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Can You Still Deliver Personal Service When You Can’t Personally Do To It All Yourself?

I can vouch for the scenario I just painted above because I’ve been there. Actually, I’m still there in many ways.

And now I tell this story to everyone who needs swag. In
fact I tell this story every time we’re talking about telephone menu systems.
Or customer service. By providing remarkable customer service, they’ve gotten
me to remark about it.

When customers have a problem and you fix it, they’re
actually going to be even more satisfied than if they never had a problem in
the first place.

Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to actually make
something go wrong, just so we have a chance to demonstrate our superior
customer service. Many customers just won’t call; they’ll fume quietly.

But when someone does call, look at it as a great opportunity
to create fanatically devoted customer, one who will prattle on and on
about what a great job you did.

The bottom line is that this is not good for business, and
it’s not even good for your emotional well-being. When you win a victory with a
customer by firing them, you still end up feeling riled up and angry, they’ll
get their money back from the credit card company anyway, and they’ll tell a
dozen friends. As Patrick McKenzie writes,
“You will never win an argument with your customer.”

There is only one way to survive angry customers
emotionally: you have to realize that they’re not angry at you; they’re angry
at your business, and you just happen to be a convenient representative of that
business.