In the time it takes to point out a customer is wrong, you could probably just fix the issue and have a happier customer.

I went with some coworkers to a Mexican restaurant last week for lunch. When the waitress brought out our food, she put a plate of rice and beans on the table between a coworker and myself. We both thought that our meals came with these side dishes.

The waitress told us that the side dishes went with my meal. My coworker pointed out that both our meals were in the “dinner” section of the menu where it stated that all dishes came with rice and beans.

The waitress told him that his plate was different and that she would go get the menu to show him.

She returned a few minutes later and pointed out the item on the menu. From our reaction, she realized that might not have been the best decision. She returned a few minutes later with an additional plate of rice and beans.

Is it worth it?

As a company, you serve customers. Your customers may be mistaken or wrong at times but your end goal isn’t to point out those flaws. You want to keep your customers happy and spending money with you.

If a customer is wrong, ask yourself: what is the worst that can happen? Can you act in the customer’s favor without a major impact to your bottom line, fellow customers, yourself, or others? If so, swallow your pride and take action.

Don’t let a figurative cheap plate of rice and beans stand between you and a future return customer.

Prevent Confusion from the Beginning

Once the immediate customer needs are resolved, you can turn your efforts to preventing problems in the future. With the Mexican restaurant, the menu could have been more clear in its description of which side dishes were included with which entrees.

Ask your customers for feedback. You may need to rework your marketing copy, advertising, or instructions to help your customers fully understand what they should be expecting to receive.

Setting expectations is a powerful tool for setting your business up for success. However, if not used properly, things can backfire and completely undermine your customer’s trust in you.

Our recent experience with Logoworks offers another lesson in customer relations. Their automated project management site indicates when your next logo revisions will be ready for your review.

We found on more than one occasion that when we would check back at the designated time, that the deadline was magically updated and moved a few hours later.

That new time would arrive and once again, the deadline had moved.

Missed Deadlines and Customer Perceptions

How do shifting deadlines make you look to your customers? Customers will think that:

• You can’t be trusted.
• You don’t know what you’re doing.
• You give poor estimates.
• You are probably rushing to finish the job.
• Your quality may be poor since you did it at the last minute.

All of these factors combine to completely destroy any trust your customer had in your business.

The Power of Early

Now imagine that you set a deadline and deliver your project ahead of schedule. What does that make your customer think?

• You can be trusted.
• You know what you’re doing.
• Your estimates may be off, but hey, you delivered it early!
• You do what you say you will do.

What if you can’t make a deadline?

If you know that you are going to miss a deadline, tell the customer. Notify them as early in the process as possible. You want to avoid any surprises, especially near the deadline when a customer’s expectations are highest that you are about to deliver on your commitment.

Setting Expectations

Setting proper expectations will allow you to underpromise and over deliver. This sets you up to “wow” your customer with a great experience.

The one thing your customers will remember is that last few moments of your interaction with them.

Our recent family vacation took us through Las Vegas’ airport to catch a connecting flight. As we landed, one of the Southwest Airlines flight attendants started singing an Elvis song to us over the intercom. She had a beautiful voice and even customized the words to us, her beloved Southwest passengers. Her song was followed by a large round of applause from those aboard the plane.

That act of song, put a smile on many passengers faces and wrapped up that flight on a positive note.

When you end with something good, people start to forget problems or issues they may have had earlier. A happy ending can completely turn things around in your favor.

Why is that? People have short term memories. If, during your interaction with a customer, something goes really bad, that is all they think about. Until something comes along to replace their seething anger, it will linger.

You can counter a bad experience by ending with an uplifting, positive conclusion. That newer, pleasant memory will then replace the negative thoughts of earlier troubles.

People love happy endings. Shouldn’t you try to create more of them for your customers?

You probably get incoming emails and calls all the time from external and internal customers. Often, these can be reports of problems or bugs in your product or service.

I read a great blog post recently titled Are You Giving Customers a “Thanks for Letting Us Know Kiss-Off”? That question caused me to do some self-evaluation!

Some steps the author, Tom Vander Well, highlights are very applicable to how you respond when a customer reports a problem:

World-class customer service requires more than a “thanks for letting us know kiss-off”. It requires resolution:

1. Describe the exact actions that have been taken to address the issue.
2. Provide the current status of the actions being taken to resolve the issue.
3. Give an accurate estimate of the time it will take to fix the problem.
4. Promise to notify the customer when the issue is resolved.

Customers want courteous, friendly service - but it must come hand in hand with resolution of the issue!

In addition to setting customer expectations on resolution, you should always try to give them a work-around of some type.

Your users don’t really care that you have a bunch of internal processes or red tape to get through before you fix their problem. They want resolution and they want to accomplish the task your product or service was making difficult or impossible.

Help customers get their task done. Jeffrey Gitomer in his Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless suggests filling in the blanks when responding to customers:

“The best way to handle that is ______________”

“The fastest way to get that done is __________”

“The easiest way to get that is ______________”

I’ve found that it is a lot easier to deliver some bad news (like maybe we can’t fix that issue yet) when coupled with a valid solution the customer can use in the interim.

Each customer that passes through your business requires some time to service. You should be able to track that time and measure how long it takes you to serve the average customer.

Last week I took my recently purchased eyeglasses back to Lenscrafters to get them repaired. I walked into their very busy store on a Saturday afternoon. Almost every chair was taken by a customer and I knew I was in for a long wait.

One of the employees looked up from helping a customer and greeted me with “Can I help you?”

I explained the glasses I had purchased had some defects and needed to be repaired. He then told me I’d have to wait.

“How long do you think the wait will be?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” the employee sighed as he labored to visibly count all the people that were waiting. “You have three people ahead of you.”

As I walked over to the wall to stand and wait, I wondered, “Why didn’t he know how long it would take to serve three customers?”

Surely each customer takes an average amount of time to serve. You can figure out based on that time, and how many employees you have working, just how long it should take until I get helped.

However, this employee didn’t know the answer to that question. Because of this, he couldn’t set my expectation and I almost left the store because I thought it could take all afternoon.

How could this be improved?

Measure

Track how long it takes to help customers. Measure and record this data over time and you’ll see certain patterns emerging. You should identify that particular transactions typically take similar times to complete.

Why measure? Two reasons: better customer service and improved operational efficiency for your business.

Set Expectations

When you know how long it takes to help customers, you can set their expectations. A customer who knows they need to wait ten minutes might be okay if they just know that is how long it will take. The unknown factor of waiting drives customers insane.

Web hosting company Hostway used this principle to eliminate the “on hold” black hole.

Optimize

Once you know how long it takes for you to perform transactions, you can distribute your efforts accordingly. You’ll see your busy times and can schedule more staff to help.

By analyzing the process, you’ll be able to see if there are glaring inefficiencies that could be improved.

Knowing the average customer service time can really help your business shine. It will allow you to better serve customers and identify gaps in your current processes.

Last week a little neighbor girl knocked on our door. She and a friend were selling lemonade, gum, and pickles. She pointed across the street so I could see their store, which was really just a table and chair on the sidewalk.

I asked how much the gum was and told her I’d take two pieces. She scurried off and returned with my order plus some extra pieces “free of charge.” When I looked at the gum, each “piece” was really a little pack of five pieces of gum.

My two piece order had multiplied by ten. Wow! I was pleasantly surprised by the bonus and rather happy with my purchase.

This reminded me of a recent video I watched from affiliate marketer John Reese. Reese outlines why it is important to always do more than is expected of you on his blog.

If you give customers more than is expected, it reassures them that they made a good decision.

When you give your suppliers or contractors more than is expected, they are that much more likely to give you great service and support the next time you need them.

I’m sure those girls in my neighborhood didn’t attend that big affiliate marketing seminar where John Reese was speaking. Nevertheless, they mastered a principle and service philosophy that would serve any business well: always do more than is expected of you.

A consistent customer experience is paramount to your business success. Once a customer gets a taste of great service, you better keep on delivering!

Predictable Company Response

My family and I had a DiGiorno pizza this week. Unfortunately, it was missing a large section of cheese. Since I had trouble with DiGiorno in the past, I called up their customer service for help.

The person on the line might very well have been reading me the very same script I heard two years ago.

Was that a bad thing? No. The DiGiorno representative apologized and will be sending me a coupon for a free pizza. This is the same result I got the last time I had trouble with their pizza.

Here is the pattern:

1. Customer buys product
2. Product has defect
3. Customer calls customer service
4. Company apologizes and compensates customer for trouble
5. Customer buys again

Because DiGiorno treated me well, I’ve continued to purchase their product. I always knew that if there were any problems, the company would take care of me. The company that guarantees its products will earn customers for life.

Good Experience Followed by a Bad One

Let’s contrast this great example with my recent Sears nightmare.

With Sears, I’d had a good experience in the past where the company tried to make amends and give me a good deal. My most recent experience was the complete opposite.

Sears had set my expectations in the past that they would negotiate and deal on price. My last visit to Sears completely destroyed my previous favorable experience.

Secret to Success

What is the difference between the DiGiorno and Sears examples?

Consistency.

When your company is consistent and dependable over time, your customers will start to expect a certain level of service. When that happens, you’re obligated to continue at that level. If you get lazy, your customers will notice.

Build on that level of service and make yourself even better. DiGiorno has mastered the basics. They can now move on to a new, higher level of customer service. Sears, on the other hand, keeps falling back. They need to start over and do things right before they can progress.

Be consistent. Meet your customer’s expectations first, then exceed them. After that, don’t stop! Keep getting better.

Are your managers undermining the work of their subordinates? Does your company really put the customer first? Sears provides us a great example of what not to do:

This past weekend we went to Sears to buy a dishwasher. The sales associate, Brandi, was very pleasant and knowledgeable. She carefully explained all our options and helped us make a decision.

I didn’t want to pay the price they had listed. I asked Brandi what she could do for me. She reverted back to pitching Sears’ promotion-of-the-week: “buy with a Sears credit card and get a discount.” I don’t have a Sears card, nor do I want one.

Try as I may, I couldn’t get any discount out of Brandi. Unfortunately, Brandi was not empowered to do anything.

On the verge of paying for the dishwasher, I again asked what kind of discount she could give me as a loyal customer. You see, we’ve bought all our other major home appliances from Sears: washer, dryer, refrigerator, stove, and microwave. Plus our yard tools: mower and weedwacker. Not to mention clothes, tools, etc. Surely for such a loyal customer as myself, I’d get some kind of “special” treatment.

Poor Brandi said she couldn’t because her manager (she pointed to him across the way) wouldn’t go for it. I said, “Great, let’s go talk to him.”

Managers Can Completely Undo the Work of Subordinates

I introduced myself to Rod, the manager, and said, “Brandi tells me she isn’t able to offer me, a loyal customer, a discount.” I explained again about all the appliances I’ve purchased from Sears. Rod responded: “We don’t negotiate.” His response was delivered like the US Government telling a terrorist “We don’t negotiate.” Cold, stern, and with a glare in his eye.

I responded: “Well, maybe not at this location.”

Rod: “Which location are you talking about?”

I told him about the other Sears store and that they treated us very well on our last purchase.

Rod: “Hmph. That’s surprising because I was the manager at that store.”

That response set me back a bit. I thought, “What? You’re denying I had a good experience and was treated well in your store on your watch?”

His response completely defied logic and I simply had to walk away muttering, “I guess I’m going to have to reconsider my purchase.”

Customers vs. Company Policy

What went wrong in this exchange? How did I go from being happy and well-treated by Brandi to angry (with steam coming out of my ears) after talking with her manager?

Why? Because Rod, and his employer, Sears, value following company policy more than retaining a customer and closing the sale.

This sounds completely backward to me as both a customer and a small business owner. What do you think?

The Ideal Scenario

Here’s how things could have played out:

Me: “What discount can you give me, a loyal customer?”

Rod: “I really appreciate you returning to Sears for your appliance needs. It means a lot to me personally, and to our company, to have such a loyal customer as yourself. In order to be fair to all our customers, the price we have listed is the best possible price we can offer today. We do have a 30 day price guarantee. In fact, come with me, let’s go call Best Buy, Lowe’s, and Home Depot and see if they can beat our offer right now.”

Rod would then take me to an office and make the phone calls, detailing my Sears dishwasher’s specifications, and getting prices from the competition.

If anybody was lower priced, Rod would beat the price right there. If not, he would say, “Even though our competitors couldn’t beat our price today doesn’t mean they can’t have a sale next week. Our 30 day price guarantee still holds.

“Here is my card. Take it and call me if you see a lower price and I’ll personally take care of getting you a refund for the difference. In fact, by making your purchase with us today, we’ll add you to our “price watch database” where we’ll automatically send you a check if Sears sells your dishwasher for a lower price anytime during the next 30 days.”

Doesn’t that make for a more happy ending? I wish it had played out that way. Sears, are you listening?

Change Your Company Policy

What about all the other companies out there? You can beat Sears today by simply turning your attention to the customer. My “ideal scenario” was inspired by Jeffrey Gitomer’s book, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. Read that book and you’ll get inspired to “wow” your customers.

Today’s article is from guest author Margaret McCaffrey

A friend of mine recently changed jobs. When I rang to congratulate her on her new position I wondered if I’d swapped planets.

The receptionist at her new job couldn’t have been nicer, indicating in a pleasant tone that they were pleased with their new appointee and that my call was welcome. “Can I check the spelling of your name?” she asked. “Things are looking up,” I thought.

In my friend’s old job there was a labyrinth of departments and hierarchies that I had to wade through in order to make contact. When they finally did track her down, I usually had to settle for leaving her a message on voicemail.

What a difference the first point of call makes.

I realize that management experts make a business of reminding companies of this fact, but I sometimes wonder if the managing director just rang their own office – from an outside line – or visited their shop in search of their own product, they could save themselves a lot in consultancy fees, and improve sales at the same time.

Whether it is service at the make-up counter of a department store, a call to your stockbroker, or an inquiry about train scheduling, it is all the same thing – the first impression creates a lasting impact. People care about how they are treated. Good service - along with fine product - turns an enquirer into a buyer; a browser into a customer.

Customers may not always be right, but my guess is that success in the marketplace goes to the company that makes them think they are - or at least makes them feel good about being wrong.

And besides, if all other forms of persuasion fail, just remember that you never know when the customer on the other end of the phone or on the other side of the counter is going to be your boss.

About the Author:

Margaret McCaffrey is a freelance writer from Melbourne, Australia and a keen observer of human interaction and communication. She is currently researching and writing a book on the relationship between the children of World War II veterans and their fathers, and the impact war has on families.

Have you ever been so busy that your customers start feeling the pain?

This situation may be exacerbated when you have to address some customer service issues. A delay in getting a customer through your queue can leave the others who wait frustrated.

On a recent trip to the grocery store when it came time to pay, my wife was having some trouble with coupons and subsequent questions. The cashier escalated this issue to her manager. The manager then electronically transferred the transaction to another register. My wife and her cart full of groceries, all packed and bagged, left her current cashier and followed the manager to the other station.

The customers that were waiting behind my wife were then able to proceed through the checkout. Simultaneously, the manager assisted my wife and resolved the issue.

The manager here recognized two things. First, the customer (my wife) needed some time and attention. Second, others were stuck waiting for the issue to be resolved.

When you start dealing with customer issues, don’t forget all your other customers! How can you call in backup so you can deal with both the current issue and everyone else that is clamoring for your attention?