| If you are in business, you will eventually offend a | | | | opportunity to offer an opinion. |
| customer, or at least fail to meet the customer's | | | | Step 4: Get input from others whom you respect |
| expectations. Now that the damage is done, what is | | | | before you respond. |
| the most effective way to deal with the complaint | | | | Ask your supervisor's opinion, a well-respected |
| and keep the customer? | | | | salesperson or even a fellow businessperson you |
| Step 1. Identify with the customer. Never take a | | | | respect. |
| customer complaint lightly. Rather, do your | | | | What you're looking for here are alternatives to both |
| homework and make sure that the customer | | | | keep the customer and to avoid putting your |
| understands that you genuinely care and that you | | | | company in jeopardy. |
| want to do the right thing. Doing the right thing, | | | | Caution: Sometimes doing the "right thing" is not |
| however, doesn't always mean giving customers | | | | enough to keep a customer. So calculate what it will |
| what they want; it means making sure you do your | | | | cost you in terms of gross profit dollars if you and |
| best to get both sides of the story and respond | | | | the customer cannot come to terms. |
| appropriately. | | | | I recall a Colorado lumberyard manager who supplied |
| One of the best ways to identify with a customer is | | | | redwood fascia to a residential builder for his personal |
| to ask yourself, "If this had happened to me, how | | | | home. While the lumberyard did not supply the paint |
| would I feel? What would I think the right thing to do | | | | or the painter, the painter that they builder selected |
| would be?" If you're truthful with your answers, and | | | | used water-based paint on the fascia. When the grain |
| you respond accordingly, the odds improve that your | | | | swelled, the builder demanded that the dealer replace |
| customer will also. | | | | the fascia. |
| Step 2: Acknowledge the customer's point of view. | | | | The lumberyard was clearly not responsible and the |
| Never tell a customer that he or she is wrong, but | | | | builder's demand was absurd. However, the manager |
| always respond in such a way that the customer | | | | made the decision to replace the fascia because he |
| knows that you understand where he or she is | | | | knew that the builder was the kind of person who |
| coming from. This is best achieved by listening to | | | | would punish him by taking his business elsewhere if |
| what the customer has to say and asking questions | | | | he didn't meet the his demands. |
| for clarification. | | | | What is the right thing to do and what will keep the |
| Step 3: Ask the customer this question: "What would | | | | customer may not always be the same. In this case, |
| you have us do?" This puts the monkey on the | | | | the manager looked upon the cost of replacing the |
| customer's back to tell you what would be fair. It still | | | | redwood fascia as an investment. His goal was to do |
| doesn't mean that you are going to do what has | | | | whatever was necessary to ensure that he would |
| been suggested, but you give the customer an | | | | retain this customer's business. |