it right for the customer. A key phrase is sometimes just “what can I do to make this right?”
Recovery from an issue is a good way to create a raving fan.
If your business is plagued by “pre-emptively unhappy customers” as the rule rather than the exception, you are the problem — not necessarily the customers. So the place to start is to ensure that your customer service standards are high enough to head off most negative situations before they occur.
If the next steps described by Mr. Hess don’t solve the issues completely, it’s worth acknowledging that some “worst customers” are not worth the trouble. It’s OK to “fire your customer” if he or she simply can’t be satisfied and is a drain on the morale of your service team.
This is common sense. If it’s needed, it’s a sad commentary on retail. The keys to making customers happy are respect, honesty and consistency.
‘Nuff said.
While there’s nothing really new or groundbreaking in this ‘slingshotting’ approach (gotta luv the name though), it’s a valid approach.
In a world of free shipping and free returns, retailers need to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy. The only instruction to the front line staff should be that they have the right and the responsibility to make the customer happy before they leave the store. Yes, there are those customers who will try to take advantage of such generosity, yet they are the very minor exception. The cost of refunds pales in comparison to the amount of money retailers pay to the credit card companies each year. It’s a cost of doing business.
This is something I’ve taught for years in a simple formula http://www.retaildoc.com/blog/how-to-handle-a-customer-complaint-in-four-easy-steps/
Giving yet another discount encourages “unhappy” customers. Why is this the answer to everything in retail from marketing to social media to making a happy customer? It’s not the answer, it’s the problem.
All are great suggestions that will go a long way towards mollifying an unhappy customer. The biggest challenge for retailers might be in motivating their sales associates to offer great customer service. That will require retailers to treat their associates with respect and to offer them compensation packages that encourage them to stay, rather then treating retail as a stepping stone to something more important.
Apply common sense — Eureka.
Allow your employees to apply common sense — hmmm … still waiting on that one, I guess.
Michael is right, and it is important to follow upon customer complaints. The other issue is separating the legitimate complaints from the chronic complainers. This problem exists in every retail environment, and by documenting repeat complainers, it may weed out the few who you can never please. It is not going to get any easier in the future, so be prepared to handle all situations properly.
Unhappy customers are not a problem, they are an opportunity. Exceeding their expectations and giving them exactly what they want AND MORE is the essence of great retail customer service. It is not about minimizing the store’s loss or “flipping” the situation” into a large sale. On the contrary it is looking at a one on one marketing opportunity and buying a lifetime customer … often at the expense of squeezing the most out of the situation at hand. This allows store personnel to authentically partner with customers instead of being put at odds with them.
I think what’s missing is to tell the customer you’re sorry they’re unhappy. Telling a customer you’re sorry doesn’t necessarily mean the store has done anything wrong or has made a mistake. It’s just expressing regret that the customer is upset.
An apology is extremely effective in turning around unhappy customers and doesn’t cost the retailer any margin. Never underestimate the power of saying I’m sorry.
Well, not sure of the first two. The first thing you need to do is to acknowledge the legitimacy of the complaint. You can do it in a non defensive way, but if you don’t do this, the customer will go ballistic. Step 4 is the most important idea, but is straight from Tom Peters … nothing new there.
The steps outlined for “delighting” customers are right on. However, it’s a shame that proper handling of a complaint should be a delight, something beyond reasonable expectation by the customer. I’m sensitive to this because in my “Three Purchase States (Modes of Purchase Hypothesis,)” I identify “Surprise & Delight” as one of the three states, but point out that it is the spice in the shopping “meal.” One can’t expect shopping to be one continuous experience of delight. The other two states need their own strategies, which properly managed might constitute delight. So delight is a normal part of shopping.
Bob Phibbs steps are right on! I can’t imagine using the phrase, “I hope you’ll give me the chance to try to help you.” This would be just an awful response! It would be a huge turn off to me as a customer. As a customer, I would expect that the retailer would try to help. How about after listening, acknowledging, and understanding, “I am going to help you.”
I also believe that offering “something extra” is too often used as a means of resolving a problem without doing anything to resolve a problem. The last thing a customer wants is “something extra” when they are stuck with what you’ve done. Why would they make a return visit if they haven’t been satisfied.
Some two years ago I was taken to Outback for a birthday dinner. In short, it was awful. They served what has clearly warmed up food that was likely left from the previous day. The solution was a $50 gift card for a return visit. I have not returned to Outback since.
Sadly, teaching the wrong steps can be as damaging as teaching none at all. Few likely teach this activity to begin with. Too often it is considered common sense. It is not. It’s not complicated, but it is not common sense to employees that have never been in the situation. A good employee, untrained, may react the way that they would like to be treated themselves. Most likely don’t know how to react at all. Even more so, few retailers give their employees full autonomy to solve a an issue with an unhappy customer. Retailers that understand how important that is and trust their employees, have huge success. Anyone who has ever talked with a Zappos employee knows exactly what I am talking about.
I agree with many of the previous comments that the “guidelines” noted above are obvious common sense. But let me go further: the title of the article cheapens and creates confusion around the important concept of customer delight.
First, most of those points have nothing at all to do with delight. Fixing a problem in a satisfactory manner is not a source of delight — it simply eliminates frustration. Those are very different notions.
Second, the idea of “permanent delight” is ridiculous. It would be akin to creating a state of “permanent surprise” — that makes no sense at all. And even if a retailer could do something like that, I doubt that it would be an efficient/effective way to run a business.
Every retailer should have different elements of “customer delight” in its tactical arsenal, but let’s not belittle it by linking it to obvious day-to-day tactics (that customers fully expect already), or suggesting that retailers can (or should) do more than occasional surprises in appropriate situations.
First and foremost: Even the most brilliant and facile service recovery practices cannot create a fraction of the benefit derived by serving the customer properly in the first place. Mr. Hess has some commendable suggestions here, but the first mission is to minimize the number of service recovery incidents by establishing practices that virtually ensure shopper success.
Being reliably in stock, with desired assortments and sizes is a good start. Quibble-free return policies; non-stressed, empowered, knowledgeable sales associates; short checkout lines; and yes, clean bathrooms all come to mind.
Do these things right, and by all means train store employees to deal cordially and capably with the few shoppers who remain unhappy. A successful recovery may even be an opportunity to win a customer’s loyalty. But sincere apologies and compensatory gifts seldom result in a delighted customer.
Mr. Hess has a great list of things to do, but left out the first and most important step. First ACKNOWLEDGE the customer’s feelings about what went wrong. A customer will not stop complaining until she feels she has been HEARD.
Wow, basic, decades-old stuff here. It is true that we cannot depend upon common sense to guide employees. Corporate culture, leading by example is one of the most tried-and-true methods of getting good behavior pervasive throughout the company.
What does preemptively unhappy mean? Who are these people? If this means consumers who are unhappy at a specific point in time regarding a specific issue, then these recommendations are quite useful. If this means people who are chronic unhappy consumers then it is critical to determine whether those consumers are valuable before using this process. If they are chronic complainers and not valuable maybe it is better to lose them.
As usual, Mike’s suggestions are insightful and practical and any retailer would do well to follow them — in fact any business serving customers could use the same approach, including airlines, hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, etc.
Retailers could dramatically reduce the need to use this approach by focusing on some key retail fundamentals in-store:
1. where customer service is required to assist shoppers — have staff there and motivated to engage appropriately.
2. ensure that merchandise is in-stock.
3. help customers get through any line, POS or otherwise, quickly and efficiently.
By focusing on these three factors, retailers would not only have happier customers, but sales and profits would increase as well. Several retailers have proved it works and used their cultures, management systems, and reward systems to support ongoing performance.