By Dr. Alan Zimmerman

“Drum it into your employees that their jobs and their bonuses depend upon the satisfaction of your customer. If your customer is not happy, they’re not going to get a bonus, and they’re not necessarily going to have a job, because you’re going to earn less money.”
- Leigh J. Abrams, President and CEO of RV components supplier Drew Industries

If you work with people, you’re in the customer service business, and you’re going to make some mistakes. You’re going to misdirect a package, provide incorrect information, misroute a file, forget a deadline, or goof up in some way.

However, mistakes are also opportunities. When you fix a problem, when you right a wrong, you get the chance to learn about your operations and improve your operations ... as well strengthen your relationship with the customer ... IF YOU HANDLE the mistake properly.

As soon as you become aware of a mistake in your customer service, there are a few things you need to do ... do right ... and do immediately.

1. Let your customer know that you care.

And quite honestly, a lot of your customers may not think you care.

Take many of the high-tech telephone systems for example. Most customers see them as customer avoidance systems rather than customer service systems. They make most customers feel like they don’t count and the company they are calling doesn’t care.

I know I’ve felt that way. When I called one such company, I received an automated answer that said, “Thank you for calling our help line. Your estimated wait time is 55 minutes.” On another occasion, calling a different company, the recording said, “All of our help-line specialists are busy helping other customers. Please call tomorrow.” And it disconnected me!

My reaction to all of that? I didn’t trust their wonderfully worded vision and mission statements. And I didn’t believe their stated list of values, one of them being “customer first” and the other one “customer driven.” Their actions spoke louder than their words.

They forgot what Rusty Rueff, the senior Vice President of Human Relations at video game developer Electronic Arts, proclaims, “In today’s marketplace, people don’t want to be treated like a commodity. They want to know that someone cares about their dreams.”

As soon as you know you’ve made a mistake, or as soon as you hear a customer complaint, let the customer know you care. As the Bible says, love covers a multitude of sins. And in the customer service business, care covers a multitude of mistakes.

Take a hint from one of the world’s experts on caring customer service, J.W. Marriott, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, says, “You can build the best hotel in the best location with the best rooms and the best lobby, but if the service stinks and employees don’t care, customers won’t come back.”

Read the rest of the article here.