“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do.” Sound familiar? I am sure we have all heard a response like that from a business or organization after a service failure. It’s frustrating, it’s aggravating—even maddening—and it can significantly damage the relationship you have with the company or brand, sometimes forever.
Now let’s think about this experience from the opposite perspective—as the service provider. Because even when service is built into your organization’s foundational thinking, the best-designed service processes will sometimes fail.
At Disney we recognize the service failure may not always be our fault, but once it happens it IS our problem. When service failure occurs, emotions can run high—customers are likely to care as much or more about how they are treated as they do about the outcome of the matter. This is why it is crucial to see the person, not just the issue.
What if you want to resolve the situation, but you simply cannot say yes to what the customer wants? While every situation is different, there will be times when you cannot (or should not) give customers what they are asking for—you have to say no. What happens now? How do you preserve customer relationships in those situations?
At Disney Institute we believe that the heart of service recovery is pursuing the reconciliation of the relationship, not just resolution of the issue.
When you must deliver a “no” message, very often the opportunity for preserving—and strengthening—the customer relationship has just presented itself. Here are two critical components that can help you accomplish that:
- Explain the reason for the decision. Customers are generally happier with a difficult decision when they understand the reason behind it. Without an explanation, the customer may perceive you as insensitive or as hiding behind a policy—which further escalates the situation and can give you an infuriated customer.
- Provide some offsetting consideration for the customer’s disappointment. It is far too easy to say “Those are the rules” or “That’s just our policy” and leave it at that. Remember, at this point it is about saving the relationship with your customer, and an angry customer doesn’t want to hear only those words. By training service providers and empowering them with service standards and guidelines for recovery, this becomes an opportunity to offer some recompense and turn negatives into wins for your customers and your employees.
And finally, always be sure to thank the customer for bringing the problem to your attention and for working with you to resolve it.
Want to learn more? Consider enrolling in our Quality Service professional development course to further explore how to recover effectively from a service failure and turn it into an opportunity to strengthen customer relationships. Also, take a look at Why We Must Assume the Customer Experience Will Go Viral and A Perspective on “The Customer Is Always Right.”
About Disney Institute
As the trusted, authoritative voice on the Disney approach to customer experience, Disney Institute uses business insights and time-tested examples from Disney parks and resorts worldwide to help organizations develop the customer experience culture they are capable of delivering. For nearly three decades, Disney Institute has helped professionals discover ways to positively impact their organizations and the customers they serve through immersion in leadership, service, and employee engagement. Unique to Disney Institute is the opportunity to go behind the scenes in a “living laboratory” to observe firsthand how Disney methodologies are operationalized and how they can be adapted and applied to any work environment.
Let our experience change yours. To learn more about courses that explore the Disney approach, visit DisneyInstitute.com.