We’ve all taken that call.
Read that email.
Received that voicemail.
You know the one– Customer X is super angry that your team didn’t do Y or Z for them correctly. There is always two sides to the story, but it also always boils down to this: The customer is upset and the buck stops on you to fix it.
If you are like me, you would prefer to just avoid the conversation all together. I am a nerdy computer guy that would rather just work on the problem than deal with the upset customer. The issue with this approach is that it usually blows up in my face. The customer gets madder and madder and even though the problem gets solved, a bigger issue pops up: THE SUPER ANGRY CUSTOMER STAYS THAT WAY.
If you aren’t communicating to the customer and helping fix the way they feel, you aren’t really fixing the whole problem.
Over the years we put together a process of Listening, Acknowledging and Solving problems for customers. We call it L-A-P-T-O-P. Each letter has meaning to our processes: Listen, Acknowledge, Plan, Take Action, Offer Thanks, Produce Documentation. Here’s how it works:
- Start by Listening to the customer’s concern: Genuinely and actively listen. This means sit on the other side of the phone and create dead air. Say, “Uh huh. I understand. & Okay.”
- Acknowledge the Issue: Here’s where you have to be careful. Don’t pass blame to someone else. Figure out how you own this issue and make sure you acknowledge that. Continue to listen and acknowledge until the customer calms down. Often I find that this process really looks like LALALALALALAPTOP.
- Now, with them on the phone, you are going to start Planning: We like to ask, “What can I do to make this right for you?” as a starting point. They may say fix it, or they may not know what they want done. If they don’t know what they want, offer up some suggestions. Often when you are planning, you will have to create two plans: A tactical plan that fixes this issue and a strategic plan that fixes the broken system within your organization that let it happen in the first place.
- Now it’s time to Take Action: This step is pretty self-explanatory, but there are a couple of key areas you will want to focus on: Make sure to communicate with the client at least daily and make sure you communicate what is going on with your team. The last thing you want is for the customer to call in and talk to someone who doesn’t know what’s going on.
- Offer Thanks: Here’s the deal– you need to thank the customer along the way. Say things like, “Thank you for being patient while we work through this” and “Thank you for letting us know about this problem”. You need the customer to know that you are open to this type of criticism and willing to make changes
- The last and most critical step– Produce Documentation: You need to keep track of these incidents for the future. We have a document that we call a “service alert” that tracks the issue from start to finish. If you don’t document it, you will forget the issue. Trust me.
We actually have service alerts from the last 10 years in a big binder and we pull them out once in a while when we are making a big operational change to make sure we aren’t going to recreate any of these problems.
That’s it! How to turn a ranting, angry customer into a raving-happy, referring machine. It sounds simple, but it is a lot of work and takes a tremendous amount of discipline. I found that I am not the right person in our company to own this process. You need someone who will kick your butt when you don’t make the phone calls or when you miss a step. So choose your LAPTOP owner carefully.
~Bruce
