Being partially in the service line, I've had customers screaming in my ears over phone calls and virtually through e-mails. It's a pain, to be honest and I dread receiving complaints of any sort. Yesterday I had an upset customer who thought our service was lousy because I asked for her residential address even though she was a privilege card member. Pardon me but my memory does slip me once in a while about what I presume was a trivial detail, but to the customer, it was tantamount to a death penalty. Or so I thought from her e-mail. To rub salt to the wound, she did not receive the other e-mail which I sent in reply to her other grievance. *grits teeth* No prizes for guessing correctly. She was livid and me? *scratch scratch* Busy figuring out how to appease her. I finally decided to reply her e-mail instead of deleting everything and pretending I never received anything from her. Hah, u caught me. So hush eh?
I apologised for my thoughtlessness and kept stressing on how much we value her services. By apologising, I show a sliver of humanity and expressed honesty, inadvertently proving that no man is infallible. The lousy service suddenly became 'personalised' because someone is really listening and understands the resentment bottled up. Strike 1.
Second, reinforce the good customer service again by resending her the e-mail which she did not receive. That e-mail did a whole lot of good because it cleared up her misgivings about lopsided customer treatments between different regions. Somehow I realised that customers do not necessarily want you to agree with them on everything, despite having the age old adage "The customer is always right" booming precociously by my earside. I clarified that we run our activities in all regions placing equal importance in each and pointed out that she actually missed out on our activity which was conducted in her region just last month. See? Customer not always right, but just gently nudge them to let them know. Then inform them when they can participate in the activity again. Sincerity speaks out by itself. First we're sorry, second we sincerely want to make up for it. Strike 2.
Lastly, throw in something sweet to make them feel that they are really being appreciated. I don't know what to give initially. Planned on mailing a product sample to customer but decided not to on second thoughts. Erm, because my superiors are penny pinching trolls who prefer that we do our deeds without involving monetary properties. So I sent out something which was of educational value instead.. and prolly what the trolls would have sent out themselves s'well. But of course, I made sure that my aggrieved customer would not think too lowly of the "sweet thing".
Today, I got this swell mail which made my day a bit more bearable:
Dear Person Who Cared,
With heartfelt thanks for your explanation and apologies, my apologies too if i have been a bit harsh. Your explanation is very much justified and accepted and of course i will like to meet you in person too, do give me a personal e mail should you be in (AREA) conducting any roadshows. Too bad that i missed the last roadshow, but will definitely be there for the next one. I am a strong supporter of your roadshows, the last one i attended i managed to get a (THING).
Thanks once again for giving me an extra bonus i.e. the (SOMETHING SWEET).
God bless.
Regards, Happy Customer
Strike 3. Message went through. Mission accomplished.
Okay, I can't say this works in all cases. But after many an attempt at trying to appease an irate customer, honesty, sincerity, understanding and appreciation worked great for me by far. Hence, to that question above, I'd say "Aye!".
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