What do we normally do when we hear from an irate customer? The first reaction is to justify our position. No matter how much we say that “we understand your concern”, what we really do, is save ourselves. Look back at the last time you dealt with an unhappy client. What you did, and what was the reaction.
Now think how could you act differently next time? What could make it better for both you and the client?
Here are the 4 Sure Steps to Calm Down an Irate Customer:
Listen: Actively listen to the customer. Don’t get stuck in preparing your response that you don’t even listen to the client. Listen to their concern. Why are they saying this? What’s the actual problem they are facing? Repeat what the client says in your head. Paraphrase the main points back to him. Such that he knows that you understood the problem.
Take Responsibility: Take responsibility for the problem. Customer is always right, whether he is right or wrong! Take responsibility of the problem on behalf of your organization. Don’t blame it on any colleague or third party. You are the person who has the power to do something about the situation - whether you feel like it or not. So take full responsibility for the problem. Apologize.
Get Into Action: Ask questions to the client that force him to think. Figure out what will the solution to the problem and what’s the next action. Don’t just sit after listening to the client, take action to solve the problem.
Communicate: Keep the client in the loop. Communicate back your solution, the status updates on that. Keep talking till the solution is reached. Don’t leave it lose.
The problem is that we do not do what we said we would do. You can become what you want, if you do what you said you would do. We must continually review ourselves and stay in action. Keep practicing the good habits and keep rejecting the bad ones. This persistence will pay off!
But there is another fundamental question we got to ask ourselves. The question is: “Do I want to be great? Really?” Read further if your answer is “Yes!”
There is some good news! You can become great. All great people started like you and me. They had some traits that made them great.
Richard St. John, a millionaire marketer was puzzled when a small girl asked him, “What really leads to success?” Even though he achieved success, he couldn’t tell her how he did it. To answer her question he spent 10 years interviewing over 500 successful people, including Martha Stewart, Richard Branson, Russell Crowe, and the Google founders. After analyzing all the data, Richard discovered the 8-Traits that lead to great success. What he found surprised me with its simplicity! And I had no doubt that following those 8 traits will make anyone successful.
I want to share those 8 traits to become great with you. The picture below depicts the 8 traits. Clicking on the picture will take you to a video Richard made to explain the concepts. The video is wonderful and I strongly recommend watching it, and sharing it with everyone on your team.
Vaishali told me about the FWA Theater. It has a clean interface and a collection of good videos. Some of them amazed me, some of them made me laugh. Go to the Best of FWA and watch the Kitkat Ad or the Nissan Stunt! I think you will like it!
Go, the inflight magazine of AirTran Airways carries an introductory article on Mobile Web. The author Lee Gimpel contacted me for inputs a while ago and I was glad to help. Clearly, mobile web is huge, and there is good amount of buzz around it these days. But like Amy Mischler of dotMobi said, it’s important to set your expectations and realize that you’re at the beginning of something that can really differentiate yourself.
Have you tried something on the mobile web yet? Did you read my book on it?
