10 Essential Steps to Transform Mistakes into Customer Loyalty
Handling mistakes in business is an essential skill for any entrepreneur. Let’s be honest: we have all made mistakes, we make them, and we will surely make them again in the future. What truly matters is not so much avoiding them, but knowing how to face them and transform them into opportunities for learning, growth, and customer loyalty.
“Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit them”
Let’s be honest. We have all made mistakes, we make mistakes, and we will surely make mistakes in the future. This is common to any person and any business.
Of course, we must constantly strive not to make them and, above all, not to repeat them once we have incurred them. The idea is always to minimize the chances of error through good planning, quality control, and solid and efficient processes.
But many times, despite our care, mistakes happen.
When they do, the ideal is to catch them before they become public, and especially before they reach our customers. When we take care of mistakes in time and prevent them from affecting customers, we keep the storm contained within our territory.
Unfortunately, many times mistakes do reach customers and, what is even worse, we learn that we made them because they come from our customers in the form of complaints. And that is where the mistake reaches its full potential and constitutes the greatest risk to our business.
Turn Mistakes into Opportunities
The good news? A customer complaint, a mistake made, when well handled, can become an opportunity for learning, growth, and customer loyalty.
First, we must understand what a complaint means and why a customer presents it. Of course, a complaint originates in a dissatisfied customer experience. But how does dissatisfaction arise? As a general rule, we can say that dissatisfaction comes from an inconsistency between what the customer expects (the idea they have of our product or service) and what they receive (the product or service actually delivered).
It is true that sometimes such inconsistency has no real basis, since customer expectations may eventually be based on mistaken ideas of what we offer. In those cases, dissatisfaction and complaint do not originate in an error or poor service, or in a deficiency on our part, but in an issue of image and communication.
However, whether or not it is based on a real error or failure, dissatisfaction and a customer complaint, poorly handled, constitute a potential loss. So in any case we must treat it with seriousness and responsibility.
Regain Customer Trust
The customer is the reason for our company’s existence, the foundation of our business. Without customers there is no business, as simple as that. When there is a break or inconsistency between customer expectations and the delivery of the service or product and dissatisfaction arises, what mainly happens is that we lose customer trust. Whether it is a new customer, or one who knows us from past experiences, the perception of not meeting their expectations weakens their trust in us. Trust is based on the certainty that we can deliver what is expected, or more.
That is why, in proper complaint handling, the main objective is to regain customer trust.
The management of complaints and dissatisfied experiences gives us the opportunity to turn a customer who doubts us into a customer who becomes a flagbearer and advocate of our products and services.
It is important to note that it is much better for the customer to complain than for the customer to leave without saying anything. An unexpressed complaint is more dangerous, potentially causing more harm. That is why we must always make it easy for the customer to complain. Encourage them to provide us with feedback, foster the possibility that they openly express their reasons for dissatisfaction, so that we can have the opportunity to achieve conversions and win back their trust.
10 Key Elements for Error Management
Organizing the information offered by various experts in the field, I summarize below my error management model, which highlights the 10 key elements to consider for successful error handling. If you follow these tips and guidelines, you increase the likelihood that those same customers who have expressed dissatisfaction with your business will be the ones who recommend you and come back to you when they again need products and services like those you can offer.
The Center of the Solution
Responsibility: The foundation of the entire process, the starting point and the compass that guides all behavior, is the acceptance of responsibility for the mistake. Accept the customer’s complaint, recognize the problem, and take responsibility for it. Without this fundamental step, none of the other elements can occur effectively.
Axis 1: Change the Mood
Once the customer shows dissatisfaction, we start from a relationship with a person who has a negative attitude toward our product or service (regardless of its intensity). Part of the actions for proper handling involve achieving a change in the customer’s mood by restoring the possibility of a positive attitude. This involves three elements:
Objectivity: Don’t take it personally. Don’t get offended. Don’t get upset. Don’t get defensive. Don’t start looking for excuses. Don’t feel guilty. Handle the process with a rational and objective attitude.
Information: Listen carefully and openly to the customer. Try to understand and learn as much as you can from their experience with your product or service. Allow them to ask questions. Ask questions yourself to clarify any unclear point and to deepen the information you receive.
Humility: Offer sincere apologies. The best way to face a mistake is by apologizing for the inconvenience caused.
Axis 2: Resolve
Problem resolution is the fundamental aspect of handling a complaint. This involves three elements:
Solution: Solve the problem, seek a solution that restores consistency between expectations and what is received, to be able to turn dissatisfaction into satisfaction. Generally, this is achieved by adjusting your product or service to the customer’s expectations. However, sometimes it can be resolved by adjusting expectations, based on information or explanations that help the customer understand the scope and limitations of what they can expect. In any case, only by resolving the dissonance between their expectations and what they receive can you effectively resolve the reason for the complaint.
Time: It is not enough to solve the problem. You must do it quickly and on time. A problem addressed late does not resolve the reason for dissatisfaction. The proper timing is a critical element in the solution.
Communication: It is not enough to solve the problem and do it on time. The customer must know that you are solving it and must understand how you are doing it. Effective communication with the customer about the measures you are taking to address their complaint provides closure.
Axis 3: Avoid Repetition
The last axis will help you complete the trust-restoration experience and prevent the appearance of similar opportunities in the future, acting both on the customer’s perception and on your product or service. This axis also involves three elements:
Follow-up: It is not enough to resolve the situation. You must follow up with the customer to make sure the solution was received and perceived properly, that it did not have other subsequent outcomes that could have been a consequence of it, or that it was not repeated over time.
Learning: Strive to understand the reasons that caused the mistake by your company and the customer’s dissatisfaction, with the resulting complaint. Only if you understand and identify the root of the problem can you prevent it from happening again, with this or with other customers.
Compensation: Be sure to offer the customer compensation or “something extra.” While this may not prevent the same mistake from occurring, it will prevent the same or future mistakes from generating equal or worse levels of dissatisfaction. Surely, a customer who feels well treated and compensated will be more tolerant of future experiences that could potentially generate complaints.
Do you often receive complaints from your customers? What additional elements do you take into account or apply that have helped you improve the customer experience?
