The Personal Experience Factor

I am spending some time updating old posts and found a link to this blog and this story which we all can learn from:



20/20 Customer Service

“Thank you for calling 1-800-CONTACTS. My name is Tracee. How may I help you?”

A live voice! Imagine that. Maybe it was just a really, realistic recording.

“Hello,” the voice was practically singing. “This is Tracee.”

Convinced it was a live human, I responded. “Hello. My name is Mike Dandridge and I’m a moron.”

The friendly voice laughed and said, “Oh, I find that highly unlikely, Mr. Dandridge.”

“Just wait. You haven’t heard my story. You’ll change your mind. You see, I ordered my disposable contacts online because I figured that if I tried to order over the phone, I’d go through voice mail purgatory. Well, I ordered the wrong contacts and didn’t figure it out until I’d thrown out the last pair of my old ones. So, I called your company and someone took care of it immediately – got the right ones on the way, and sent a “Return” for the ones I’d ordered by mistake. When I received the correct contacts, I tore open the boxes and put in a new pair. That was a month ago. This morning, I decided it was time to dispose of the ones I’d been wearing. But then, after I inserted the new ones, I couldn’t see a thing. After I looked again at the box, it dawned on me what I’d done. I had kept the contacts I’d ordered wrong in the first place and sent back the correct lenses by mistake. Like I said, ‘I’m a moron.’”

“Not at all, sir,” she insisted. Then she laughed – not in a mean-spirited way or anything, just sort of a sympathetic giggle. Then she said, “I’m sorry for the mix-up. After all you’ve been through; let’s get you taken care of right now.”

Two days later, the new contacts were in my hands. Two days after that, a handwritten Thank You note arrived from Tracee, with an apology for “all the confusion,” and a five-dollar gift certificate. Either by intuition, or instruction, Tracee completed five small steps that made the transition from set-back to solution appear seamless. Here they are:

1. Empathize. Become an advocate, an ally for your customer, not an adversary. She sympathetically saw the humor in the situation, yet she took seriously the problem.
2. Take ownership of the situation. Do whatever is within your power to fix the problem. If you’re the boss, empower your employees to do the same. She didn’t pass me off to another department. Didn’t say, let me get back to you. She fixed it. Right then.
3. Lessen the customer’s inconvenience in body, mind, and currency. The last thing your customer wants is a recitation of shoulds and shouldn’ts from your company’s return policy. She understood the importance to me of having the correct lenses and she made true on her promise to provide a quick resolution. Plus, she gave me a $5 discount. It’s not much, but where do you think I’ll place my next order for contacts?
4. Manage the memory of the customer. Take the sting out of a negative experience. When I got off the phone with Tracee, my wife asked, “What are you smiling about.” I’m sure I’ll be telling this story in the future wearing the same idiotic grin.
5. Extend the experience. Offer an invitation, an enticement, a reason for your customer to return. Think of it as a courtship. A handwritten Thank You Card? Who sends handwritten cards anymore? Exactly.

Note that she would have followed this same procedure had her company made the mistake instead of me. It’s never a good idea to assume that everyone in your company intuitively knows what to do when something bad happens to a good customer. They don’t. It’s important to have a systematic outline for dealing with potential problems. Share these steps with your colleagues or staff, because no matter how much you pride yourself on your service, eventually something will go wrong. It may even be the customer’s fault. It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re prepared to resolve any setback – when good things go bad.

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