Troubles are inevitable, and every business will face them once in a while. Once this happens, it usually affects the customers. Resulting in angry and upset customers. With this article, you can know how to turn this into an opportunity. Which will help you earn out of churning customers.
In an alternate reality, it might be possible for sales reps to know what their customers want to hear from them. But not in this reality. You can not avoid problems in this reality that easily. So what choice do you have?
One is to travel to that alternate reality, and the second is to turn your problems into opportunities.
I know the first one is not the real solution, so let’s focus on the second one here.
What is Service Recovery?
It is a system built by the company itself to help them out in a situation like this. This solution does not appear naturally in a company’s system. Teams and organizations need to work together and build this recovery system. This system enables your customer teams to deliver the best possible experience and service for your customers.
You can think of It as a positive approach to complaints handling. Complaints handling is usually taken as a negative practice where customer service tries to minimize the damage from angry and upset customers.
The Paradox of Recovery Service:
This phenomenon is one common event that can happen with any business. According to this, practicing service recovery over your customers increases customer loyalty to your brand.
To understand this, follow this graph here:
Image Source: CustomerThermometer
You might have heard this line before: a friend in need is a friend indeed.
A customer who is upset or angry due to the service they received is the person in need. Here a brand has to prove that they are the real friend by helping them out in this situation.
This helping is what we are calling service recovery. This way, a customer will see how your brand will stand with them, no matter what. This assurance will increase their loyalty toward you.
S0, these are the strategies that you can use to implement a Service Recovery in your customer service system.
Say Sorry and Have Less Worry:
The first step toward convincing your customers is by offering them a sincere apology. Sometimes it is the customers who make mistakes at their end and get angry at the brand. But it does not mean that you can blame them for this. We are here to solve a problem, not to create more.
Tell them that you are feeling sorry and appreciate that they reached you to get it resolved. You can start with these phrases:
Tailoring your apology with a personal touch is appreciated. To do that, always listen to the problems of your customers. Do not just copy-paste your answers from previous chats or try to give similar answers to every customer. They will see you are a bot, and that will upset them even more.
Admitting Your Mistakes:
For a customer, your brand made a mistake, and you are the representative of it. So, as a customer service representative, you need to learn to take responsibility for it. Take ownership of it.
The customer will feel like that you are just passing them on to someone else if you do not admit it. Teach your team that they can use the resources of the company to resolve the issue. Putting more effort and time from their end will make customers feel relaxed.
Passing a customer to a senior is not an ideal practice in the system recovery process. Reps solving problems at their ends, quickly and efficiently, increase customers’ loyalty.
Now Dive Deep:
So you have scratched the surface of the recovery process by apologizing and admitting your mistake. Now, you need to understand the problem. As a customer services representative, you need to be a person who knows how to investigate. Learning small details about problems helps you connect the dots that can help you solve them more quickly and efficiently.
Do A Little More:
When a user faces a problem while using your services, it is your responsibility to get them out of that problem. But you should not stop just there. To make your customer forget the bad experience, you need to do a little extra. You can do things like free shipping, a free month’s subscription, add credit to their account, cashback coupons, or else.
Come up with anything creative that can restore the faith of your customers in your services, again. It may vary from business to business and customer to customer. So do not stick to one thing, try different acts for different customers.
Keep a Check on Them:
Once you have resolved the problem your customer was facing, try to give them a follow-up call. The purpose of this call is to make sure that they are satisfied with the resolution you offer them.
Not just that, explain the situation to your whole customer care team. So, in the future, if that customer faces the same problem, he/ she does not need to explain the situation again. An updated team will always help you to gain your customers back.
Final Words:
You can deploy these methods or strategies to earn the trust of your customers and retain them for a long time. Every customer is special for a business in its own way. These recovery strategies will always come in handy for your customer team, just like the right customer service tool. With the right customer service solution, your team can communicate efficiently with your customers, but to make it more effective, you need the right strategies, and these are the ones you need.