Create Loyal Customers This Holiday Season

Think about the last time you had an exceptional customer service experience.

Now, think about the last time you had a terrible customer service experience.

Why is it more easy to think of a negative customer experiences than a positive one?

Last year, Zen Desk posted a research focused on customer service and it’s effect on business. Dimensional Research surveyed over one thousand individuals about their experiences with customer service from mid-sized companies. Here are some highlights from the findings that you should know about:

• 39% of customers avoid vendors two or more years after bad experience
• 95% of customers share bad experiences
• 87% of customers share good experiences
• 54% of customers share their bad experience with five or more people
• 33% of customer share their good experience with five or more people

Since almost 100% of your customers are going to be sharing their bad experience and nearly 40% of them are going to avoid your business for two or more years, it’s very important that your employees aren’t leaving a bad taste in your customers mouth.

The sad reality is that you can’t make all of your customers happy but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some good news from that. When a customer approaches your customer service rep or manager with a complaint it’s a great opportunity for you to show how you truly care about their business. As long as you take care of the problem quick, easy, and in a fair way for both you and the customer—especially the customer.

Next time you have a customer service issue, here is an easy acronym you can easily remember, teach, and use to turn upset customers into a lifetime customer:

Believe > Listen > Address > Solve > Thank or B.L.A.S.T.

Believe the customer

Most issues are dealt with by customer service representatives and/or a manager of some type.  It’s very easy for one of them to put up a wall when approaching a negative situation. The first thing you need to do is believe your customer—this is where the customer is always right comes from.

Listen to the customer

When you approach the customer, they’re most likely going to be upset on a scale from “you screwed up and I want it fixed” to “I hate your company and I’m never coming here again.” Just realize that the customer isn’t happy with the product, service, or situation and you need to begin with listening to them to understand why they aren’t happy.

Address the problem back to the customer

After the customer is done venting their situation, this is where you repeat the problem back to the customer  to let them know you understand. If they are upset this is a great first step at calming them down.

Solve the problem

There are many ways to solve the problem in order to change this negative experience into a positive one.  Tell them how you’re going to solve the problem and then watch. You can usually tell by their response and body language if they’re happy with solution.

Thank the customer

If you’ve followed the previous steps right your customer should be happy with the situation. The last thing you want to do is sincerely apologize one more time and thank them for their business. Without it, you wouldn’t be in business—it’s as simple as that.

Don’t be one of the businesses that doesn’t put customer service as a high priority. The acronym BLAST will change your upset customers into a loyal customer who will recommend others to your business because of how you took care of them when they had a problem with your product/service.