When Customer Service becomes Customer Repair

I visited my family for the holiday season and one the flight over the air plane company I flew with ended up turning what was expected to be a short layover of an hour into a seven hour ordeal of waiting, excuses, and ultimately poor service. Now some latitude can be given because its the holiday season so there’s more travel than usual and this can effect things badly, but when excuses keep piling up and activity doesn’t seem to be occurring, people get angrier and angrier.

Certainly the people I was waiting with got more and more frustrated as all of us were told that it was a mechanical issue, then an issue of getting paper work signed off on, and then the mechanical issue again, until finally we were directed to another plane and flown to our destination. I remember one of the people asking the stewardess of the plan if they were going to give us anything nice like a free snack or alcoholic drink for the delay and was told no. Would it have cost the airline some money to give out a free snack or alcoholic drink? Probably some, but when we compare that with the customer dissatisfaction and the propensity of those people to tell their relatives and friends, that cost is small in comparison to the loss of customers. One of the people came up with a pithy phrase using the company’s name and while we laughed, I couldn’t help but wonder how that phrase could come back to haunt that company.

Customer service sometimes has to become customer repair, where a business makes the extra effort to make up for the mistakes that occur, in order to repair the relationship with the customers. This isn’t the ideal situation and the reality is that the customer will remember that their trust was damaged. But when customer repair occurs, it shows the customer that the business is aware of the mistakes and is willing to do what is possible to repair the damage.

When a business doesn’t engage in customer service or customer repair, the likelihood of retaining the customer sharply decreases and can ultimately hurt the business. A business is only as good as its reputation with its customers and when those customers are upset they want to be heard. If the business won’t listen, they’ll find someone who will, whether it’s in person or on social media sites.

What do all of you think?

Post comment as
twitter logo facebook logo
Sort: Newest | Oldest
netpardon

Great post. Keep up the good work. For professional online reputation repair visit http://www.netpardon.com All negative search engine results can be removed

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like
TaylorEllwood

Hi Teresa,

Thanks for commenting. I agree with you on number 1. There does need to be a happy medium and a recognition from customers that sometimes stuff just happens and the company does what it can to rectify it.

And I agree new customers come along, but I also think if enough fuss is raised it can impact the business, but I think you raise some really good points here. There's definitely some truth to what you mentioned.

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like
Teresa

1. I agree 100% - there's an old saying that goes "the customer is always right". I think that saying is a little outdated for the current state of our country - I mean, there's also "nice guys finish last", but I think a happy medium is definately in order.

2. I have the day-to-day job of being a customer service rep. for a company that, as far as I'm concerned, makes some questionable choices when it comes to both customer service AND customer repair. Yes, customers are lost. New ones take their place... I think a lot of it has to do with the Wal-Mart effect.

Sadly, you get what you pay for (and in this economy, not a penny more!). Companies that charge top dollar can afford to use more face-saving measures, and be more proactive. Companies that win by undercutting the market can't afford that, but they CAN afford to do much less, because the low price will keep luring in new customers, and even make the slightly disgruntled stay (ie. This company is crap! ..oh, the competition is going to cost me 50% more? ..well, maybe I can deal with this company for just a little longer...)

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like