After the recent JetBlue customer service nightmare, it appears everyone is talking about customer service. This is a good thing! It is the perfect time for you to evaluate how you handle customer crisis in your business.

When mistakes are made, companies fall into one of three categories. Businesses will:

• Ignore the problem
• Only address the problem if a customer complains
• Proactively identify and correct the problem

Ignore the Problem

To ignore or even deny that a problem has occurred is very dangerous. At best, your customers will abandon you. At worst, they will share their story with the world and you’ll have a public relations fiasco on your hands. When mistakes are made, don’t ignore them! Face them head on.

No Complaints = No Problem

If you never hear from customers about a problem, does that mean you don’t have any problems? No. For every vocal customer that complains, there is a hidden army of silent customers that simply walk away and take their business elsewhere. Only waiting to hear from customers does not give you a realistic view of your operations. Yes, you should handle customer complaints with style, but that can’t be your only policy.

Proactive Customer Service

Business Week magazine this week has a cover story titled “Customer Service Champs.” The opening paragraph of that article highlights Southwest Airlines for their proactive customer service:

Bob Emig was flying home … on Southwest Airlines … when an all-too-familiar travel nightmare began to unfold. After his airplane backed away from the gate, he and his fellow passengers were told the plane would need to be de-iced. When the aircraft was ready to fly two and a half hours later, the pilot had reached the hour limit set by the Federal Aviation Administration, and a new pilot was required. By that time, the plane had to be de-iced again. Five hours after the scheduled departure time, Emig’s flight was finally ready for takeoff.

A customer service disaster, right? Not to hear Emig tell it. The pilot walked the aisles, answering questions and offering constant updates. Flight attendants, who Emig says “really seemed like they cared,” kept up with the news on connecting flights. And within a couple of days of arriving home, Emig, who travels frequently, received a letter from Southwest that included two free round-trip ticket vouchers. “I could not believe they acknowledged the situation and apologized,” says Emig. “Then they gave me a gift, for all intents and purposes, to make up for the time spent sitting on the runway.”

Emig’s “gift” from the airline was … standard procedure for Southwest Airlines, which almost six years ago created a new high-level job that oversees all proactive customer communications with customers. Fred Taylor, who was plucked from the field by President Colleen C. Barrett to fill the role in 2001, coordinates information that’s sent to all frontline reps in the event of major flight disruptions. But he’s also charged with sending out letters, and in many cases flight vouchers, to customers caught in major storms, air traffic snarls, or other travel messes–even those beyond Southwest’s control–that would fry the nerves of a seasoned traveler. “It’s not something we had to do,” says Taylor. “It’s just something we feel our customers deserve.”

In this story, Southwest didn’t wait around to hear about complaints and they surely didn’t ignore problems. They had established company policies to proactively seek out and handle any problems or perceived problems with customers.

Because your customers were dealing with your company at the time things went bad, regardless of whether or not it was your fault, they had a bad experience. To handle a bad situation proactively, you need to handle all problems: both your mistakes and the side effects of events outside of your control.

Uncontrollable circumstances will happen on your watch. Take care of the customer during these times and they will grow into your loyal fan club.

• JetBlue’s Video Apology - Church of the Customer Blog —
  JetBlue’s CEO addresses their recent flight cancellation nightmare. He follows Washington’s advice about handling mistakes. Lesson #1: Learn from your mistakes!
• Seven steps to remarkable customer service —
  Have your customer service handled by those who can solve the problem. The more disjoint your front line support is from those that can actually fix the problem, the more likely things will never get fixed. You’ll end up supporting the same issues over and over again.
• Creating Passionate Users: What tail is wagging the "user happiness" dog? —
  Don’t let your company policies or infrastructure problems dictate the customer experience. The customer’s experience, not your internal shenanigans, should drive your products and services.

When customers call your company, they often get put on hold. What do they hear?

Is it annoying? Is it something the customer wants to hear?

Have you ever called your company to see what the “on hold” experience is like?

Hold Music

In Call Center Chronicles Episode 1: Nabisco, I endured a few minutes of hold time.

While I waited on the phone, an automated voice would interrupt every so often to say thanks for waiting. After this recorded message, the music would start over. Nabisco played the same tune, same stanzas, and same notes over and over again.

Music is fine for waiting customers but please don’t play a broken record!

Set Expectations

I maintain a website hosted with Hostway. A recent problem required that I call their technical support.

The hold message kept me informed of my progress. As my position in the queue changed, I’d hear this message: “You are caller #13. Current estimated hold time: 6 minutes”

As I progressed towards the front of the line, my wait times and my caller number decreased.

Just like being in a line at a local store, I could clearly see how many people were ahead of me and I could gauge my wait time.

How many times have you called a company, been put on hold, and had no idea how long you’d be stuck there? Hostway solved that problem very effectively and was able to continually set my expectations.

Use Time Wisely

Since most phone systems throw you into a black hole of waiting, imagine your customer’s surprise when they get something different.

Make your goal of the inevitable caller wait time this: ease the customer’s burden. How can you inform, help, educate, or even entertain your customers while they wait to speak with you?

Today is President’s Day here in the United States and we celebrate the birthday of our first President, George Washington.

Last year, we saw the advice we’d get if George Washington was CEO of your company. This year, let’s look at how George would handle mistakes.

Gracefully Handle Mistakes

To err is natural; to rectify error is glory.

You and your business will make mistakes. This is inevitable. You can prevent some mistakes by being prepared. However, be ready to react when problems arise.

How can you “rectify error?”

• Admit the error. Don’t just ignore it or brush it aside.
• Apologize to the customer.
• Make the customer’s pre-error expectations a reality.
• Compensate the customer for the inconvenience.
• Prevent the error from happening again.

Learn Your Lesson

We ought not to look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dear-bought experience.

There is no need to look back in despair at the mistakes of the past. You can learn from them. Your business will have the occasional fires flare up that have to be addressed. You’ll need to dedicate your resources to the immediate resolution of the issue.

Once the problem is fixed, you can look back and see what lessons there are to learn:

• Why did the error happen?
• What were the warning signs of the impending error?
• What can we change to prevent the problem from happening again?

• How to deal with abusive customers —
  Sometimes you have to weigh company policy, customer requests, and your own sanity. When things turn ugly, what should you do with the customer? This post and the comments offer a great discussion on this topic.
• It Happened To Your Competitors; It Can Happen To You —
  Are you paying attention to the mistakes your competitors make? There is no reason you should fall in those same traps. Observe, analyze, and react accordingly. This may involve changing your processes or even the status quo.

Think of the last time you called a company’s toll free number. You probably were greeted by an automated voice that stated the “call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes.”

If my calls are monitored, what happens when I get so frustrated that I hang up? In these cases it should be obvious to an observer that my problem was not solved and that unless something changes, I’m left with a very bad taste in my mouth.

Shouldn’t I get a call back from a manager? Shouldn’t I get an apology? Or better yet, a solution to my problem?

If my call is monitored, it should be easy to review, analyze, and solve my problem before calling me back.

Unfortunately, you’ll never get this follow-up phone call. You’re more likely to get a call from a telemarketer than the company with whom you initiated contact.

Imagine your customer’s surprise if you followed up a bad customer experience with a phone call that solved the problem.

Are you monitoring your communications with customers? If not, pull your head out of the sand!

If you are monitoring, do you take action on the problems you see? Please say “yes!”

Taking action by changing your process, training, or scripts is a good thing. Don’t forget, however, about the customers that took the brunt of your mistakes. Get back to them with a solution.

Why is it that companies make the sign-up process as easy as possible but always seem to forget that sometimes people want to leave?

You’re Trapped

Once upon a time I had an American Express credit card. I got it for the Delta SkyMiles and when my first year was up, I didn’t want to keep it and pay the annual fee. When I called American Express, they told me that I couldn’t “cancel” my account but that they could convert me to a regular card. What? I want to “cancel,” as in close my account. I wasn’t sure how that translated to “downgrade my account” to a regular card.

No Problem

In contrast, I recently called Sporting News magazine to cancel my subscription. The agent on the phone asked if I wanted that to happen immediately or when my subscription ran out. I choose the latter and he cheerfully obliged and said that was recorded in my account. That was it.

When the call ended, I was quite shocked. He didn’t ask why I wanted to leave and never tried to persuade me to change my mind. Painless. Excellent.

Ease the Transition

Failure to provide an easy escape route for customers is like kicking them on the way out. Will they ever return? Probably not.

What if you were nice to canceling customers? What if you even helped them cancel and move on? The customer is then left with a good experience that makes it that much easier to return to your business.

Take a look at a few other cancellation process examples in action:

• Excellent: Feedburner’s step-by-step guide to canceling (including how they help along the way)
• Good and Bad: Netflix (good) vs. Audible (bad)
• Bad: 1&1 Hosting Cancellation

Don’t burn your bridges with customers because they may need your services again. When that time comes, they will think of you. How they think of you will determine if they come back or head down the street to the competition.

Choose wisely how you want to be remembered.

• Carnivale of Customer Service: The Marketing Edition —
  Becky Carroll hosted the Carnivale of Customer Service and focuses on the intersection of marketing and customer service. You are always marketing your company, especially during interactions with customers.
• The Epitome of a Leader —
  Tony Dungy, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, won his first Super Bowl by sticking to his core values and principles. Any leader would be wise to mimic the characteristics described in this article.
• Eight Critical Customer Service Skills —
  These points have helped make Enterprise Rent-A-Car the most successful rental company today. Their overall philosophy is to not only satisfy customers but to exceed their expectations.

When is the last time someone graciously accepted your thanks?

If you say “thank you” or “thanks,” what is the usual response?

• sure
• no problem
• yup
• uh-huh
• a smile
• a head nod
• a grunt

Or are you met with silence? No reaction?

How should you accept a person’s thanks? Let’s look at two examples:

My Pleasure

During every trip to my local Chick-fil-a restaurant, I say thanks to the cashier. The response is always the same: “my pleasure.” Since I never hear this response elsewhere it always catches my attention.

It should be our pleasure as businesses to serve our customers. After all, they do pay us and are really the whole reason we are working and surviving.

By saying “my pleasure,” you have to actually think about what you’re doing. Are you taking joy and satisfaction in how you work? Are you really happy that you can help customers?

You’re Welcome

In the movie Take the Lead, actor Antonio Banderas portrays a dance instructor who goes out of his way to say “thank you” and actively encourages others to say “you’re welcome.” If someone he thanked didn’t respond, he’d say a dramatic “you’re welcome” for them.

Banderas’ character reminds us that it is a common courtesy (although not so common nowadays) to accept other’s expressions of gratitude with a hearty “you’re welcome.”

Respond

Any way you choose to respond to customers, saying “my pleasure” or “you’re welcome” will force you to:

• Talk to the customer as a real person
• Remind you why you’re working
• Remind you of who you are serving

How many times have you researched a purchase online, just to go down to the store so you could personally inspect, hold, touch, or try on the product?

As an online merchant, how can you help your customers feel confident enough in your product to make the purchase without having personally seen or touched your merchandise?

A recent Entreprenuer magazine article discusses the need to make your online offerings “wow” customers:

Now that most of your customers have broadband, your site should offer rich media features such as zoom, virtual e-catalogs and dynamic color-swatching. “It’s basically a must-have for many retailers, especially those where touch and feel are critical to product conversion, says Sucharita Mulpuru, … “Anyone in this space who doesn’t have features such as zoom and alternative views is seen as being really behind.

Example #1: Dell

Although I’ve had my share of trouble with Dell’s customer service, their website does a good job of helping you see the product before you buy. Some techniques they use include:

• 360 degree views of the products where you can rotate the product
• Several product images from different angles
• Detailed specifications and pictures of all the plugs and cable jacks

You can basically take a product, spin it around and truly see what you’ll be getting out of the box.

Example #2: Lands End

Clothing retailer Lands End creates an online environment where you can get as close to trying on your purchase as possible. They feature:

• A virtual model of you that you can use to “try on” clothes
• A detailed zoom feature on product pages that lets you see not just the overall pattern but down to the type of grain on the fabric
• If the previous features aren’t enough, you can order a free swatch of fabric to physically inspect before purchasing.

These two companies offer a variety of options to help customers visualize and even try on their products — all online. Each feature will likely help different types of customers. The more visual aids you provide customers, the more likely they’ll be confident about their online purchase. Confident online shoppers will skip the trip to the store and buy directly from you today.