What to do? At first, of course, I was annoying and was a typical dissatisfied customer. Then I wrote to the supplier and described the problem. I was pleasantly surprised by the immediate response. I was asked to send pictures of the pins, which I quickly did. The next day I already got the offer to use the pins like this and get a discount for it. For me, the offer was fair and in terms of sustainability, I accepted it immediately. Later I discovered that I can peel off the worst of the pins and re-stick, which is a hassle of course, but still quicker than ordering new pins. It was also nice to see that the payment was in my account within just one week.
What exactly happened here and what can be learned from it:
- A customer who is not satisfied is not primarely a problem, but an opportunity for further development. It is important to recognize dissatisfied customers and their problems before they start a negative campaign on social media or even a shit storm. It is also important that you can be reached.
- When you hear about a dissatisfied customer, it’s important to react immediately. Many of the problems are already solved if the customer can describe his problem and is listened to. The faster this happens, the less the problem can escalate.
- It is furthermore important to find solutions and propose them. These should be fair for both sides. I think, that e.g. a dirty room window does not justify a free stay but maybe a drink at the hotel bar. In this area, a great deal of sensitivity is required, because unfortunately it has become almost common in certain circles in recent years to complain on principle in order to receive a better offer. It’s about filtering out these “special” customers.
- A thank you for the cooperation, after the problem has been solved also leads to customer loyalty despite initial problems. It is not uncommon for customers who initially had problems to become regular customers thanks to professional behavior.
I’ve always told my students that they’re really good, if they can turn a complaining customer into a regular customer. I would be happy to share my experiences with you or to provide your employees with effective training in order to implement this behavior in your company. Write to me right now at b.wicki@hospitality-academy.ch if this is of interest to you.
By the way, the company that behaved so well is Giffits ( http://www.giffits-werbeartikel.ch )
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