The Service Recovery Paradox—that phenomenon whereby aggrieved customers whose problems are resolved satisfactorily become more loyal than customers who have not had any issue—is well known. The jury is however still out regarding the veracity of that audacious claim. There are several studies that have shown that the Paradox works only to a certain extent.
One can however attest to the fact that there is a lot of truth to the phenomenon. We know that customers who have had bad experiences do not necessarily stop doing business with the entity. It is true that many customers will take their business away when things go bad but, by and large, many still stay. For businesses that intend to stay in business for long, it is therefore important to find out the exact things that must be done to ensure that the Paradox works in their favour.
All business managers will confess that it is their desire that they always get it right with customers. It will be difficult to find managers who want things to go bad before they have to go through the stress of salvaging the situation. Service recovery is far from a pleasant task. It is, however, a fact of life that plans do not always go according to plan. Plans fail. Computers crash. Stock markets do same. Hurricanes occur. Power lines fall. Luggage goes missing. Items get misplaced. People make mistakes. People forget. People lie. Even robots malfunction. That is just the way life is.
Service fails, sometimes—and when it does, the situation must be recovered. Things must be made right by the customer; otherwise the customer will walk away with his or her business. When these unfortunate occurrences take place, they more often than not, affect the quality of the customer’s experience. And dissatisfied customers complain. It is within their right to do so.
As a matter of fact, any attempts by an organisation to put in place a great service recovery strategy must first be preceded by an equally great complaint management process. The business must have a system in place that allows customers the freedom to complain. Without that, customers will not be able to voice their dissatisfaction and would have no other choice than to simply walk away.
Even with a sound complaint management system, many customers still do not complain. Therefore, without proper channels for lodging complaints, the situation would be worse. Research shows that one of the main reasons customers do not like to complain is because of the stress associated with lodging complaints.
An organisation, where complaining customers are made to feel like they are just being troublesome, is not going to be around for long. Such an organisation is not aware that complaints are gift—gifts customers freely give and so must be welcomed with all gratitude. For many customers, it is far easier to just take their business to the competition than to complain.
It is a fact that customers who decide to lodge complaints do so because they genuinely care about the success of the business. This is why a good complaint management system—one that rewards complaining customers—must be in place as part of a service recovery strategy.
An organisation that has no well-planned complaint management system will end up sending customers to complain elsewhere. In the times we find ourselves in, aggrieved customers will easily take to social media to rant and rave—and that is the last place any organisation would want to be brought up. The free-for-all environment that social media is makes it a scary place for a brand to be brought up for scrutiny. Keyboard warriors will hide behind fake identities and have a real go at the brand. This is why it is always a better option to recover a failed service situation as quickly as possible.
The importance of a sound service recovery strategy cannot be overstated, especially in the times we find ourselves in. The power of the Internet to rapidly propagate negative information means that a poor service recovery strategy could spell doom for any business. An inability to quickly recover a bad experience could be the difference between brands bearing the brunt of customers’ anger. Or the same brands being hailed as epitome of great customer service. A good service recovery strategy could be the difference between a brand that becomes a pariah on the market and one that is most recommended.
It is also imperative for organisations to understand that getting service recovery right and obtaining good results out of a bad situation is all about expectations management. When things do not go according to plan, customers develop an expectation of what is supposed to happen to resolve the situation. Much like everything in customer service, service recovery is good when the results exceed the customer’s expectations. When that happens, the customer’s satisfaction shoots up. However, when the outcome of the recovery falls below the customer’s expectations, the service recovery is said to have failed. It is that simple.
It is expected that every business must always have a ready-to-implement service recovery strategy in place. The Service Recovery Strategy is the customer service equivalent of the Crisis Management Strategy of Public Relations. A Service Recovery Strategy will determine who will say what, what will be said, when it will be said, how it will be said, how the customer’s emotions will be managed, etc. However, it is only by finding out what customers expect that a business is able to design a sound service recovery strategy—one that will ensure that the customer’s experience is managed well, even when things turn sour.
The key questions therefore are: What do customers expect when the unfortunate happens? How are those expectations to be managed? What are the measures that the organisation must have in place if it is to ensure that its customers are kept happy, even during those times when things do not go according to plan?
A brilliant study, published in the February 2021 edition of the Journal of Services Marketing really did justice to the subject matter. Although the study, titled “Difficulty Is a Possibility: Turning Service Recovery into e-WOM”, focused on the experience of online shoppers, the results has implications beyond online shopping.
According to the study which was carried out among consumers in Vietnam, it is entirely possible for a business to recover a bad customer experience, if certain factors are in place. The report stated that these factors do not only enhance customer satisfaction during the service recovery process but also help in creating positive electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) reviews for the brand in question.
The following are five factors needed for a sound service recovery strategy:
Apology
An apology is one of those remedial actions that are important just because it is the civilised thing to do. When things have not gone as planned, it is just right to apologise to the customer. I know of instances, where customer service professionals have been warned by their legal advisors not to apologise when something goes wrong. The fear is that an apology amounts to an admission of guilt and litigious customers can use it against the company when things get to court. Although, I can understand where that kind of reasoning comes from, I believe there is a way to apologise without necessarily saying you are guilty. The apology should be because of how the incident is making the customer feel at the moment. It is about the inconvenience that has been caused to the customer, nothing more.
An apology is a way of telling the customer that you care about the way he or she feels. It is a way of telling the customer that the business is truly interested in finding a solution to the problem. It is also a first step in finding a solution to the problem that has arisen. Apologies have also been found to calm irate customers down. A genuine apology has the power to diffuse the most tensed of situations. Experts advise that when customers’ egos have been affected by the service failure, the best thing to do is to start with an apology.
It has even been put forth by psychologists that when there is a service failure, customers tend to suffer emotional loss. A sincere apology, it is claimed, tends to refuel that drained emotion. An important thing about an apology is that it must be timed right. An apology delayed can have the opposite effect. It might come across to customers as insincere. Finally, an apology must not come with excuses. The latter neutralises the effects of the former.
Explanation
Nothing frustrates a customer more than being kept in the dark on a matter concerning him or her. When things do not go well, it is just right to explain to the customer what has really gone wrong and what the company is going to do about the situation. It is plain disrespectful to do anything else. Not knowing what the problem is can be frustrating because it ties in with not knowing when the problem will be solved—and that can really irk customers.
A common example is customers waiting in a queue that is not moving, and they not being given any explanation as to why they are not being served. To see staff walking up and down without telling the customers anything can be really frustrating for customers. Sometimes all customers want to hear is when the issue would be resolved. That explanation alone can help customers plan their times accordingly.
TO BE CONTINUED
