Avionics News January 2014 - 63

personally insulted that "you did this." But whatever the case, the
first step is to let them blow off that steam by showing you're happy
to hear them out.
Remain calm and use active listening techniques: make eye contact; open your body language; concentrate fully so you're mentally
present, alert and attentive; restate the customer's main points, and
ask questions for clarification; and follow up with a summary of
the complaint. This is not yet the time to question its merits, nor
should you bristle up defensively. You'll ultimately lose if you win
this argument, so stay neutral and courteous.
Doing so not only shows you're engaging with the problem, it
also allows you to assess its magnitude so you can muster appropriate resources. Problems can range from "low fault, low severity"
to "high fault, high severity," with increasing demands for repair.
In the former, the customer may only want to complain and then
move on. But in the latter, where you're at fault and caused a big
problem for the customer, you may need to roll out the red carpet
to make amends. In between are opportunities to fix the problem,
and even become a hero, particularly if the "low fault, high severity" involves a manufacturer problem and you can smooth the
resolution.
EMPATHIZE. As you listen to the complaint and gauge its
severity, aim to appreciate it from the customer's perspective.
Acknowledge their right to whatever emotion they are feeling - as
long as they are not cursing or threatening you - and recognize
that even a "minor" problem may cause them major pain, inconvenience and bother. Such phrases as, "I don't blame you for being
upset" do just that.
This is important because you want the customer to know you're
still on their side and you want to make things right, which helps
appease them until you can work a solution; in fact, this might
make unpalatable options less so. Since few customers who experience service failures actually complain, thank them for bringing the
problem to your attention, for their patience and understanding, and
for working with you to resolve the issue.
APOLOGIZE. The first person to hear the complaint should
apologize sincerely - without excuses, justification or blame - on
behalf of the company, and themselves, too, if they're at fault. And
so should you as a manager. This demonstrates you're willing to
take responsibility for the error, according to John Tschohl of the
Service Quality Institute. Anything less will irritate the customer
even more.
This goes double if this is already a loyal customer. Ironically,
these customers, who have an emotional tie to you, often have the
lowest tolerance for service failures.
RESPOND. If the customer perceives the problem to be minor,
an apology may suffice, but don't depend on it. According to the
2011 Customer Rage Study by Customer Care Management and
Consulting and Arizona State University, customers with service
issues are most aggravated by the time lost to correcting them. The

faster you solve the problem, the greater the customer's satisfaction. But this may require you to empower front-line employees
to make some decisions on their own, on the spot. Help them by
providing sample, acceptable solutions to foreseeable problems.
These quick attempts at recovery demonstrate you're serious
about correcting the misstep, and they offer less opportunity for
disappointment, frustration and anger to grow, according to Texas
A&M's Berry. But accuracy is more important than speed; another
mistake will throw fuel on the fire.
But service recovery isn't just about making things right; that's
what the customer paid for, according to Tschohl. The "recovery"
part means you need to sweeten the experience to compensate them
for the trouble.
Your customer is going to talk about this, so you might as well
give them a "wow" experience to report, and the atonement should
reflect the magnitude of the service breakdown. Your shop certainly can find something of value to offer as a sincere make-good
- an airplane wash, a gift card for music to play on his new audio
system, lunch, a pilot-lounge chair message, a hotel room - and
if you're scared of those expenses, remember what you paid in
marketing costs to recruit the customer. At the least, ask what will
make them happy.
NOTIFY. The final step in service recovery closes the loop,
both for your shop and your customer. Internally, this means creating a way to share customer complaints and feedback across your
company and using them as topics for training. A complaint is a
gift, so use it as inspiration for improvement.
Likewise, cultivate a culture that appreciates recovery. Certainly,
you want employees to feel comfortable reporting service failures
as they happen, instead of fearing the punishment that shuts this
accountability down, according to Ron Kaufman, author of "UP!
Your Service." This is especially important if you've had a rash of
problems recently. Make recovery a management-level concern,
and incorporate it into your culture. Share stories of when recovery
efforts worked - and when they didn't. Celebrate those successes
with rewards and recognition, and provide training that gives your
employees the tools to do better next time. And once you're prepared to act on feedback, have front-line employees solicit customers about what you could be doing better.
Externally, loop back to the affected customer, and let them
know what you've done as a result of the complaint so this never
happens again. This starts the process of rebuilding trust, while
skipping this step leaves the customer with the impression that
mistakes will reoccur to someone else.
Problems happen in every service business, but how your
shop handles them tells your customers everything they need
to know about how much you value their business. If you can't
succeed with your second chance, the next time they're in the
market for avionics work, they'll be hard pressed to give you a
second look. q
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Avionics News January 2014

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