Eighty-five percent.
Eighty-five out of a hundred.
That is the number of customers (according to Accenture) who say that they would have stayed with their vendor if – during a service crisis - the vendor had simply responded.
That’s correct! Simply responded!!
Most customers – even if they experience a service failure when doing business with you – will not move their business to a competitor if you and your employees simply respond and promptly fix the issue.
Given how difficult and expensive it can be to acquire new clients, it is vitally important to manage a service crisis properly. No matter what your company does – retail, distribution, professional services, manufacturing - there are several key facets to an effective management response to a service crisis:
1. Fix the problem as rapidly as possible. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Now. As soon as the complaint comes in, your operation needs to be all over it. It really doesn’t matter whether it was a missed delivery, a backorder that shouldn’t have happened, a broken commitment, an invoicing error, a negative interaction with a company representative – whatever category of service failure has occurred, it can be solved and you need to energetically demonstrate your “rapid response” capabilities to your customer. (Obviously, a very customer focused and service oriented company culture is a prerequisite to being able to respond this quickly.)
2. Communicate, communicate, communicate. In my experience, customer patience with (and tolerance for) failure increases dramatically when the vendor communicates clearly throughout the crisis. The vendor must provide frequent status updates on the corrective actions that are being undertaken. Most customers do not expect perfection at all times from their vendors, but they do expect to be treated like a valued client when something goes wrong.
And as you or your employees communicate with the customer during a service crisis, be absolutely certain to make it clear that your company is holding itself fully accountable for the failure and that appropriate steps are being taken to prevent a reoccurrence. These commitments to the client should come directly from the owner or senior management.
3. Once the issue is resolved, close the loop with the client. If the service failure was severe, it is more than appropriate to recap the entire incident in writing with the customer. The recap should include a description of what happened, why it happened, an apology, and steps being taken to prevent future failures. A very effective strategy – if you can make it happen – is to deliver this recap in person. Customers respect owners and managers who demonstrate that they take service quality very seriously.
4. Debrief. The military uses debrief meetings to drive continuous improvement. You should do the same. Once the client has been satisfied and the crisis has passed, pull your team together and conduct a highly structured debrief. You need to determine what it was – specifically – that caused the failure. You need to determine whether it was an isolated incident or a symptom of an underlying operational weakness. Accountability needs to be determined and dealt with appropriately – and that includes the boss! A good debrief is not a witch hunt and it is not an exercise in assigning blame. It is a fair, even handed process that helps to diagnose why the organization failed and how future failure can be avoided.
Remember – 85% of those customers who leave because of a service failure would have stayed if someone has responded!!