Customers are not always right, but they’re never wrong

The original post was made on FreshBooks blog, by it’s CEO Mike McDerment. I am just copying paste the article here, describing there incident. Once again I am lazy to relate it to our situations. But this should give you a clear picture on dealing with our customers. The reason I am quoting as it is , I like the customer, Andrews forwarding of the customer to the CEO itself and many other things. So read on. Read the real article @ http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/

Perhaps you’ve heard this one before: “The customer is always right”.

Frankly, that’s not true. Frequently customers are incorrect, confused, or have been misled by a third party. It happens all the time and it can be a real challenge to handle when they are convinced they are right.

Over the years we’ve had people tell us we’ve taken away features, but the truth is those features never existed. Other times people have come to us because someone told them we did something that we do not. All of these instances can be hard for our team to handle, and when communication becomes a challenge, like any relationship, the biggest factor is the person on the other side of the table.

That said, we’ve got the best customers in the world hands down. They are professional and smart – and often just too darn busy to give us a hard time because they are entrepreneurs (see professional and smart). But we’ve got enough people using FreshBooks that we get a good number of outliers too – people who can be a challenge for one reason or another.

Last week we were working with a demanding customer. After a lot of back and forth, let’s just say some  feathers were ruffled on the FreshBooks end of the relationship. In an effort to break what had become a cycle of frustration, Andrew did the right thing and cc’d me on an email to the customer suggesting that he was tapped out and that the customer now had access to the CEO. Only one problem, Andrew started the email like this:

“Hi [Customer XXX], I don’t believe this to be a fair statement.”

And that’s where we made a mistake. While Andrew did not say this customer was wrong, I’m certain that’s all he heard.

Andrew is a super sharp guy and had invested a great deal in this relationship – I know him well enough to know this was just a moment of weakness. But I’ll tell you what, it did not leave me with many options.
Fortunately, the customer in question proved to be a fair and reasonable individual, and wrote a fairly comical reply to Andrew and I:

“…customers are always right – especially when they are wrong.

Get used to it. ”

This dialog continued and we got things sorted, but the moral of the story is, when you’re providing service it’s not about being right. It’s about supporting people on the other end of the line. Andrew did the correct thing by sending this person my way because he did not see another path to making the customer happy. That’s the right call.

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Sprituality – How to deal with blame!! – To or not to customers ?

Spirituality in a Technical blog ??? True. As we describe ourself in Twitter We are a technical support and server management firm with a tinge of spirituality. Wohoo. But we are hereby passing on a story or a piece of wisdom by one of the Indian Sages. No attempts are made to compare it with customer service scenario, because this situation is when you do the job perfectly 10/10 and still have to deal with customers when they starts finding mistakes in you. The piece of knowledge is associated with an individual rather than a corporate.

We leave it to you about yourself about how to adapt it to your corporate situations. So here it goes!!!!

When someone blames you, what do you usually do? Blame them back or you put up resistance in yourself. When someone blames you, they actually take away some negative karma from you. If you understand this and don’t put up resistance and feel happy about it, then you drop your resistance. “Oh, good. That person is blaming me. Good. Something is going away.” And when you drop the resistance, your karma goes away. Do you see what I’m saying?

So when someone blames you and you put up resistance in your mind, and you don’t react, then you are not allowing them to take the negative karma. Outside you may resist, but inside if you don’t resist, and feel happy, “Oh, good, somebody is there to blame me and take some negative karma,” you will feel immediately lighter.

How does it feel to you when someone blames you? Do you feel some heaviness? Usually, when someone blames you, you feel hurt and you feel unhappy, you feel sad. This is all because you’re . . . resisting. That is it. What you resist, persists. The ignorant person tells someone, “Don’t blame me because it hurts me.”

An enlightened person also says “Don’t blame me.” Do you know why? Because it might hurt you. This is a beautiful point. What are the points? You get hurt because you resist the blame. When someone blames you, you resist it inside. Outside you may not resist, but inside when you resist, then that hurts you.

An ignorant person warns you, “You better not hurt me, you better not blame me because I will feel hurt.” Someone warns you not to blame them because it will hurt them and they’ll do something harmful to you out of revenge.

An enlightened person says “Don’t blame me because it will hurt you.” So here you say, don’t blame because of compassion. You can tell someone, don’t blame me out of compassion, or you can say it out of anger.

Effective Customer Handling.

Customer service complaints are a part of the territory when you deal with the public. There are many reasons why you may receive a complaint; but in the final analysis, the reasons inevitably involve an unreasonable expectation of some sort or some type of miscommunication. Customer service issues can be successfully resolved if you employ the tips outlined in this article, which allows you to stop, look, listen then act with effective consequences.

Stop and let the customer tell you in his or her own words the issue,as they perceive it. Observe the emotions and attitudes being exhibited as well as the environment and surrounding. Actively listen to understand and make the customer feel heard and respected. With these factors included in your mind-set and thinking, you can proceed to act in effectively handling the problem, with the results being a satisfied loyal customer.

Five tips to helping you bring successful resolution to customer service issues.

* Actively Listen
* Clarify to get understanding
* Acknowledge something happen
* Resolve it
* Advance the relationship forward

Listening allows you to understand the matter from the customer’s perspective, right or wrong.

You get to share their thoughts, feeling, emotions and possibly have them even recommend a feasibly resolution, without charge. In many cases this is all that is required to bring a successful resolution to some situations. There was a simply misunderstanding on someone part. The customer or sales associate allowed their emotions or irrational reasoning to guide their judgment, so tension was created or it somehow became personal verses staying in the business arena. It is now on your desk and you have to resolve it in the best interest of the customer and company.

Treat your customers with respect; listening is an excellent example of showing your concern, compassion and respect.

The customer will perceive that you and your company care when you take the time to listen to their concern. In some instances it will be a legitimate issue your company needs to address. In other cases, it maybe the wrong day, the wrong time, or the wrong people! Just like mixing fuel with flames, an accident waiting to happen.

Listening to your customer gives them an opportunity to release some steam and get the heat off their chest.

After the customer has had an opportunity to vent, it can become a no harm, no foul situation or let us just forgive and possibly forget, then move on with our lives! Learn from the experience as a business and company. Once a mutual solution is reached, everyone usually fells better for the experience. The act of listening will allow you to take inventory of the way you do business and possibly clear up some policies or procedures that are outdated or could be deemed confusing and/ or misleading.

Clarifying the issues gives you an opportunity to understand the problem and factors that lead to the matter being an issue that requires your attention.

Think about it for a moment, how or why would you fix something you didn’t know or think was wrong or broken. Investing time and patience to understand the problem and factors that created the problem is time well spent. This is your chance to right a wrong or lay the foundation for building a lifetime relationship. You need to be clear of the issues before you can intelligently act on the matter.

Next, acknowledge there is an issue.

This is not a time to point blame. It makes no difference whose fault it was. Something is broken! You have to fit it. If you haven’t acknowledged anything being wrong, why are you encouraged to correct anything? Point being, you would not be face to face or in a communication fist-ti-cuff (whether verbal or written) if everything was hunky-dory. There is a problem, and it needs your attention. Once you acknowledge it you can then determine what level of management to direct the matter for resolution.

In many cases the customer will have already told you how they want to see the problem handled.

As earlier stated, the matter could be as simple as one created by a misunderstanding in communications or an unreasonable expectations from the customer. A simple apology, shake hands and everyone walks away with the problem solved.

I’m not an advocate of retaining all of my customers. A very small percent of customers in the marketplace are mean, rude. Some customers maintain a nothing will ever please them attitude. Others are intent on ripping you off from the moment they walk through your doors or click on your website. They only bought your product or service to use it and refund it, criminal behavior at it finest!

This being said, the vast majority of customers are honest and reasonable people. Without them there would be no reason to be in business. Your mission statement should include existing, as a business to serve your customers wants needs and desires. This attitude will allow you to seek resolutions that are perceived as reasonable and equitable in your customer’s eyesight. It also allows you to maximize the revenue potential of the relationship and not get blinded by the glitter of pennies. Penny-wise and pound-foolish is not a good revenue model for long-term business success.

Some customer relationships need to be ended before they begin. DBA, Dead Before Arrival. It is best for all parties if you never meet to do business. You don’t like them, they don’t like you, and it is not a good fit for either party. One excellent reason to end these toxic relationships early is they can literally suck your energy and time, which will take away creatively juices from other areas of your business. Look at the long-term impact to your company and make adjustments for the grief you will experience in accepting business from this category of customers.

There are some dollars and some customers your business could do better without. The costs don’t justify the benefits. Then there are those times when you have to make a decision that is in the best interest of the customer, company and future business relationships. It is so very important to understand the lifetime value of your customer to be able to apply this last tip with sound judgment. It is a skill to knowing when to hold’em and when to fold’em

Finally, remember it cost 5 – 10 times more to get a new customer than to retain an existing client.

A loyal customer is likely to refer others to your product or service for years to come. With that said, you can see why it would be logical to work to advance the relationship forward in successfully resolving customer service issues. The proof of the pudding is in the tasting; there was an issue, it got out of control and created a mess between your company and the client. You step up to the plate and make the client feel important, whole and respected.

Bonus points!

The client is happy and tells their friends and associates that your company has integrity and value their business. All because of five simple techniques that demonstrate you care: Listen, Clarify, Acknowledge, Resolve and Advance.

Bottom-line

Remember you are dealing with another human being. Somewhere there was a breakdown in communications or they failed to get what they expected. Either way, be willing to listen to them; understand the issues involved; recommend viable solutions that benefit all parties and work to move your relationship with the customer to an even higher level in your clients mind. Your customer’s perception is their reality, it must be changed or bad-will will continue to persist. The next time a customer complains, remember this could be a wonderful opportunity to make a new friend along with a loyal customer.

Effective Complaint Handling!

Customer is the blood-line of any industry. Customer Satisfaction involves the extent or the degree to which, a company’s services meet the requirements of its customer. It is mandatory for the companies to measure their customer satisfaction, and to continually improve this satisfaction index. There is little doubt that customer satisfaction is a central part of any effective Quality Management System.

In intense consumer-focused activities like server administration or monitoring services, measuring customer satisfaction is very critical. However, every company in every industry can benefit by evaluating their customer needs. Evaluating customer satisfaction provides the following benefits to an organization:

* Determining the customer needs in a better manner.
* Identify the problems related to the customer services.
* Focus more on the areas that require improvement.
* Get more insight regarding the new service offerings required by customers.

There are three main areas of customer interaction – Assessing customer needs Customer satisfaction survey Customer complaint handling. By analyzing the customer satisfaction and their needs, we can improvise our systems to increase revenues.

The following aspects are taken into consideration by SuportSages to implement an effective complaint handling system.

1. Our aim is to enhance the customer satisfaction by creating a customer-focused environment that is open to positive and negative feedback.
2. Our customers are given the option to directly contact the management in case of any service-related complaints, which ensures that no complaints go unnoticed in the ladder.
3. We try to resolve any complaints received, related to our service, within a definite time-frame.
4. The root cause of every complaint is identified, and measures are taken to correct that root cause. Corrective actions based on root cause analysis ensures that the complaint doesn’t recur.
5. Top management is actively involved in the complaint handling process, by verifying the complaints and their corrective actions every week.SupportSages ensures that the customer complaints are well handled and our customers are delighted.
6. When we find that the issues are due to lack of training or resources, the management takes appropriate measures including personnel training or resource acquisition.
7. SupportSages also conducts a feedback survey , to ensure that our customers are delighted and they can also provide any suggestion or complaint related to service.
8. After taking corrective action for the complaints, its effectiveness is measured by following up with the customers after a period of time.

Thus, SupportSages ensures that the customer complaints are well handled and our customers are delighted. To convey the importance of delighting the customers to our employees, we conduct periodical sessions on customer handling, right from the induction training. We have also set the customer satisfaction index as one of our quality objectives, and we increase the target value once we achieve the set targets. This helps us to keep on striving for better customer satisfaction every year.