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Oh companies. Relationships are SO much easier than you make them. In fact, there are
only a few things that you need to do in order to make your customers significantly happier. Or
rather, there are a few things you must stop doing and saying that will change your
customers' experiences drastically.
I've compiled a short list for you (though there are more). Here are some things you need to
stop doing and saying:
1. "It's our policy."
Now, you may use this and think: "Why is this wrong? It enables a fair way to treat customers
across the board."
The problem with trying to treat customers the same across the board is that not every
situation is cut and dried. And, frankly, some policies are antiquated and outdated. The
moment you have to let a customer down by saying "it's our policy," you are failing that
customer.
And yes, I know that you don't want your customer service staff running all amok with bleeding
hearts and breaking your bank, but that is why you need to train them properly and empower
them to help your customers. A good customer service policy is to:
a. train your agents on multiple scenarios and then;
b. give them a buffer allowance each month and;
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11 Posts 11,455 followers FollowTara HuntTara Hunt is digital/social media marketing pioneer, an author, entrepreneur and speaker.
5 Things Customers Don't Want to Hear...EVER
November 06, 2013 18,519 262 82
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c. give them all sorts of ways to help the customer instead of shutting down the conversation.
If they have a certain budget to play with each month where they can make a decision on
whether to give a customer a break or take a return marked "no refunds", they can use their
training to decipher a reasonable response and then be empowered to make it. Here is an
example:
A customer calls their cell phone company and says, "My bill is outrageous! I didn't realize
that going over my data would cost me an extra $200! I can't afford this!" The agent then can
walk through a customer's bill and figure out if the mistake was made in earnest and then
either undo the $200 OR adjust the bill a smaller amount (maybe cut it in half), but talk the
customer into a more robust ongoing data plan (which can help the company make the
money up in the long run).
Of course, if a customer doesn't know what to expect, this is an issue in itself. Which leads
me to #2.
2. "It was in your contract."
Newsflash: nobody actually reads contracts. I'm not sure why anyone uses a big long
legalese document to give customers upfront information about a service. It's the worst way
to present information in the universe. You may as well write it in Sanskrit on a stone tablet.
I'm not saying your customers have no responsibility to read what they sign, but when you are
excitedly signing up for a new service or website or whatever, the last thing you do is to sit
and read a long document. And the salesperson moving the sale through doesn't really give
you much of a chance either.
Why not present limitations and terms and conditions in a readable, fun manner? A great
example of turning boring, mandated information into something people will engage in is Virgin
America's awesome in-flight safety video. Everyone knows that when those safety videos
come on, our eyes glaze over and we focus on the book or magazine or anything else. But
not when you are on a Virgin Flight:
Right? You don't have to go to that level of production, but why not make it readable and
enjoyable? This way, you will never have to say, "It's in your contract." Your customers will
know. In fact, they may even be able to sing it back to you.
3. "See our answer here [with link]."
Why not just talk to me? Seriously. If I ask something that is too long for a tweet, answer me
with a few tweets. That's cool.
Scenario:
@myhandle: Hey cable company! Why am I on hold for over 45 minutes today? WTH?
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@cablecompany: @myhandle Sorry for your inconvenience. Go check our outage schedule
here: [link to website]
Grrrrrrrrrr. A wee bit of effort would help a whole lot here. I have probably already gone to your
website to find your really hard to find number to call to be put on hold. I'm trying to use Twitter
to get some answers and be more efficient. Don't make me click something else!
This would be better:
@myhandle: Hey cable company! Why am I on hold for over 45 minutes today? WTH?
@cablecompany: @myhandle Sorry for your inconvenience. I see you are calling from
Toronto where there are lots of outages. Can I help?
@myhandle: @cablecompany Yeah. Do you happen to know what's wrong? When the cable
service is expected to be fixed?
@cablecompany: @myhandle I just checked internally. It's a weather issue. :( It may take
more than a few hours. Sorry! Time for a good book? :/
@myhandle: @cablecompany LOL. Okay. Maybe it's the universe telling me to hit the gym.
LOL.
@cablecompany: @myhandle Hit the gym for me, too! Oy! ;) Sorry again!
Even if it doesn't go as smoothly as above, it's a MUCH better interaction. I can hang up the
phone with a bit more information and reset my expectations. I also feel taken care of even if
the representative couldn't give me a definitive answer.
4. [Insert Lame Company Excuse Here]
Just recently, we had a ISP tell us that their service was bad because one of their partners
(the people who owned the fibre) were playing dirty.
Really? I couldn't give a damn. Fix our service. I don't need to get involved in your business
drama. I've just paid you $300 to get my internet installed. I'm not your mediator. Guess what
happened? We canceled, asked for a refund, then went to the partner in question. They
seemed to have the upper hand and get things done. We wish we knew that in the beginning.
Your company woes are YOUR company woes...and quite often they are the result of bad
decisions/deals you've made (short-term thinking). Your customers don't care, nor should
they. They just want to get the stuff they paid for. Don't make excuses. Fix it. If you can't fix it,
own up to it and refund your customers. Apologize and hope that they will forgive you and
come back when you've fixed your stuff.
The customer experience should be seamless and simple. The mess and duct tape and
hoops behind the scenes? Invisible to the customer's eye.
5. [Silence]
It's late 2013 and 72% of customers expect a response within the hour on Twitter from your
brand after they complain. And it doesn't really matter if it's during business hours or not.
I, personally, have a black list of companies I will no longer buy from after getting radio silence
to a concern or complaint. I'm sure I'm not alone.
Even the most angry complaints can be handled. People are just upset and need to be heard.
One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was to respond to an angry complaint like this:
A. Identify
B. Apologize
C. Assist
@myhandle: @restaurant FU! I will never eat at your awful overpriced restaurant again!
@restaurant: @myhandle Oh no! What happened?
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Jordy Leiser
Co-Founder and CEO at StellaService
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@myhandle: @restaurant After waiting for a table FOREVER, your server treated us like crap
and the food was cold by the time it was served. Grrrr.
@restaurant: @myhandle Oh man, it sounds like you had the WORST experience. It's not
what we aim for. Is there any way we can make it up to you?
@myhandle: @restaurant I don't know. I don't want to feel that way again. But I appreciate
your response. Maybe it was just a bad night.
@restaurant: @myhandle I know you don't want to take my word for it, but it sounds like it
may have been. Let us know if you want to try again. We'll set you up. :)
@myhandle: @restaurant Okay...well...I'll consider it. Thanks again. I feel kind of bad for
being so angry now.
@restaurant: @myhandle I would have probably felt the same. Glad I could help.
Identifying completely diffuses a situation. Trust me on this one. Even if you can't help
someone, just identifying and apologizing will help. And that customer will feel a bit bad for
blowing up at you online. If they don't come back, they'll certainly tell the story differently. This
time, you'll be cool...not a jerk that doesn't listen.
...
So there you go. Simple ways to respond to customers in a way that will help you build bonds
and loyalty and probably a few more sales rather than letting angry customers fall through the
cracks (and tell everyone they know about their awful experience). In fact, take some of that
billboard and other outbound advertising spend and put it into your inbound/customer service
channels so you can totally empower them. It doesn't have to be a lot, but I guarantee you that
these interactions will benefit you far more than that extra month on the billboard.
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Add your comment...
James Gormley
Swiss International Finance Group AG
@Tara, you make some interesting points for larger companies. What should a small company
with less than 10 emplyees take away from this?
Customer compaints are actually an important resource for business owners in knowing how to
improve their service. Empowerment is an important point, as passing the buck is not helpful
with client relations. If handled correctly, a complaint is an opportunity for engagement and to
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actually grow the business.
Twitter though is no more valid than Skype, Viber, Email, or any number of other
communication channels. The client should use the channels offered. Keep in mind too that if a
company has the luxury of staff members sat on Twitter all day, it's the customer who is paying
for that. Buying the budget option and expecting a Rolls Royce service is contra logic. Strategic
business decisions need to be made in the deployment of resources and in the end, some
clients spend much more than others, so there is a heirarchy of importance.
It's easy to make these observations from the outside looking in. Stop for just a moment and
imagine the life of the person on the other end of the call who's baraged on a daily basis by
customer enquiries. You may just want to re-evaluate your position. The world will not come to
an end today because your cable connection is down, and receiving a smiley faced message
about the outage via Twitter does not change the reality; your cable service is still down.
So @Tara; a little test. Keeping in mind that you are not running a service department, so you
should have time enough to reply; how long will it take to get a response? ;)
Like(10) Reply(12) 3 hours ago
Rosemary Shakala, Bharath Raj A, Sahar S., +7
12 Replies
Anthony Fishwick
CEO at IMEX Sweden Flooring Products
James, I agree. But as the phone is getting used less and less for communication,
it has never been so available.
We don't use Twitter, and wouldn't know where to start. We will need to at one
stage, and reckon we'd use a third party to do it professionally for us. Any
recommendations?
Like 6 minutes ago
James Gormley
Swiss International Finance Group AG
Anthony, quite right. We have overlooked the phone. It is the most direct way of
connecting but as Tara pointed out, there are times when the line is engaged and
there is nothing to do but wait. Do you use Twitter in your outreach to clients?
Gavin.... Pretty Woman quotes? Seriously?? OK, I didn't say ignore the bottom
section, but lets be honest. If you have a blue chip company come to you wanting
to use your translating services for the next 10 years for great money, are you
actually going to allow a small fish to put that relationship at risk? If your answer is
anything other than NO, sorry but I don't believe you. Statistically, the bottom 20%
of clients require the most effort to maintain.... That's just the way it is.
Like 13 minutes ago
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Kumar kum
CEO - Business Strategy, Entrepreneur, Mangement, ☆ President- Non-profit, Social
worker☆ let’s Connect☆[email protected]
Great article . how about
Could you tell me your name again?
Let me schedule this for tomorrow
Like(9) Reply(2) 2 hours ago
Bharath Raj A, Pastor Roger Granada, Vishal Goyal, +6
2 Replies
Jessie W
Self Employed
nice points
Like(2) 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A and Kumar kum
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Pavan CH
Mechanical Engineer with 6 Years in HVAC , AUTOCAD in Construction
Feild●Seeking New Position● [email protected]
agree
Like(4) 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A, Sajjad Madiseh, Kumar kum, +1
Rohit Biddappa
Entrepreneur, Management Consultant & Social Marketer
Fundamentally what disgruntled customers often want the most is not necessarily a resolution
of their grievance but rather empathy and a genuine feeling that the issue is being looked into
and they are being engaged/responded to in a timely and polite manner.
Like(6) Reply(2) 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A, Gavin Wynford-Jones, Scott Stevenson, +3
2 Replies
Christopher Elton
Intern (Research Assistant) at NSW Trade & Investment
I definitely agree with this. Better to be a company that comes down to the level of
the customer than a company that goes on the defensive or shifts blame in order to
save face.
Like(1) 56 minutes ago
Bharath Raj A
Scott Stevenson
at MarketSource
Yes, and that brings up one that I was going to post--it drives me nuts when I hear
it:
"I understand that you're upset." It's one of those "non-apology apologies" like "I'm
sorry if you were offended". I don't want you to understand _that_ I'm upset; I want
you to understand _why_ I'm upset.
"I understand that you're upset" comes across as an attempt to "handle" me
without having to really address the complaint.
Like(1) 56 minutes ago
Bharath Raj A
MARY DUFFY
Fashion for the Rest of Us, CEM
Add to that, 'i'm sorry'- 2 oversused words for bad quality or servicewords, not a one-size-fits-all
excuse or an eraser. I would prefer something like, "Let me see what I can do to fix this for
you."
Like(5) Reply(2) 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A, Sahar S., Paul Chapa Sr., +2
2 Replies
Gary Barnett
ICT Systems Engineer
Absolutely, something that breaks the 'script' if you like that makes the client feel
like they're not just getting the default company line, but something more personal.
Like(1) 23 minutes ago
Bharath Raj A
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Sara Carter
Accounts Manager at One Click Umbrella
At least they are apologising!
Like(2) 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A and Ethan Vaz
Annie Rickard
Head of Marketing at SSLPost
I could not agree more with this article but I would like to add one more...
"Sorry I don't have the authority to do that and my manager isn't here. Can you call back?"
Well then get on the phone and call someone who does have the authority and then call me
back. Better still, solve my problem. I hear this a lot in the UK particularly in call centre and
retail interactions and it is infuriating. What is actually happening here is a reversal of
importance in that the customer is being asked to service the needs of the company not vice
versa as it should be.
Of course this comes down to lack of training and a culture of blame in a lot of cases but
frankly I don't care at the moment of the call. Solve your internal training problem so someone
can solve mine.
Like(4) Reply(1) 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A, Punit M., Khaled Bader, +1
1 Reply
Gary Barnett
ICT Systems Engineer
I agree a lack of training, but perhaps a lack of training in the management team as
opposed to the front line person. A lot of the time they are given strict job
descriptions, to a point where deviating from this is frowned on. I think the best way
past this is for the management to have a little more faith in the staff and give them
the authority to help the clients that bit more.
Like(2) 20 minutes ago
Alexandros Andriotis and Bharath Raj A
Stephen Prasantha Fernando
Finance & Accounting Professional with Diverse Functional Experience
I can add one more to thee do not use list. "According to our system .....". System is not god
and is not infallible. It is only as good as the people who use them. Just because the system
indicates something, that does not mean it is correct.
Like(4) Reply 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A, Amr Shaaban, Olga Jensen, +1
Sam Kishaish
Project management, organization development, public speaking
"It's our policy" is a horrid excuse. Your policies should support your business, not the other
way around.
Like(4) Reply 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A, Sahar S., Gordana Vasileva, +1
Naqib K.
Corporate Accounts Director
Solve the problem well and quickly, this will please the customer and make them like your
company more. Customers should be asked "what result would you like from this?". The
customer can explain and the receiver can then work with them to find the best solution.
11/6/13 5 Things Customers Don't Want to Hear...EVER | LinkedIn
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Like(3) Reply 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A, Phindiwe Tom-Magida, and Sara Carter
Andrew Midkiff
Leader of Business Analysis Practices and People, who is never satisfied with "the way
it's always been done."
So simple, so clear, yet so rare. Excellent advice for companies. I've been on both sides of the
equation. And so often it's been extremely clear that the poor person on the other side of the
phone trying to "help" me is totally powerless to do anything outside the script. Bad move
company. It causes churn in both your customer service reps, and in customers. And both of
those cost you more money than giving them flexibility would ever do. Good article.
Like(3) Reply 53 minutes ago
Bharath Raj A, Paula Ivertsen, and Srinath Shetty
Dr Maulik Bhavsar BDS, MBA (Marketing)
Executive- Business Development at Shree Krishna Hospital
Excellent article..with great examples selected from day to day customer experiences...or
Moment of Truth for companies where they fail miserably. It needs sense of accountability in
Employees as they should be more practical while interacting with customer rather than to
sound more theoretical while resolving customer concern/ issues.
Like(2) Reply 3 hours ago
Bharath Raj A and Sajjad Madiseh
Vicky Zhang
Marketing manger at ChangZhou Hawk Display Corporation
customers also don't want to hear like :we are out of stock , we've raised up the price now etc.
Like(2) Reply 8 hours ago
Bharath Raj A and Sajjad Madiseh
Ahsen Mehmood
Software Engineer at Systems Limited
An employee also never want to listen these points from its company
Like(2) Reply 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A and Jack DiMatteo, CPA
Joshua D. Manjarrez
Himself at ManjoBros
"All of us at [BlahBlah] thank you for bringing your concern to our attention and it will receive
the attention it deserves. Please find a complementary coupon included."
Like(1) Reply(1) 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A
1 Reply
Naqib K.
Corporate Accounts Director
Coupons seem to work, which shows how easily pleased some people can be so
companies will take the easy way out.
Like(1) 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A
Rogerio Fadigas
Director at CARGOFAST LOGISTICS DO BRASIL LTDA
Well said! I never flew Virgin Americas and what a surprise to see its safety video, definitely
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creative way of turning boring into something "people will engage".
Like(1) Reply 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A
George MacGregor
KTP Associate - Composites Engineer at Cobham Mission Equipment
The one I can't suffer is "we're having problems with our system". It's the go to excuse when
people either haven't bothered to read their email or can't be bothered to do the work because
it's tedious/troublesome. I had this repeatedly from an estate agent, which became remarkable
when they kept using it for months!
Like(1) Reply 1 hour ago
Sahar S.
Sanuri Perera
Graduate in training at Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka
That was some great insight. Glad that there are such interesting articles. Thanks for sharing!!
Like(1) Reply 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A
Sherie Harkcom
Business Development
Brilliant, Loved the video!
Like(1) Reply 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A
akinola williams
Agent coordinator/marketing executive at Accessmoreinfo
very good,will definitely help out in some situations.
Like(1) Reply 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A
Sipho Ndlovu
Founder at Kasi Media House
very amazing
Like(1) Reply 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A
Apex Tang
project engineer at Fufantooling
Good, that's very useful for me, thanks!
Like(1) Reply 1 hour ago
Bharath Raj A
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