By Neal Glatt, CSP
Whether you have one truck or 100 in your fleet, at some point you will experience customer conflict. Something will go wrong, a customer will have an issue, and you will have to solve it on the spot. For some, the solution is as simple as saying “I’ll take care of it” and dispatching equipment. From a customer relationship standpoint, however, how the client feels about a situation is always more important than how the job was actually done.
When a customer has an issue related to snow & ice management, emotions tend to run high, usually for a few reasons:
- Your customers are liable when their customers are put at risk.
- Time is of the essence, since each company opens at a certain time.
- Customers may believe that promises made before the season started were lies, and that they are not as important as other customers who received service already. This is a deeper, more psychological issue and must be adequately addressed to successfully fix the problem.
As you work to diffuse the customer conflict, consider the following for better success:
Remain calm
From the second you pick up the phone, remain outwardly calm. Panicking about the situation in the field will prevent you from focusing on how the customer feels. The five minutes you take to have a calm conversation will allow you to restore the client’s confidence and won’t measurably hinder your response time. It may make sense to have a dedicated dispatcher or call center take these calls so field personnel can focus on their tasks.
An angry customer will probably want to rant about the problem. It is commonly believed that venting frustration will pacify an angry person. This theory, called catharsis, is the purging of emotions through action. Numerous scientific studies, however, do not support the catharsis theory. In fact, studies have shown that venting and other aggressive activities increase anger and aggressiveness. It is in your best interest to stop the aggression as quickly as possible.
Interrupt the pattern
To truly disarm the situation, shift the client’s focus away from aggression. Generally speaking, people follow a coherent pattern of thoughts. When the pattern is broken, there is a brief element of confusion that can be leveraged to start a new pattern. This process is called pattern interrupt, and it is an extremely valuable tool in effective communication.
One way to accomplish this is to ask detailed questions about the situation that will force the client to pause and think. For instance, when a client calls and is yelling that his lot needs to be deiced immediately, my follow-up question may be: “Is the whole lot icy or just a specific area, like the loading docks or handicap parking?” Asking questions forces the client to become analytical instead of angry and will allow them to evaluate and accept the proposed solution objectively.
Offer a solution
Even though you are in control of the solution, it is essential to have the client accept it as sufficient. Presenting a specific solution allows you to get the client’s feedback without committing to anything. Telling the client “I will send a salt truck to deice and we will be on-site within 45 minutes” allows the client an opportunity to either accept or reject this solution. If the client says, “That sounds great,” when you perform as promised you will restore the client’s trust. If that solution won’t work, then you know the situation is more serious and you need to find something else to satisfy the client. Either way, you get instant feedback on how well your solution will work before you start. Be cautious to observe not only what the customer says, but also how he or she says it.
In this example, the client will be happy as long as the lot is salted within 45 minutes. I find it best to promise a time under which I know we can perform. If a client will be satisfied if we can respond in 45 minutes, they will be thrilled when we show up in 20. By managing the expectation of the client, you can ensure that you avoid making the situation worse and leverage the opportunity to appear that you made an extra effort to help the client.
Once an acceptable solution is decided on, you have the opportunity to go above and beyond. Instead of ending the call, ask, “Is there anything else I can do to help?” Simply asking shows that you are willing to help. Most times the answer is “no,” but if the client has another request, you can solve the issue before it becomes a significant, possibly account-ending, problem.
Follow up
Calling the customer after the service is performed will give you another opportunity to evaluate the client’s feelings toward the company. It also is a perfect time to express how grateful you are for the customer’s understanding and offer an explanation of how you will correct operations to stop the issue from reoccurring. Before you start talking, however, make sure the customer has time to give you their full attention, or the well-intentioned follow-up call will cause more frustration.
Prepare
In all stages of working with customers, it is very important to sound natural. If you sound like a recording, the best tactics in the world will have little effect. Take the time to practice conversations through role-playing, and prepare for customer conflict. Every conversation is an opportunity to either strengthen or hurt the client relationship. Which outcome are you working toward?
Neal Glatt, CSP, is an account executive for Case Snow Management in Attleboro Falls, MA. Contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
