From angry customer to advocate
What to do when a customer starts badmouthing your business? Talk to her, of course. Studies show that listening to disgruntled customers and addressing their concerns can turn the angry into advocates. Here’s an example from Yelp that proves the point.
Katelin H. writes: Customer Service trumps all. My first - and what I’d planned on being my LAST - visit to Cowboys and Angels was a total nightmare. A bad cut and a stylist that wouldn’t listen. Why would I give them second chance? Well, normally I wouldn’t. Instead I spread the bad word across cyberspace here on Yelp.
What I didn’t anticipate was getting a phone call from the owner of the salon. I went back in (somewhat shamefaced) last night to give them another go —- this time it was on the house. Louise cut my hair. Not only is this one of the best cuts I’ve ever gotten in my life… she explained what she was doing as she went. She talked me through the cut - and gave me options. I have never been more pleased with a haircut. It looks AMAZING.
I can’t tell you what worlds apart my two experiences were at Cowboys and Angels. I understand that you’re not going to get a perfect cut every time you go into a salon. However, a business owner that understands the power of not good — but GREAT — customer service has got what it takes for staying power. Louise believes in the quality of her salon and her coworkers… and it translates beautifully into her work. Thank you for letting me give you a second chance. It was so very worth it.
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February 19th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
This is a great approach when the owner/principle can be hands on and make that call to save a valuable revenue stream (aka customer). Translating this to my humongous bank is not so easy. What if that kind of poor experience happened 3,000 times a day across various geographic locations or different product lines? Customer service will inevitably deal with these issues, if the customer doesn’t just defect silently, but dealing with them constantly becomes costly. Worse still organizations don’t employ systematic approaches to ensuring that these poor experiences aren’t repeated the next day or next week. Moving opponents to advocates in a fortune 5000 company involves not only talking to your customers but ensuring that the learning’s are captured and change is made.