Make it right when things go wrong

September 24, 2011

 

 

I recently attended an event and was seated in an area where the presenters were unintelligible. As it was impossible to change my seat once the program started I toughed it out while the rest of the audience laughed in obvious delight to the witticisms of the well-known speaker. The next day I sent an email to the organization to let them know of my disappointment.

The general manager responded to my concerns almost immediately, acknowledging the sound system failure, noting that these problems will be addressed for the next event at the same venue. To my surprise, all that was offered was an “apology for my disappointment”. I am a member of this non-profit and regularly attend their events. The lack of concern on the part of the general manager has fundamentally changed my relationship with the group. Instead of identifying with them and wanting to promote their activities I doubt I will renew my membership or my donation and don’t plan on attending further events.

What a missed opportunity. Handled differently this organization could have turned me into a raving fan and a more generous donor. What could they have done differently? They got the first part right – they admitted that something had gone wrong. But instead of taking the next steps to fully recover the situation, only an apology was extended which in my case wasn’t sufficient. One of the easiest ways to recover a service failure is to ask the customer “What can we do to make things right?” For many, an acknowledgement and an apology are enough. Because I had to strain to hear for almost 2 hours, an apology didn’t suffice. I needed tangible recognition that I had suffered a loss; they had failed to deliver what I paid for. Had they asked I would have requested a ticket to a future event. But they didn’t ask and they lost the opportunity to make it right.

When things go wrong, organizations need to empower employees to recover the situation. But for this non-profit, if the GM doesn’t get it, no one else in the organization will. The good news for this group is that I won’t name them publicly but I will respond to the GM, and ask her to consider whether her attitude is holding the organization back. Excellence starts with senior leadership, especially when it comes to customer service.

How good is your service recovery? Do your customers rave about you, even when things go wrong? Here’s a great article on how to turn service recovery into a competitive edge.