Frederick the Great once said: It is pardonable to be defeated but never to be surprised. Frederick was not talking about customer service, was he? But this quote could very well apply to a service recovery plan, yes? Except we might argue that a defeat is as bad as a surprise.
Read on: How to Build Trust to Keep Customers Returning
Be prepared is the motto of the Boy Scouts. Also applies to just about everything else we do in life.
Does your customer service prepare for contingencies? Contingencies and strategy designs for when things don’t go as planned?
We’ll use a story to explain.
A story about poor customer service and a resulting bad customer experience at a restaurant. A large group of business people had arranged to get together for lunch to celebrate a colleague’s birthday. They chose a restaurant that they hadn’t been to before, as they wanted to give it a try. Plans and reservations for the group of 25 people were made several days in advance.
Arrival at the restaurant was on time. However, despite having made the reservation, they had to wait 20 minutes before they could be seated. Once seated and menus had been handed out, the group was ignored. Everyone was hungry and ready to order. They also had a limited amount of time before everyone needed to head back to work.
A waitress finally arrived to take everyone’s order.
After waiting for longer than seemed necessary, and observing other tables get their meals ahead of theirs, the group’s meals arrived. EXCEPT ONE, for the meal ordered by the birthday guest. He didn’t receive his meal until most of the others were finished.
A complaint was lodged with the manager, with no success. He was totally indifferent to the situation. He offered no apology and, after being asked to comp that meal, refused to do so.
This bad experience triggered one of the group to write a letter to the head office of the restaurant chain. They detailed the experience and mentioned that in addition to the 25 customers they had lost directly — everyone would tell their friends they would not recommend visiting that restaurant as well.
Ultimately, that meant more customers that would be lost.
A few days later my colleague received a letter of apology in the mail and a $40 gift card.
However, they couldn’t find anyone willing to return to the restaurant to use it due to that bad experience.
Recovery plan … Key Takeaways