‘Service recovery’, or making amends with customers after failing to deliver the goods, has gotten some attention lately. JetBlue’s now infamous mis-steps on Valentines Day offered a sneak peak into the damage service failure can cause on a well respected brand. The move outed the firm from attaining a top 4 ranking in BusinessWeek’s debut of its service excellence awards, and has sparked the resurgence of the ‘passenger bill of rights.’
So, can a brand use service recovery as a means to not only bolster its tarnished image, but as the foundation of its difference in the market? There are so many service related horror stories across all markets, that being known as the company that fixes its mistakes better and faster than competitors could offer competitive advantage. Here are some principles to think about:
- Admit you’ve failed! - Why do most companies–or more specifically their employees–never admit they’ve made a mistake? The majority of customers will cut you some slack if you simply acknowledge you’ve made a mistake.
- Empathize with your customers – The majority of customer service inquiries (my non scientific speculation on the data) are handled person to person, vs. through self service channels or computer to computer interactions. Companies should teach their employees to relate to the customer’s problem and how it impacted their lives. For example, if a flower delivery did not arrive in time for Valentines Day, a simple empathetic statement of “I’m so sorry, I can understand how embarrassed you must feel, we’ll send a new arrangement with an apology letter from the company that will get you off the hook with your significant other.” Simple, caring, and focused on the customer
- React quickly and decisively – If you can’t get it right the first time, establish specific actions to remedy failures quickly. Develop the means to respond to failures with a specific response as immediately as possible. The first cable provider to get this one right will break away from the pack.
- Deliver on the service ‘re-promise’ – If you’re going to commit to make amends after a failure, please, please, please do not break the promise. After a customer service failure, the customer is paying close attention to your actions. If you can’t keep the ‘re-promise’ than don’t make it, you will damage your brand more than the damage of the initial service failure.
- Don’t give up on getting it right the first time – The most obvious, but perhaps overlooked, consideration is to design the customer experience and the supporting company policies to reduce service failures before they occur.
JetBlue followed most of these principles in its recent debacle. Lets see if it–and others–can use service failure to build differentiation…
Scott Lieberman :: Mar.04.2007 ::
Uncategorized ::
No Comments »
