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When all else fails: Building
customer loyalty from adversity
It just hit the fan. An important customer is really mad. You blew it
and they're ready to walk.
How you respond will either lose them or win them over for life.
There's
nothing like coming through adversity together in a positive way to create customer
loyalty. Here's what you can do.
First listen and listen well.
Acknowledge the problem and
understand what the issues are, how they feel about them, and what they need. You need to
validate your customer’s feelings and their view of the problem. Understanding does
not mean you have to admit guilt or waive your legal rights.
Get solutions underway now.
If their plant is shut down, get
them what they need whatever it takes. If there's a quality question, assume they are
right for the moment and replace the materials or dispatch a service team. Let them know
you will sort out the questions of responsibility later and that your first interest is to
minimize their loss.
Make management contact.
Get the appropriate levels of
management involved on both sides. Go one or two levels up in your organization so the
customer sees that they have high-level attention. Phone calls may be okay but in severe
cases, get a team into their facility as soon as possible. The team should include
management and problem solvers.
Solve the problem and find the root causes.
Work with the
customer cooperatively as much as possible to get through the problem and find out what
happened. Make them part of the solution whenever possible. At this time you can both
understand what went wrong and sort out who will pay for what. Since you've already been
cooperating and have relationships built, this should be an easier and less costly process
than going to court. Root
cause analysis.
Summary:
This proactive approach allows you to create, deepen, and strengthen
new relationships in both organizations. It allows you to engage in creating solutions
rather than fighting over whom to blame. The customer will be more loyal to you when they
know that you can help them through problems and are committed to their welfare.
Read about a real example of how we made a
difference through staff training.
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