Explore Solutions
Another painless thing you can do at this stage without admitting liability is to explore what might resolve the situation, as outlined in Chapter 8. There may also be gestures you can offer, without admitting fault, that could build trust and goodwill with the customer. For example:
You: I agree, this is a terrible situation. What do you think we could do from here to help you?
Alice (sarcastically): Short of asking Mr. Internet to stop streaming this viral video of our client collapsing on your chair, I’m not really sure.
You: Actually, I am thinking along those lines. We would be happy to approach the key people who are posting this video and negotiate if they would be willing to take it down. Would it be OK with you if we gave that a try?
The client may ultimately make a proposal: perhaps compensation for the client’s medical injuries, or replacement chairs that are stronger. This becomes a starting point for negotiation, which in all likelihood will extend beyond the bounds of this phone call. Legal advice may be appropriate at this stage, since offering a settlement involves the possibility of admitting liability or setting precedents, but your ultimate goal is to create a win-win solution for both parties.
Frame the Benefits
In Chapter 7, we discussed framing solutions in ways that sound palatable to the customer. Once you have a resolution you would be comfortable offering, you have two objectives in framing it: (1) entice the customer to want your solution, and (2) make it much more attractive than the prospect of suing you—a path that might yield a greater reward for the customer, but at the risk of paying lawyers, spending time in court, and possibly losing the case. Here is an example of what you might say:
“We realize that you’ve been through a very awkward and public situation that involved our chairs. Even though we have a published weight limit for these chairs, our bigger concern is making things right for everyone involved. We’re prepared to offer you a generous discount on a more sturdy model of replacement chair, and would also be happy to help address the negative social media publicity that has happened recently. We respect your decision, but we’re hoping this offer will help resolve things in a way that’s easier for everyone.”
This statement achieves several important objectives. It acknowledges what has happened to the customer, describes your defense in a factual and neutral way, and sells the benefits of the solution versus entering into litigation. Notice also a subtle but important phrase: “We respect your decision.” This reaffirms the customer’s control over her decision. Ironically, she will probably be more likely to accept your resolution if she feels it is not being dictated to her in a take-it-or-leave-it fashion.
Can Apologies Prevent Lawsuits?
Hospitals are often loathe to disclose medical errors for fear of stirring up lawsuits. But what happens when they start proactively taking ownership of these mistakes?
A study published in 2010 examined what happened when the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) implemented a new model for handling medical errors, involving full disclosure of what happened, a formal apology, and an offer of compensation. The results? New claims fell by 36 percent, lawsuits decreased by over 50 percent, and costs decreased by close to 60 percent.
UMHS is unusual in having its own staff and a single insurer, and therefore being the only party responding to a patient’s medical errors; further research is needed to see if these findings generalize to other health systems. But at least in this one case, honesty may be the most cost-effective policy.
CHAPTER 15
Quelling a Social
Media Firestorm
YOUR COOKIE COMPANY has always been ahead of the times, particularly when it comes to using social media with customers. You have a fan page on Facebook, a Twitter account, and a thriving online community where people post questions and answers about your products. If you were any more connected with your customers, you would probably have to move in with them.
One day, a customer posted a negative comment on your Facebook page, complaining that his last order from you arrived late. Worse, because his settings are set to only show your posts rather than to view everyone’s, he mistakenly thought you were deleting his comments. Outraged, he began mass-posting hateful comments about you online. Now what do you do?
The rule in customer service used to be that if someone was happy, he would tell four people, and if they were unhappy, he would tell eleven people. Today, thanks to the rise of social media, those numbers are way off. When musician Dave Carroll watched baggage handlers toss around and break his expensive guitar on a United Airlines flight, and then got nowhere trying to get the airline to compensate him, he composed a song, “United Breaks Guitars,” that has now had over twelve million views on YouTube. The airline finally offered to make things right after a firestorm of negative publicity, and today United actually uses this video in its customer service training.
When a customer gets mad at you and starts acting out on social media, you have two agendas. The first is to take care of the problem. The second is to let the public know you are taking care of the problem—and better yet, for the customer to help with this. In this chapter, we offer some guidelines for how you might handle this situation.
Be Real
In Chapter 4, we discussed avoiding trigger phrases that infuriate customers. In a world of social media, this includes most of the stilted, corporate prose that most companies use in their written or email communications, such as, “Sir, we are investigating your request,” or, “We regret to inform you . . .” When used online, phrases like these sound like they were uttered by a robot.
Instead, use genuine, accessible language—the kind you might use with a good friend over lunch. As part of a technology that started with young people, social media have brought with them a greater expectation of informality. So, as we have recommended throughout the book, lead by acknowledging the customer. In this case, you might start your message with something like, “This sounded like a pretty frustrating experience. We want to make this situation right.”
Be Quick
What you say is very important, but how soon you say it is almost as important. Customer complaints can go viral quickly through social media. Moreover, people look at your response time as a measure of how much you care about your customers. This means that comments in cyberspace can’t wait for your next weekly committee meeting. It is important to provide a same-day reply, even if it is just to tell someone you are looking into the problem.
Make your reply to customer criticism all about the customer. Social media are magnifying glasses for how responsive you are to customers. Even if you are technically correct, focusing on defending or explaining yourself can be like throwing fresh bait into shark-infested waters: It can cause a feeding frenzy of negative responses. Instead, validate legitimate criticisms and keep a laser focus on doing what is right for the customer.
For example, suppose this customer’s shipment was delayed because he chose a cheaper ground-shipping option with no guaranteed delivery date. In this case, you might say, “Even though we don’t have control over ground shipping once our cookies leave the factory, two weeks is a long time to wait. Especially for cookies!” Or suppose the problem was your fault because his order was lost. In this instance, you should lean in and completely own his complaint the way we discussed in Chapter 2: “We messed up, pure and simple. Your order got lost in our system. That was inexcusable.” Then, in either case, propose a fair solution to the issue, or, better yet, get in touch personally, as we describe in the next step.
Reach Out to the Person Behind the Keyboard
When you communicate with people in cyberspace, you still aren’t quite a real person to them. They haven’t connected you with a name and a face. Often, social media complaints are best used as an entree to contact someone in person and resolve the issue.
In this particular case, personal contact is essential. Since the customer is unaware that you
are not responding due to a technical problem on his end, the only way to straighten things out is to get in touch. Your goal is not to point out his mistake, but rather to normalize it as something that could happen to anyone, as discussed in Chapter 10. Then you can negotiate whatever would be needed (and appropriate) to make him happy.
Trust the Will of the Crowd
Today, companies often fear that someone will post something negative about them using social media. But check out other companies’ social media sites and you will discover that the general mood of customers is reflected pretty accurately. In cases where a company truly has poor service in the public eye, complaints can often spark a feeding frenzy where other people chime in and express their displeasure. But if your company has a strong service reputation, something amazing often happens: People respond to complaints by jumping to your defense.
This means that although you should work hard to address concerns that people post online, there is no need to overreact to an individual negative post. In much the same way that people’s reputations are formed in the real world, your organization’s reputation within social media is truly an aggregate of everyone’s overall impressions.
The example in this chapter was paraphrased from a true story, and here is how it actually ended: When the customer realized that the company had not deleted any of his comments, he felt silly, took them down, and publicly announced that the company had taken care of the situation. Being proactive and focusing on the customer’s interests—even when complaints are unfair or misguided—will generally have a strong ripple effect on how people talk publicly about your organization online.
CHAPTER 16
Just Plane Terrible
YOU ARE A GATE AGENT for Good Time Airlines. But tonight, you are not having a good time. Why? Because of the long line of angry-looking people who have been queuing up in front of your podium.
You see, telling one or two people that they aren’t going to get where they want to go is no fun. Telling the two hundred people who just disembarked from the Boeing 767 at your gate is even less fun. And worst of all, these people have been on and off this plane for hours during this winter storm—taxiing out, waiting for the plane to be deiced, waiting too long to take off, and coming back to the gate again. Now weather conditions have finally shut down the airport for the evening.
Your job is to tell these two hundred people:
They are stuck here for the night.
Your airline does not pay hotel expenses for weather-related cancellations like this one.
The nearest hotel with rooms available is the Dingy Acres Motel, a half hour’s drive from the airport. And yes, it is as bad as it sounds.
You will book them on the first available departure tomorrow. With emphasis on available.
You can expect there to be a number of very unhappy people. Many of them will be upset with you and your airline. Some may desperately need to get somewhere for a specific occasion. More than a few will feel it is totally unacceptable to spend the night at the airport. You have just signed on to the computer at your podium and are about to speak with the first passenger in line. Aside from wishing you the very best of luck, in this chapter, we offer some techniques to help get you through a situation that’s beyond your control.
Be Present
First, understand the depth of frustration that many of these people are feeling. Some may be seasoned travelers who have been through this many times before, but others will still be trying to wrap their head around the situation. They were on the plane and so close to being at their destination that they could taste it. Perhaps they are afraid to fly and now have to face their fears all over again. Or perhaps there are consequences for them, such as missing a wedding, a funeral, or a paid performance.
The first and most important part of handling each passenger is to respond empathetically by paraphrasing and acknowledging whatever that person leads with. For example:
Passenger: I am missing an important business meeting tomorrow!
You: That’s terrible! It seems unfair to have a snowstorm shut down air traffic right when you have important business to take care of.
Passenger: I’ve been dreading this flight for weeks, and now I have to go through it all over again!
You: That must be miserable! You were probably hoping this would all be over with tonight. What can we do to help you be comfortable in the meantime?
This is a very important step, and also a completely mechanical one: Take whatever the passenger leads with and hand those words, thoughts, and feelings back with empathy, as we have emphasized throughout this book. Connecting with these customers as people will usually make everything that follows go much easier.
Deliver the Bad News in Stages
You are about to tell many of these passengers a number of things they do not want to hear: that they are stuck at the airport for the evening, that lodging options are not the best, and that they will have to wait for the first available flight the next day. How you word this news will often make all the difference in how they react to it.
Chapter 5 describes a process for how to stage bad news in a way that makes it easier for people to accept it: a good introduction, a proactive summary of the options, and an empathetic response. Here is an example of putting that into practice in this situation:
Passenger: Darn, they canceled this flight! Can you get me out of here tonight? Or you’ll put me up somewhere, correct? (Note: The answer is “no” to both of these questions.)
You: (introduction) Let me walk you through what options we have here. (proactive summary) I can confirm a seat for you on the next flight available to your destination right now. This flight leaves nine hours from now, which takes us into tomorrow morning. As for lodging, we do provide lodging for mechanical delays or actions of the airline. Unfortunately, we can’t offer this in the case of a weather-related cancellation such as tonight’s. Do you think you might prefer to relax here at the airport, or could I help you arrange a hotel room at your expense?
Because you have laid out the options in a way that is factual, empathetic, and doesn’t lecture the passenger or say “no,” you have a much better chance of getting a constructive response. But suppose he still is not happy about what he is hearing and lets you know about it? Let’s continue:
Passenger: That stinks! I’m really exhausted.
You: (empathetic response) You must be exhausted. I certainly wouldn’t like being stuck on a plane for as long as you were. (proactive summary) I’m pretty familiar with this airport. Would you like to know some places where you might relax for a few hours?
Passenger: I’d really rather be at a hotel, even if I have to pay for it myself.
You: (empathetic response) I can’t blame you at all. (proactive summary) Here is what you will be looking at. Because we are located far from town, the nearest lodging is at the Dingy Acres Motel. I do want you to know that it is a half hour drive from here, and it is a very modest facility. But there are rooms available tonight, and I could give you a discount coupon for it if you wish.
Passenger: Yecch! That sounds miserable. How about a major chain hotel?
You: (empathetic response) Very good question. Most major chains are located in town, approximately an hour from the airport by public transportation. Would you like to look at some of those?
Passenger: No, that is a long way away. I’ll probably stick it out at the airport tonight. Look, I appreciate all of your help.
You: (empathetic response) My pleasure, Mr. Jones. Let us know if there is anything else we can do to help, and hopefully we’ll have you on your way again in a few short hours.
Compare these responses to the snippy, “I’m sorry, sir, we can’t do that” ones that are all too common in stressful customer situations, as we discussed in Chapter 4. This is where the right words can make a big difference. As long as you keep working the mechanics of responding empathetically and offering options, most customers will eventually calm down and coop
erate with you, even when the news is not good.
Reframe the Situation
In the example above, you may have noticed that the agent used the reframing technique outlined in Chapter 7 to make the situation seem more palatable to the passenger. Notice how these specific phrases were thoughtfully chosen to defuse the situation:
“Relax here at the airport” (rather than stuck at the airport).
“Very modest facility” (rather than dumpy motel)
“On your way again in a few short hours” (rather than stranded overnight)
“Some places where you might relax for a few hours” (rather than hope you like sleeping in a chair)
This agent is also framing the problem-solving process in terms of what is possible rather than what isn’t possible, as discussed in Chapter 6. Instead of saying, “You will have to wait until tomorrow,” he is saying, “I can confirm a seat for you on the next flight available.” These subtle but important linguistics employ the language of an ally and let the customer know that he is focused on helping.
Note also that the one thing we are not reframing is the customer’s experiences. If he is complaining about being exhausted, then by golly, he is exhausted. And if something is bothering him, then it legitimately bothers him. When you maximize customers’ concerns while framing positive solutions for them, you can often guide them skillfully into calming down and accepting the situation.
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