Alice MacDougall, an American lawyer, said that in business you get what you want by giving other people what they want and she was absolutely right. We can say that customer service means not only doing things for customers, but doing them extraordinarily well, i.e. it is no longer enough to satisfy your customers, you have to delight them. You should go beyond what is expected and in that way you will add value to every interaction.
It is said that one should take care of one’s customer the same way one would take care of one’s grandmother. However, things rarely go as smoothly as we would like to, i.e. customers very often turn out to be less nice than our granny. Therefore, if you come across a dissatisfied customer here is how you should react to their complaint: listen actively, take quick action, thank them for expressing their needs, apologize, seek the best solution, reach agreement, make sure that the customer is really satisfied and, finally, contact them again.
Let’s recall some useful phrases for complaining:
Making the complaint: I’m here / ringing / writing to complain about. I’m sorry, but I’m not satisfied with … Unfortunately, there’s a problem with …
Explaining the problem: The (phone) doesn’t work. There seems to be a problem with … We haven’t received the …
