Building a strong group of customer service representatives will likely improve your business’s reputation. Unfortunately, your employees can’t make the right decisions all the time. Eventually, someone will make a mistake that disappoints a customer. Of course, you’ll also face moments when customers have inflated expectations that you cannot meet.
Despite this, some companies don’t invest time and money in winning back customers who feel disappointed. They might make a meager effort to appease the buyer, but they don’t want to spend much of their resources placating an upset customer.
A report from the Harvard Business ReviewOpens a new window explains why it’s a good idea to win back lost customers instead of letting them go. In the long run, your efforts to win back those customers will likely lead to earning more money, spending less on marketing campaigns and developing a brand identity that people trust.
Try the following five strategies to win back your customers who feel disappointed.
Learn More About the Customer’s Experience
You can’t fully address a problem until you know about the customer’s experience. Some companies have questionnaires that they use to gather information from upset customers. Other companies trust their customer service representatives to gather information through conversation.
The approach that works better for your company probably depends on several factors, like how many employees you have and how experienced your customer service reps are.
The most important thing is that you learn the customer’s story so you can establish a follow-up plan that will win back the person’s business.
Offer the Customer a Sincere Apology
Everyone makes mistakes, so you might as well admit it and offer an apology. Make sure, however, that you only extend sincere apologies (even if you think the customer’s at fault).
Typically, people respond well to apologies from companies. An apology shows that you care about the customer’s feelings and makes it clear that your business accepts blames for its mistakes.
If you don’t apologize, then you will probably lose dissatisfied customers forever.
Empathize With the Customer’s Predicament
Customer service reps dealing with upset customers need to show empathy to the person’s predicament. All shoppers have had unpleasant experiences. You can train your staff members to use their own experiences to empathize with customers.
Empathizing only takes a few seconds. The small effort humanizes your company and reminds the customer that the mistake probably doesn’t matter that much. For instance, if a customer receives the wrong item, your customer service reps may say something like, “Yeah, that’s happened to me before. It’s pretty annoying!â€
Suddenly, you have an open line of communication that makes it easier to gather information from the customer and reestablish a positive relationship.
Solve the Problem as Well as You Can
Disappointed customers often just want you to solve their problems. They’re not interested in sullying your reputation on social media or avoiding your business forever, but they do feel that they deserve some justice.
In a lot of cases, you can’t solve a specific problem. If your shipping department sent a package late, you can’t turn back time to eliminate the issue. You can, however, find innovative ways to make customers feel satisfied.
Some rather simple ways to solve customer service problems include:
- Offering a free gift card.
- Paying for next-day delivery on a late item.
- Letting customers keep inaccurately sent products.
- Replacing damaged products as quickly as possible.
Follow Up With Disappointed Customers
Customers respond to disappointment in a variety of ways. Some of them will immediately vow to avoid your company forever. Other shoppers will shrug their shoulders, admit that mistakes happen and go on with their lives.
Regardless of how your disappointed customers react, you need to follow up with them to make sure you’ve done everything possible to earn their trust. How you contact customers often depends on a person’s age.
According to some researchOpens a new window , nearly 70 percent of shoppers between 18 and 34 years old prefer communicating via email, about 30 percent like getting postal mail, more than 30 percent prefer social media communications and 28 percent like receiving text messages.
Seventy-eight percent of consumers between 35 and 45 years old prefer communicating with companies via email, 42 percent prefer postal mail and 21 percent prefer text messages.
When communicating with customers between 45 and 54 years old, 76 percent of them prefer email, 50 percent prefer postal mail and 20 percent prefer text messages.
In the 55 to 64 age group, 69 percent prefer email, 60 percent prefer postal mail and none of them want to get text messages.
Since there’s a lot of diversity in each group, you may want to ask individual customers how they prefer to communicate with businesses. When in doubt, send an email.
In your follow-up communication, make sure you readdress the customer’s issue, provide another apology and offer to make the situation right in whatever way you can.
Losing a customer can cost your business a significant amount of money because you’ve lost the business of someone who already knows your brand, products and services. Even if you have to devote time and money to win them back, you should make a reasonable effort. After all, it’s almost always easier to sell to customers who know you than to find new customers who aren’t familiar with your brand.