My Goof, Your Gain…

I'm reading a book currently called "How to talk to anyone" by Leil Lowndes, finishing it of actually.

Apart from being an awesome book that I would recommend to anyone in marketing, it gives a lot of food for thought. It has 92 'tricks' on how to get by in any conversation with flying colours. I'm definitely going to have to MindMap this one…

As I'm going through it I'm having many "A-Ha!" moments, and am also finding out that somehow I'm not doing so badly in my conversational style…

Anyway - I read the umpteenth 'trick' last night and thought I'd share it with you as it's one I strongly believe in and it has to do with my favourite topic - customer service :o)

It's called My Goof, Your Gain, and it's basically referring to the opportunity a great customer service department should see in screwing up… Uh-huh!

If your customer has just bought a pair of trousers, which he decides to wear on his very important date… That evening, whilst bending down to pick up his date's dropped handkerchief (spell that!) the trousers rip exposing him in a not so cute way…

Now that man will probably call your customer service dept to issue a bit of dissatisfaction - and rightly so. But instead of shooting him down and telling him he should consider loosing some weight or bending at the knees when picking things up off the floor. You should consider using this tactic which consists of the following:

• Listen out what he has to say and his entire complaint until he has fully finished.
• Sympathise with him and make him understand that you understand - without patronising him.
• And finally - tell him that you'll send replacement trousers this day, and include a generous voucher for him inside.

This is your company's opportunity to reign in this customer forever.

If you deal with his complaint in a way he's never expected, you can be guaranteed he'll become a loyal customer and may even spread the news of how well you understood his concern…