Irrespective of the nature, size and longevity of the business, there is always a customer who will remain dissatisfied. How the company handles the situation will determine whether the customer will remain with the company or shift his loyalty. The foremost thing to do while engaging with an angry, irate customer is to hear him out. Not just hear, but listen to what he has to say, even if it is irrational or incorrect. This gives him an assurance that he isn’t being neglected. It is important to understand that customer’s perception is your reality. The next course is to take an action or provide a reasonable, feasible solution that can be worked out. The last thing would be to see if the solution provided matches the customer’s expectations. If the company fails to provide a suitable solution for the indignant customer, he may look for another solution provider, may turn a detractor of your brand and bad-mouth your brand with his/her friends or colleagues.
The first thing to do when this happens is to find out the cause and magnitude of it, and see how frequently it is happening with other customers. The chances of a customer coming back to you are much higher when he refers your brand to his peers. If the customer shifts or stops using your brand due to a small, unresolved issue, most likely to do with a non-core functionality of your product/service. Here, a short term incentive will work in winning him back. The thing to understand is that only monetary means do not work all the time; but small gestures do. It is vital to spend time and efforts on customer who has chances of returning, rather than the one who is going to leave again. The easiest way to bring back the disappointed ones is to focus on specific service which made him leave earlier by enhancing the same to make it customer centric. AGR’s Customer Advocacy Score (CAS) is an objective framework as well as an advance warning tool which helps client to make informed decision about customer’s loyalty status so that necessary amends can be made in time to retain them. By helping find out who the loyal customers are, CAS also helps clients strike optimal balance between retention measures and cost of retention
