How To Turn A Customer Crisis Into A Sales Opportunity
Things go wrong, it’s a fact of life. No matter how much time and effort you put into making sure your client receives the best product or service … things will occasionally go wrong.
There’s no secret formula that can protect you from this happening, in fact if there was I would strongly discourage you from using it. Why?
Because long-term relationships grow through adversity.
In todays competitive business landscape excellent customer service and delivery is a ‘must-have’, not a ‘nice to have’. There is a tried-and-tested way to develop your customer relationships to the highest level and differentiate yourself from the competition. It is proving that
you not only support them when times are good,
but you are ALWAYS there for them when things go wrong.
Here is your Customer Crisis Checklist:
- Be visible: Don’t wait for them to contact you, get proactive. See every crisis as an opportunity to strengthen the relationship.
- Apologise: Fact of life number 2 – People make mistakes. No one is perfect and no one expects you to be perfect. Look for opportunities to be accountable and take ownership of the things that you are responsible for.
- Understand: Take time to fully understand the detail of the crisis and how it is impacting your client. Only then can you start to plan how best to prioritise and tackle the issues.
- Prevention: Learn from your mistakes and make sure you make the changes necessary to prevent them from happening again. Clients are prepared to forgive you once but don’t mess up twice.
- Stay creative: How a client reacts to a crisis can give you an insight into what they really value. Once the crisis is under control come up with innovative ideas to go the extra mile in the areas that they value the most.
“It’s not how we make mistakes, but how we correct them that defines us”