Capitol City Speakers Bureau
  • Home
  • Speakers
  • Events
    • American Heart Month
    • Patient Safety Awareness Week
    • Stress Awareness Month
    • National Nurses Week
    • National Women's Health Week
    • Breast Cancer Awareness Month
  • Blog
  • Clients
  • Testimonials
  • What's New
  • About
  • Contact
  • Request
Picture

BLOG

How to Win Back Customers You've Lost

6/25/2019

0 Comments

 
By Laurie Guest

Winning back guests you have lost is not an issue people like to talk about, but it is a necessary topic in staff development.

What skills do your team members need in order to thwart a customer defection? It begins with being totally present in the encounter in order to realize the guest is unhappy enough to leave. It ends by saying and doing the right things to turn it around.

I have a great example of this happening in my personal life. Not long ago, my husband and I purchased a new refrigerator. We like to buy local whenever we can, and have been loyal customers for many years of a certain appliance store in our community. The new refrigerator has needed a repair man to come out four times for a series of issues, one right after the other.

Eventually, it was determined that the left door was manufactured incorrectly, and a new one would need to be installed. Unfortunately, the company sent the wrong door, but that wasn’t determined until three hours of repair were completed. We ended up with a door that still didn’t dispense water or ice and even had aesthetic issues that included holes where a cover plate belonged. The part that bothered me most was that I was the one doing the calling every time to check on the status of the next step in the long, long saga. I had a refrigerator door that wasn’t right for over eight weeks, and I was still waiting.

Exasperated, I finally drove to the appliance store to get an answer. The owner told me, “Oh, we have the new door. I just don’t know where to put you in the schedule, so I haven’t called you back yet.”

Wrong answer.

If he would have just called me with regular updates, I would likely be fine with the progress. He even told me he sees my name on the list regularly and keeps telling himself they need to fit me in. This is the last purchase we made at that local shop, I’m sad to say.

I had been kind and patient every step of the way, in what was now edging into a four-month ordeal. He knew that I was not happy, but he did nothing to turn it around. If he told me that he had arranged for a new door and was doing the repairs at no charge to me, that would have been good service.

The reason I will be moving on, never to return, is because there wasn’t an attempt to win me back after things went wrong. I haven’t received an apology for any of this, and clearly an apology was owed.

After a bad customer service experience, my mom used to say, “I’ll do my voting with my feet.” Then she would stop doing business with that establishment and become a walking billboard of information about her experience.

Whether you work for a mom and pop store or a global brand, you will have haters, but you can’t afford to ignore them. You need to learn how to embrace complaints, put haters to work for you, and turn bad news into good.

Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019

    Categories

    All
    Amy Dee
    Andrew Busch
    Beth Boynton
    Bobbe White
    Chip Bell
    Christine Cashen
    Colette Carlson
    Courtney Clark
    Donna Cardillo
    Joe Flower
    John O'Leary
    Jonathan Burroughs
    Josh Linkner
    Karyn Buxman
    Kenneth Kaufman
    Kristin Baird
    Laurie Guest
    LeAnn Thieman
    Marilyn Tam
    Mary Kelly
    Mel Robbins
    Roger Crawford
    Ron Culberson
    Shep Hyken
    Steve Berkowitz
    Steve Gilliland
    Tim Hague
    Vicki Hess
    Zonya Foco

    RSS Feed

Home

SPEAKERS

EVENTS

Blog

CLIENTS

ABOUT US

Contact

Copyright © 2023 Capitol City Speakers Bureau
  • Home
  • Speakers
  • Events
    • American Heart Month
    • Patient Safety Awareness Week
    • Stress Awareness Month
    • National Nurses Week
    • National Women's Health Week
    • Breast Cancer Awareness Month
  • Blog
  • Clients
  • Testimonials
  • What's New
  • About
  • Contact
  • Request