Avionics News January 2014 - 62

series

BUSINESS BASICS
B Y

G R E G

L A S L O

Second Chances

When Customers Have Problems, 'LEARN' your way to Service Recovery

obody's perfect. That's a bitter, honest truth, and it gets a
lot more distasteful when it's your customer who points
it out.
As if running an avionics shop wasn't challenging enough
on a good day, sometimes even the best shops have bad ones.
Shipments arrive late, products malfunction, wires wiggle loose,
balls get dropped, delivery timelines grow unabated and lastminute gremlins creep in to delay returning an airplane to its
aggrieved owner.
Each of these missteps takes a toll on your most important asset,
your customer's confidence, as he or she starts to wonder whether
they were right to believe you would deliver on your promises for
good service. And from that moment on, the clock is counting.
Regardless of who's at fault, you're on the spot to handle this
unhappiness, fix the problem and learn from the experience. And
you should want to learn, as more than eight in 10 consumers
say they would switch suppliers if they weren't satisfied with the
service they received, according to Ventura Marketing. So if you
don't act, you risk losing the customer for life. And since retaining
an existing customer is significantly less expensive than finding a
new one, you've got a big financial reason to get this right.
Yet doing so requires you to understand the principles of service
recovery, and it helps to have a tool to guide you through your
make-good. Ultimately, you only get one "second chance," and
how you act will leave a lasting impression.
SERVICE STRATEGY
Problems happen. Most customers get that, but they also expect
you to know how to make things right - to have a service recovery
plan that addresses their unmet expectations, according to human
resources trainer Mike Petersell. Employing a plan starts by recognizing the need, appreciating the role every employee plays in
the process, and knowing the importance of salvaging a valuable
relationship.
As a concept, service recovery describes your actions that aim
to restore the customer's satisfaction so he or she remains loyal. In
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this sense, a service failure isn't just a functional problem, it's also
an emotional one, and you need to restore trust. Service recovery
also can include those improvements you make to your processes
to avoid similar mishaps in the future, as well as the training and
rewards you provide employees who are in a position to identify
and solve them.
Certainly, every staff member - and particularly those who are
customer facing - should know how to solve a customer complaint, because it may enter your avionics shop from any direction.
According to global training company TMI, those employees need
to be empowered to advocate for these customers, and they need
your encouragement to take responsibility for the setback. Your
culture should demand a customer's problem is the company's
problem until it's resolved appropriately.
Customers won't suffer foolish handling of complaints. In fact,
the stakes are now greater. While you may experience the "service
recovery paradox" - when customers are more pleased after an
effective recovery than if there was no problem in the first place -
this possibility disappears after a second failure. They have already
been burdened once, they're tuned in to patterns of poor service,
and they're keen to even weak signals that your shop doesn't care
- for example, unresponsiveness, defensiveness or inflexibility,
according to Leonard L. Berry, a professor of marketing at Texas
A&M University.
This can cause financial pain. When you lose an existing customer, you lose the lifetime value and that of any referrals he or she
might make. Certainly, maintaining loyalty has long-term benefits
that you should weigh against short-term service-recovery costs,
according to customer service consultant Micah Solomon.
With this in mind, you have a tool to solve these problems.
While there are several models that outline the process, one of the
most popular is "LEARN" - listen empathize, apologize, respond
and notify - created by Marriot International.
LISTEN. A service failure brings with it a customer who's
primed for a tussle, particularly if he or she expects resistance from
your shop. The customer may be frustrated, disappointed, angry or

Avionics News January 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News January 2014