Let your customers know they are speaking to the right person. If your customers regularly ask to speak to your manager or supervisor, take a careful look at your initial reaction to your customers. If in those opening moments of customer service you are sending signals that say, "Talk to my boss," perhaps you can with a few changes keep your customers talking with you.

Here are some simple dos and don'ts to keep your customers with you.
 

• Do be friendly and alert. Most people would rather run the risk of talking with your boss if they think they might be more pleasant.

• Don't play the role of the guard defending Fort Knox's gold.  Remember, Fort Knox wish to hold on to its gold, but customer service is something you want to give away. Let your customers know that you are there to help them, not to prevent them from accomplishing their business. You not be able to help them, but you still want to demonstrate your desire to assist. 

• Tell your customers you'll do whatever is possible to help them. They will know from this type of statement that you are the best person for them to be talking with, and they'll be less likely to escalate. When you say those words, state them directly and with some power behind them

• Don't multitask while taking with a customer. They might as well be talking with someone else if you are too engaged with other activities, and they'll very likely ask to speak with your boss.

There are literally hundreds of techniques to keep customers talking with you. See how many you can discover yourself. Every time a customer asks to speak with your supervisor, analyze the situation to see what you did to contribute to this escalation. You can learn a lot from your own experience!

Janelle Barlow, Coauthor
A Complaint Is a Gift
Emotional Value
 
 
 

Previous "Complaint Is A Gift Corner" pages: 
 

#1	Overselling Service
#2	Not Listening to Complaints
#3	Plastic Chicken
#4	Complaints You Can Do Nothing About
#5	A+ Complaint Handling
#6	Beware! Others are Watching You
#7	At Least Keep Talking!
#8	Let Customers Know You'll Tell Someone
#9	If You're Going to Apologize, Then Mean It
#10	Keep Front-life Staff Well Informed
#11	Don't Set Goals to Reduce Complaints
#12	Products Used During Special Events
#13	Best Practices of Complaint-friendly Organizations
#14	Complaints About Mother Nature!
#15	Socially Offensive Situations
#16	A Complaint Is a Gift in Action
#17	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, I
#18	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, II
#19	Creating an Internal Service Culture
#20	When Your Customers are Industrial Buyers
#21	Customers Who are Poor Complainers
#22	Complaints That are Difficult to Talk About
#23	Do You Mistreat Your Customers?
#24	Fairness: Treatment of Staff
#25	Expectations and Complaints
#26	Successful Toll-free Experiences
#27	Small Companies and Service
#28	A Banking Customer Strikes Back
#29	Complaints in the Hospitality Business
#30	Customers Be More Cynical
#31	Above All, Communicate When Things Go Wrong!
_#32	Eliminating Blame
_#33	Friendliness Keeps Them Coming Back!
_#34	Seeking Out Complaints
_#35	If They Complain, Why Not Sue Them!
_#36	"Sorry for Any Inconvenience Caused"
_#37	Don't Back Away When Someone Complains To You

We invite you to submit your "best" examples by fax or e-mail. We won't print any company names with the "poor" examples, because we believe that every organization fails from time to time. We will give credit to companies delighting their customers. In the case of the "poor" examples, we'll comment on how we think this situation could have been handled better. If you want us to list your name, please tell us that is what you want to do.

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Training Program 

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Book

Note: We have been getting e-mail from our readers asking us to list the names of the companies who get complaints. Our policy is to never list names. The reason for this is because every company fails from time to time, and we wouldn't want to tar some company's name just because of one bad example. Furthermore, we are dependant upon the writer's side of the story. We don't know for sure what happened, and in the name of fairness, we will not post names. Furthermore, the purpose of this corner is not to pass complaints along to corporations. This Complaint Is a Gift corner is designed to look at examples of good and bad complaint handling so we can learn from these experiences. Please, if you have a direct complaint you want a company to learn about, contact them directly. In many cases, we have never heard of the company in question and have no idea how to reach them. Janelle Barlow

tel: 702 939-1800

fax: 702 939-1804

email: 

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