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By Howard Partridge June, 2008 How To Handle An Unhappy Customer |
| If you have been in business for any length of time and have employees, sooner or later you will get a call that goes something like this; "Your man was at my house, and I had a set of earrings..."
In our 18 years of experience there have been a handful of of these situations. In most cases, the client was absolutely sure that we were the only one in the house, and that it couldn't have been anyone else. In
When you get a call like that, listen very closely. Then say, "Mrs. Jones, I will definitely check into this immediately, but let me assure you that our company does a thorough background check on all of our employees. The employee that was at your home (or business) has been with us for (number of years), and we haven't had any problems with him. This would be completely out of his character." You may want to go a little farther with it.
Recently, I got a very personal call from one of our clients. She would not tell my staff what the call was in regard to. When I called her back, I learned that one of our in-home consultants had been to her home. She started by saying she did not realize that we were scheduled to come out. She was at work, and allowed us to go into the home with her son at home. So, she was already a bit put out because in her mind, we were not scheduled to be there. She went on to tell me that in the very area that we inspected, a pair of diamond earrings were missing.
I listened very carefully. I asked her a few "clarification" questions. In other words, "Okay, so you didn't realize that you were booked that day..." She responds.
"Okay, and you were at work..." "Okay, and your son was there?"
So, I reviewed the entire situation, step by step before even talking about the earrings. "And the earrings were where?"
After realizing my concern, she began second guessing herself..."I'm not saying that your guy did it..."
| Once she had said everything she wanted to say, I said "Ms. Lee, that was (Name of Tech) that was at your home. Not only does our company do thorough background checks on every person we hire, (Name of Tech) has been with us for about 4 years. This would be completely out of his character. In fact, his wife and his son both work for our company and they are personal friends of mine. I know other people that know them as well. We know the personal side of their life very intimately, so this would be totally out of character, but let me do this...Let me talk with (Name of Tech) to see if there is anything he saw that may give us any insight."
I called my guy and asked him about his visit and anything that he saw. I asked what his impression of the son was, etc.
After talking with my guy, I called the client back and said, "Ms. Lee, I talked with my guy, and he didn't see anything that would give us any clues. Would you please let us know if there is anything else we can do. If you find your earrings, please let us know.
About two weeks later she called to let us know she found her earrings and booked the job with us.
A few years ago, we had a client that filed a police report on some things that were missing, and only because our guys were among many of the service people in that home, the undercover officers came to interview my guys.
After the interview, they said "We know your guys didn't have anything to do with it because of the body language that your guys are displaying. We have been doing this for many years, and can tell when someone has something to hide. These guys are clean as a whistle!"
So, if you are accused, don't get defensive, simply listen carefully, promise to talk to the parties involved, respond quickly, and invite any future feedback. Howard Partridge built his carpet cleaning company from the trunk of his car into a $2 million per year organization. His thirteen truck company is one of the most respected high end residential firms in the country. He is the president of Phenomenal Products, Inc., which offers proven business solutions to the carpet cleaning industry. He co-authored the |
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