As leaders, we tend to think in terms of perfection. We typically aim to design systems that help us avoid errors and mistakes. That’s especially true in engineering and science-based disciplines like brain and rocket science–areas you can’t afford to misstep.
But you and your team will likely make mistakes when it comes to servicing customers. The good news is that this might be just the kind of opportunity you were looking for to build loyalty.
Let me explain.
1. To err is human.
Look, humans make mistakes. If it wasn’t already obvious enough, this has been proven by a bunch of research. When viewed for their probability of making mistakes, humans are three standard deviations from the average on a normal distribution, which means, even in the best case, we’ll see one mistake for every thousand actions.
In other words, we’re going to see plenty of mistakes on a daily, weekly, and annual basis. The trick for leaders is to look for opportunities to make these mistakes open. Look for ways to turn those mistakes into opportunities to create lifelong customers.
2.You can turn things around.
I came across this idea in an article in Harvard Business Review called “The Profitable Art of Service Recovery.” It was reinforced by Jay Baer’s excellent book, Hug Your Haters.
The key takeaway from the piece is that some of the best ways to create loyal customers is to do your best to recover from a bad situation.
Consider an example where you check into a local tanning salon. After you head back to the room, you know something is wrong immediately. It smells like cigarettes, but you also notice that the bed isn’t clean, and dirty towels are still lying on the floor. Your salon room wasn’t cleaned.
You’re frustrated as you walk out to the front desk to complain. Imagine your surprise when the salon manager apologizes profusely as he takes your things and escorts you to your new room–a fancy suite with the brand-new equipment, spotlessly clean.
The room is nice, and things get even better when the manager tells you he is also comping the session. He shakes your hand and wishes you a pleasant session. The complimentary champagne shows up 10 minutes later as you consider what an excellent salon you are in.
How do you think you’d feel after that kind of experience? Do you think you’d be happy enough to tell some friends about your experience? That salon manager turned a bad situation around, perhaps winning a customer for life and even generating additional business from your friends.
3. Look for opportunities that make it easier for you to turn it around.
There are ways to measure these kinds of interactions. For example, one tool that organizations use is Net Promoter Score, NPS. In this tool, you ask customers how likely they are to recommend your business to a friend, using a scale of 1 to 10.
While it’s great to celebrate the customers who give you scores higher than 8, it’s the ones giving you 2s and 3s who are what some experts call potential terrorists to your brand. These people are so unhappy with you that they go out of their way to tell their friends how bad you are.
Now, think about how those same people could be turned into opportunities to create customers for life. That’s why it’s just as important for leaders to spend as much time designing processes for recovery as they do trying to avoid mistakes.
A great example, which I discuss in my book, Great CEOs Are Lazy, comes from the legendary supermarket Stew Leonard’s. The store designed a customer service recovery process where every employee is given leeway to spend up to $500 to help solve customers’ problems and create tremendous service opportunities. You can turn an NPS of 2 into a nine or even a 10.
The Bottom Line…?
The next time your team slips up when it comes to serving your customers, because there will be a next time, don’t miss the chance to use it as an opportunity to build customer loyalty instead.
