Dealing with irate customers, making unhappy customers happy, and making happy customers even happier are all variations on the same theme—typically they differ by degree only. In fact, it may be easier to make unhappy customers happy than to make happy customers even happier. Read on to see how you can best deal with the distinctions that separate one scenario from the other.

Making Unhappy Customers Happy
In most cases, unhappy customers will want to tell you why they are unhappy—even if you already know the reason. They will want to “get their two cents in,” even before they allow you to speak. This is fine; it is part of their venting, and they will expect you to stop and listen. This is the good time for you to listen and observe.

The best way to make unhappy customers happy is to convince them that you are working on their behalf to resolve their problems and that you are not interested in taking an adversarial position. The services world too often segregates itself into an “us vs. them” scenario, but the sooner we show our customers we are on their side, the sooner we can make them happy.

Provided below are some guidelines for accomplishing this:

• Listen to what they have to say, and listen attentively. If they do not believe you are paying full attention to them, they will become even less happy.
  
• Accept full responsibility for resolving any open issues, and be gracious in accepting blame wherever it is justified. Customers will not tolerate any finger-pointing—especially at themselves.
  
• Explain, to the best of your knowledge, what happened, why it happened, what you plan to do about it, when it will be resolved, and how you will ensure that it never happens again—if it is, in fact, something that you can help prevent in the future.
  
• Just as machines sometimes require tender loving care, so do humans. Treat your customers with the level of care and assistance they require in order to soothe their apparent frustrations.
  
• From the beginning, let them know you are focused on resolving any open issues as quickly as possible. Let them know you are working on their behalf and that you will not be happy until they are completely satisfied.
  
• If any issues are temporarily unresolved, assure them that you will get back to them with a final solution as soon as possible—and then follow up as promised.

A customer only has reason to remain unhappy for as long as his problem remains a problem. The greater the problem and the longer it takes to resolve, the longer it will remain at the forefront of his mind and the longer it will plague your overall relationship with that customer.

Making Happy Customers Even Happier
The primary difference between making unhappy customers happy and making happy customers even happier is the point of initiation. With unhappy customers, even if you did not know why they were unhappy before speaking with them, you can be certain that you soon will learn the reason for their unhappiness. Once you know why they are unhappy, it is relatively easy to plot a course of action to convert them into a happy customer.

It may be more difficult to make a happy customer even happier. The best approach for making happy customers even happier is to focus on the following guidelines:

• Make sure you understand how your customers use the products and services you provide. Make suggestions occasionally on how they can improve efficiency, save money, or reduce waste, for example.
  
• Understand the difference between what your customers want and what your customers need. Provide targeted information and advice they can use that directs them to focus more on what they need than on what they think they want.
  
• Understand your customers’ plans for future utilization, expansion, or consolidation, and make the appropriate recommendations for updating or modifying their existing service level agreements or upgrading to newer or different models.
  
• Keep track of the things you have done in the past to make them happy; do more of the same, and learn what other things or actions also would make them happy.
  
• Customers love to feel they are getting something for nothing. For example, most customers gladly will accept any documentation or materials you believe may help them utilize their equipment more efficiently.
  Customers also love to hear what other users like themselves are doing with the same equipment. Without divulging any proprietary information, occasionally provide your customers with examples of what some other companies are doing to improve efficiency, save money, or reduce waste.
  
• Provide your customers with new product or service information before it is widely disseminated. Customers always enjoy receiving information before it is distributed to the general public.
• Present a more personal side of yourself to your customers in order to establish a closer, less formal relationship. Be careful not to get too personal, just close enough so that they feel they can depend on you to act as their surrogate within your company whenever a problem becomes larger than you or they can handle alone.
  
• Strive toward making your relationships with your customers true partnerships rather than that of just a vendor-customer—this is the true essence of customer relationship management.

Of course, these guidelines are just that, guidelines. You should always rely on your own experience, expertise, and instincts when initially assessing a problem and determining the appropriate course of action. If you are going to succeed in establishing a true partnership with your customers, you must first have both the capability and the confidence to use your own judgment in making your happy customers even happier.

About William K. Pollock……………………………………………………

William K. Pollock is president of Strategies For GrowthSM (SFGSM), a Westtown, Pennsylvania-based services consulting firm specializing in strategic business planning, services marketing, CRM consulting, market/survey research, and customer satisfaction measurement and tracking programs. Bill may be reached at 610-399-9717, wkp@s4growth.com, or visit the com­pany’s Web site at www.s4growth.com.