by Flavio Martins

It’s inevitable. Mistakes will happen. Things break, systems go down, people fail. But these moments don’t have to be disastrous, they present an opportunity to create a memorable experience.

One of my favorite phrases to recover from a problem with an upset customer is:

“Oh no! That’s terrible!”

Nothing frustrates a customer more than the feeling that the company responsible for the problem doesn’t care.

My mantra to live by is, “It’s not my fault, but it’s my problem…and I’m a rock star customer service pro so I’ll make it right.”

I like how Cheryl with ServiceUntitled puts it:

The key to controlling the situation however is to apologize immediately and to apologize directly to the customer. Make the correction and do it immediately. Employ key customer service personnel who have been trained to deal with angry customers and who have the discretionary ability to appease the customer using whatever it takes (of course within reason) to show the customer the company really cares.

Being able to offer an amazing recovering from a problem can often times create some of the most loyal customers in the future. The next time a problem arrises, you can create a memorable experience for the customer by:

– Being Personable.
– Apologizing to the customer.
– Offering the customer a solution that can be done NOW (or options for solutions).