In this uber-connected world, customer feedback and complaints are as unavoidable as changes of the weather. The customer doesn’t even have to make direct contact with the company, and chances are they won’t unless they want to get it sorted out. It’s more than likely they will take to the myriad of online forums to vent. With Twitter, Facebook and Yelp, they can get the word out quickly.
The truth is the customer is not always right but smart resellers would not get caught up in long, defensive arguments. They would see it as an opportunity, first to fix what went wrong, but secondly to build a quality relationship with that client.
According to research conducted by the Technical Assistance Programs (TARP) in the 1970s and published in 1980, 82 percent of customers who suffered a loss valued at over $100 bought again from the supplier if the problem was resolved quickly and 54 percent bought again if the problem was eventually fixed, albeit slowly.
As simple as it sounds, the most obvious answer to do is to shut up and listen. Some customers just need to vent without hearing a solution. They want someone to share their pain and distress.
Most customers do not want an apology for the error, even if they ask for it. They want an apology for the impact. The important part here is to acknowledge the customer’s problems. Empathy does not imply ownership of the problem. It’s important during that discussion to avoid contradicting what they say. They need to vent; contradicting them would only exacerbate the problem.
Next, find out exactly what they want. You may not be able to comply with their wishes but at least that provides a starting point for discussion and negotiation. Just suggesting a path forward will give the complainant a sense that you are taking them seriously.
Stick to the positives, avoid the negatives and find something they agree with. Asking open-ended questions: “What can we do to help you?”; “Apart from that, was everything else satisfactory?”
This technique will not only divert focus from emotional frustration. The right questions can also generate copious information about the problem at hand and help arrive at the appropriate solution.
There is one particular four letter word that can provide the reseller with a lot of information about what to do next. It’s a simple word: what would you think would be fair. The word “fair” encourages people to think about what is reasonable, particularly if it’s put in a way where the reseller is working in partnership with the complainant. They are more likely to come up with some solution or way to deal with the problem.
Once some sort of way forward has been reached, it’s important to make sure the customer knows what will happen next. Some trade-offs might be used to placate the customer. These are particularly effective when the resolution of the problem is outside of the reseller’s control. For example, a voucher for another purchase, an upgrade to a higher level of service or a discount would qualify as trade-offs. However, trade-offs are not good policy as a response to a customer complaint. The best option is fixing the problem.
In today’s digital age, it is important for resellers to monitor conversations on the web. Make sure all the bases are covered and no complaint goes unnoticed. Many companies use Twitter to respond.
Of course, direct communication is always the best way to deal with the issue. If you have the customer’s contact information, deal with the issue on a personal basis. When that happens, it’s best the reseller start out with something positive by thanking the customer for bringing the problem to their attention. They should then identify what went wrong, see how to fix it and stop it from happening again. It’s always a good idea to follow that up with verbal communication.
Smart resellers shouldn’t welcome customer feedback – it’s an opportunity to build closer links.
Responses matter more than problems
When issues arise, clients are often fearful for their business, so be sensitive
Fixing customer issues comes with the territory, according to Commulynx managing director Stephen Knights. Any reseller who thinks they can avoid it is kidding themselves.
“The way we deal with it is that it’s not if we make a mistake, it’s when and how we respond. We see it as an opportunity to either lose a customer or win a customer for life.”
“Most of the time we have an account management model so we go through that with a customer and work through their challenges. Rarely does it escalate to me and if it does, I’m always quick to respond with a phone call. I never deal with it by email. I deal with it face to face because ultimately, business comes down to people dealing with people.”
He says most of the issues for his company come up as clients move to the cloud.
“Typically it’s a migration to cloud technology,” he says. “No one takes on that migration assuming it’s going to be a perfect run, there’s no such thing. There’s always going to be challenges. Trying to minimise those challenges is what our role is.
“The end is to focus on the changing the spending in the way the business is embracing the new operational cost model that is available under some of these transitions and understanding the limitations of them. It’s about understanding sometimes the benefits that you are gaining that are outweighing some of those limitations.
“We can’t stand miles and miles away analysing every single possible variant. We have got to get into the work and minimise the disruption and that’s what a lot of this work is about these days.
“We have found fairly consistently there are at least one or two challenges, whether it be changes in the work behaviour, a change in the way the technology operates or a change in the way they need to work with the new platform.”
He says customers will get emotional when they have problems and meltdowns. That’s to be expected, he says. Staff at Commulynx have to deal with it as professionals.
“It’s their business, they are bound to be emotional,” he says. “We have a large small to medium client base and they tend to get very emotional.
“Their understanding of technology is somewhat more limited that’s why we’re there. They take a view but their view doesn’t always reflect the true situation of what’s going on. To them Outlook just isn’t working, they just can’t get email, it’s nothing to do with what’s actually going on.
“Our job is there to facilitate that change and work through it and resolve things in a timely manner. Without us there, they wouldn’t be able to tackle the project let alone work through some of the gremlins along the way.
“When the communication is continuous, it is very rare to actually find a variation that isn’t part of the process, that isn’t something you can’t communicate with the customer clearly. They need to understand that they need to pay for a portion or part of this challenge.
“But challenges within projects will always be there, it’s the nature of change,” he adds.
How does Commulynx deal with customers demanding a discount, freebie or upgrading because of the issues?
“We deal with that on a case by case basis,” he says. “We’re not in the business of giving away business, no one is. What we do is we focus on resolving the concern and then we say to the customer if there are any outright mistakes by us, you will be compensated in reimbursement or something to that effect.
“Quite often their perception of what’s going on isn’t actually what’s going on. We’ve always got to talk about the end result rather than a mid-stride grievance. We tend to focus on the bigger picture.”
Still, the customers who want reimbursement are a certain breed, he says. They’re the ones who aren’t interested in working in partnership with the reseller. And invariably, they won’t be long-term customers, they’ll head off when they can get it cheaper somewhere else.
“With customers that want that outright reimbursement or credit, typically what you find is that they don’t value that partnership.
“There is a partnership, we are working together, we’re facilitating IT support function and if there are challenges we work through it together,” he says. “Customers lean on us to provide to provide that expertise and help them with these technology changes.
“Anyone who doesn’t value the relationship that we have, that is where the challenges truly come in. They don’t see a value proposition in having someone undertake their IT, they see IT as more of a necessity than value to their business. IT is an enabler for business.”
He says to avoid future problems, Commulynx explains to customers what they need to do manage the system.
“Some people no matter how many times you show them don’t take it up, and others get it then and there,” he says. “The cards tend to shuffle themselves.”
Leon Gettler is a senior business journalist who writes for a range of newspapers and journals
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