Facilitating Good Customer Service

Do you deal with a lot of consumer complaint situations? I’m talking about the ones where you’re the consumer and you’re complaining.

I’m a magnet for lousy customer service. Almost every day, something happens where I need to follow up to get the service or product I was promised. Today it was my laptop and my doctor’s office. And it’s only Monday.

As a consumer, you’re probably not going to change the system that gave you poor service. But you can change how you work with their system to meet your needs. Here are a few of the lessons I’ve learned:

Have compassion for the person you’re complaining to.

I know it sounds strange to show compassion to the organization that gave you poor service, but hear me out. If you’re on the phone with an organization of any decent size, you’re probably talking with a customer service representative. Getting angry may feel good, but it doesn’t help. Chances are, the representative didn’t personally cancel your flight, disconnect your cable service, or lose your FedEx package in Amsterdam.

The customer rep is your partner in solving your problem. If you take out your frustration on her, you easily contribute to her getting defensive – and reduce the chance that you can work together to craft a solution that works for you and the organization. If you’re feeling frustrated, say so, and explain exactly what has happened to lead you to feel that way. I often say something like, “I know you didn’t personally disconnect my service, but it’s really frustrating for me”.

Share your view and ask for a response.

A lot of times customers don’t get their needs met because they don’t ask the customer service rep to respond. Just today, I was talking to my laptop manufacturer, explaining that I did not receive a CD that was supposed to have been shipped with my laptop. When the representative said he needed to have a request that the auditors would consider “legitimate”, I asked him, “Is there anything about what I’ve told you that you don’t consider legitimate?” He agreed that my request was legitimate and as a result, we were able to move forward. I often start a conversation by saying, “I need to speak to someone who has the authority to “x”, do you have the authority to do this, or do I need to talk with someone else?” This saves a lot of time on the phone.

Identify interests.

I once brought a suit into my dry cleaner and they lost the suit jacket. When I asked the owner to reimburse me for the suit, he asked how old the suit was. I told him it was about 18 months old and asked why he was asking. He said, “Well according to the Dry Cleaning Association Depreciation Tables, the suit is worth only 50% of its original value.” He was focused on how much the suit was worth. I shared with him my interests, which were using a dry cleaner that was convenient for me (his was) and that cleaned clothes quickly and well (his did). I told him that I was satisfied with his dry cleaning, and would continue to take my clothes there, assuming they continued to do a good job and he didn’t lose any more of my clothes. When I asked him what his interests were, he told me that he wanted to maintain my business and he didn’t want to be taken advantage of.

I suggested that by focusing on the depreciated value of my suit, he was discounting his own interest of maintaining me as a customer. I said that my wife and I brought in dry cleaning almost every week, and that we planned to live in the same location for at least the next 20 years. At that rate, the cost of replacing my suit was a small price to pay for maintaining me as a customer. I also said that one of my needs was that he recognized the extra effort it would take me to purchase a new suit. By the end of the conversation, he had agreed to pay for the replacement value of my suit. He also gave me a $20 store credit to recognize the effort it would take me to get a new suit.

Understand how their system works.

For months I had intermittent problems receiving my newspaper. I couldn’t understand why my multiple complaints were not having a cumulative effect. Only when I asked the customer service manager to explain how their system worked, did I learn that the company reset the “complaint clock” if I went four weeks without reporting a problem with the paper delivery. Knowing this information, I was able to work with the manager to come up with a solution to my problem. Of course, people will be much more willing to explain how the system works if you have shown compassion.

Jointly design ways to test disagreements.

In one of my classic customer complaint situations, I bought a sofa that squeaked. When I informed the store owner, he told me that my sofa was just like the other ones he sold. I suggested that we jointly design a way to see whether my sofa was just like the ones he sold. I proposed that we test three similar sofas in his warehouse and see if they squeaked and then we sit in my sofa to see if it squeaked. If mine squeaked and the others didn’t, then we could conclude that mine was below standard and I would get a new sofa for nothing. If the warehouse sofas also squeaked, then I’d have to pay more money if I wanted a sofa that didn’t squeak.

The key here was that the owner and I agreed on the process we would use to test our disagreement and we agreed – in advance – on what actions we would take depending on which sofas squeaked. You can use this process for any situation where you disagree on the facts and have some way of testing them out.

This approach isn’t for taking advantage of the company that gave you poor service. It’s for getting a fair deal for everyone and for maintaining your good name while doing it.

Originally published March 2006