Dealing With Unhappy Clients

My first call this morning was from a broker who was unhappy with a product he had received.  It seemed that the wording used on the site of the reseller who he had purchased the product through was not the same as the wording on my site and he got an impression that the product would be something different than it was.  (This is where I remind you how important it is to set people's expectations properly, lest you have the experience I did this morning.)  The actual product was not one he would have ordered had he realized what it was.  It was a basic level product and he was already at a more advanced level.

After apologizing for the miscommunication, offering a refund, and promising to fix the language on the partner site, I had solved his problem, but I had not managed to salvage the relationship.  This was his first experience of my company and it was a negative one.  Simply refunding his money was not going to be enough to ever win his business, so I went one step further.  I gave him a free copy of a product that would actually fit his needs.  I took the opportunity of his phone call to give me the chance to "Wow" him with my response, and now I have the chance that I will be able to do business in the future with him.

The fact is that none of us want a client to be unhappy.  Those of you who, like me, define yourselves by your level of integrity, know that having that integrity questioned is never a pleasant experience.  But when confronted with an angry client, it is easy to get defensive.  You will never be able to effectively "Wow" a client when you are feeling defensive because to truly "Wow" them, you have to think in broad, expansive terms from a place of truly wanting to deal with them again.  When we're defensive, we go into survival mode which is a short-term thinking process designed over millenia to simply get us out of a dangerous situation and away to safety.  The last thing we want in the moment of being defensive is to ever speak to that person again. 

So how do you avoid getting defensive?  The first thing is to de-personalize.  I had a client telling me that my product was terrible.  I wrote that product.  I could have taken that comment very personally.  And yet, I realized that it wasn't the quality of the product that he had an issue with per se, but the fact that it was not the advanced level product he had expected.  From the perspective of looking for an advanced level product and getting one that was a starter product, anyone would be extremely disappointed no matter how good the starter product was.  There was absolutely no way that my intention for that product would have ever met his expectations because I didn't design it to.

Understanding this fact, I could take it out of the context of being about me putting out a bad product (which I know it isn't based on many other happy clients who had the proper expectations set), and put it into the context of someone being upset that his expectations had not been met.  That no longer made it about me and now I could get into the idea of what I could do to help him feel better about his interaction with my company.

The first thing I needed to do was to apologize and take responsibility for the issue.  If you place blame, you can't ever hope to maintain your integrity - or to bring people's anger levels down.  And a simple "I'm sorry, it's entirely my fault" goes a long way.  I had not checked the copy, therefore it was my fault it was wrong.  Period.

Second, I needed to make it right.  The copy had been misleading, so I refunded him his money. 

Third, I needed to help him see my perspective so that he could see that I wasn't trying to pull one over on him but was actually putting out a useful product for the right consumer.  I pointed out that most people who purchase that product are start-ups who don't already have something in place.  He agreed that the product would be useful for that purpose. 

Fourth, I needed to "Wow" him.  I provided him with a product that would be useful to him as my apology for him having had such a bad experience. 

Fifth, I needed to check in with him to see if he was OK now.  I told him that I really wanted to make things right and that I hoped we could do business together in the future.  He agreed to review the product I had sent him and let me know what he thought of it.  Given his level of discontent at the beginning of the call, this was a huge positive step forward.  I hope that after reviewing what I know to be an excellent product for his needs, that I may get the opportunity to work with him again. 

Remember, simply solving the problem is usually not enough.  There has to be some compensation to the consumer for the trouble of having had to make the phone call or having been upset.  The more upset the person has become, the more above and beyond you need to go in order to make them happy. 

For someone with a small problem that you can resolve instantly, a quick fix is usually sufficient, especially when combined with a sincere apology for the inconvenience.  For larger issues, a larger apology is required.  And really, it's all about the apology.  You must say "I'm sorry" and you have to really mean it.