How to Turn Customer Problems into a Delight

By Kristina Evey • April 8th, 2010

I recently gave a webinar to a local malpractice insurance carrier’s clients. The subject was a template process to handle upset patients with empathy in order to reduce malpractice claims. I also wrote a long article for their publication to be distributed to their clients. The insurance carrier did compensate me for the webinar and promised to include my contact information should any of their clients wish to contact me regarding my coaching programs.

The newsletter publication arrived today and the article spanned the both the inside and back covers. It is a very professional publication and quite well respected. However, when I noticed my byline, my name was correct, but the company name was incorrect. I own Centric Strategies. The company name listed was similar, but not that. Also, there was no website address, phone number, or email address provided for contact information. So, not only was there no way for people to contact me for my services, they couldn’t even look me up by the company name.

I do have an excellent working relationship with this insurance carrier and wanted to see how this could be fixed. I’ve been receiving more requests for coaching lately and wanted potential clients to have a way to contact me. I contacted my client and asked her if she had seen the actual newsletter. She pulled it out while we were on the phone and immediately saw what I was referring to. She was very embarrassed that it had been missed. She genuinely apologized and said how sorry she was. She said she didn’t know what to do at this point.

Before I contacted her, I already had an idea in mind. The funny part was that she followed the service recovery response template I had covered in the webinar and asked me what I would like to see done. I offered my idea and she whole heartedly agreed. She also provided additional avenues to provide my contact information to their clients an even offered to promote my upcoming speaking events locally.

The last two solutions she offered were not even in my mindset when I made my initial call. I was very appreciative and happy with the outcome. I laughed and told her that she must have taken notes because she did exactly what I had outlined during the original webinar and article. She said “Well, like you said, I want to make it better than right and want to make sure that I can more than make up for it. You provide a great service to us and I want to do whatever it takes to continue this relationship.”

Those words were gold to me. She took my disappointment and turned it around to the point to where I am actually happy that it happened. I’m getting a bit more than I originally had hoped for and know that she values me and the help I give them.

In business, we need to think the same way. When there is an issue with a customer, more than solve it for them. Make them happy that there was an issue because you surpassed any expectation they had. This is only one method of delivering excellent service. Even though the initial transaction was not stellar, you can always turn that into an opportunity to increase customer satisfaction from the back end. Not only does customer satisfaction increase at this point, but so does customer loyalty.

A customer who has had an issue properly resolved will be far more loyal to you than a satisfied customer who has never had an issue.