Everyone in the world has heard the phrase, “The Customer is Always Right.” While you can debate it and settle on your own point of view, one thing remains…the customer IS ALWAYS RIGHT. Why? Because it is ALWAYS THEIR PERSPECTIVE…and to each of us, it is always our truth. But there is one key point many of us fail to remember…
LISTENING vs. REACTING/REPLYING
If there is one thing that we are taught to do at an early age is defend…defend our position, our opinion, our right to be right. It’s human nature. When we hear something we don’t agree with, we jump in to “set the story straight” which is another way of saying “defending our position.” If you are in debate class or you are controlling a group that has to follow whatever you say, this might work. It might allow you to enforce your opinion and have others agree/follow.
This DOESN’T WORK WHEN IT COMES TO CUSTOMERS.
All customers…and I mean ALL CUSTOMERS…have an opinion about their experience…and it is 100% accurate! Regardless of what might have really happened, their perspective about their experience is 100% accurate in their mind. Trying to change this is both futile and combative. There is a better way to help them see your point of view and to even win them over to your way of thinking…sometimes.
If you really blew it…royally messed up the experience for the customer, there is an easy answer. ADMIT YOU WERE WRONG AND HAVE A PLAN TO MAKE IT RIGHT. This is the only course of action…anything else will most likely cost you the customer.
With everything else, learning the skill of LISTENING for UNDERSTANDING instead of REACTING and offering a quick REPLY is not only preferred, it is CRITICAL TO CUSTOMER RETENTION.
If you can start of any conversation by doing some “deep listening” you will learn more than you ever knew about your customer experience process that is being delivered. Get defensive and you get zero information that is helpful…and most likely lose the customer and their wealth of information along with it. Start every conversation by listening deeply to WHY THEY ARE NOT HAPPY or WHY THEIR PERCEPTION OF THE EXPERIENCE is different than yours.
WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. This will accomplish two things…
- It will show your customer you actually care about their experience because you aren’t simply looking for a “surface answer” but really want to know the deep and true answer to why they feel the way they do.
- It actually gives you a ton of information about your experience, your employees, your operational processes, your environment, and how you are delivering your experience to your customers.
Armed with this deep information you can actually learn the source…the core…of the issues going in inside your organization. This is PURE GOLD!
Contrast it with how many (probably your competitors) will most likely respond…being defensive or offering an immediate solution without truly understanding the issues and problems. When you simply REACT/RESPOND to a complaint or concern, you usually miss the true and real issue. You end up pacifying the customer without ever knowing the core of the issue and being able to fix it again for other customers. By adopting this strategy of resolution, you usually never solve the core issue. You offer some consolation prize to the customer for their discomfort but don’t address what is causing this issue…allowing it to reoccur with this customer again and other customers in the future.
Take for example the typical Customer Service department. Their goal is to get you off the phone as quickly as possible. This is completely contrary to what they really should be doing (more on this in another post…it’s a very interesting topic). They should be used to try and figure out what “caused” the issue while they are hearing about it. Instead, their goal is to listen and offer a quick solution they hope will make you happy at the moment and get you off the phone so they can go to the next problem. I’m sure you can relate to this strategy as a customer…we have all been treated this way at some point in time.
The customer is always right…at least from their perspective. Find out why they are right…why they have an issue…why they think this issues was caused…why they were treated this way…why it caused them to be upset…and what it is they think could help resolve the issue or keep it from happening again. This is a discussion of “gold nuggets” for your company and your customer experience.
Knowing they are always right, don’t do battle, do DISCOVERY. Learn instead of Lecture on why you are right…because you aren’t right. YOU WILL NEVER WIN THIS WAR…maybe the battle for the day, but the customer always has the last vote. They vote to stay or to leave. LISTEN to them and they will more than likely vote to stay and give you another chance and feel like you truly care. REACT/REPLY and they will more than often vote to leave. Because in the end…you might be RIGHT…but you are WRONG in the eyes of your customer. Change your approach and you will learn more than any of your competitors…you will have the GOLD and your competition will simply tell themselves they are right. I always choose the GOLD!
