No matter how sincere the apology or how appropriate the restitution, there's little point if there's no attempt to prevent another mistake in the future. Customers want to know that business owners recognize problems and want to resolve them. The future of any relationship depends upon a belief that a negative incident won't be repeated. For this reason, an intention to cause no further harm must be part of the apology process.
Read moreThere's Gotta Be A Way to Fix This… Fixing Customer Relationships Part 2 — Restitution
“Restitution” comes from the Latin roots “re-“ and “statuere” — to establish again. This is precisely the purpose of restitution: to establish again the relationship that was damaged by some blunder. In order for an exchange to occur, the money a customer trades for your goods and services must equal the value that they feel in their minds. But when a customer is mistreated, that balance changes. Restitution is an attempt to rebalance the scales.
Read morePlease Accept My Apologies: Fixing Customer Relationships, Part 1 — The Apology
The way you handle problems is a significant aspect of your brand. Customers won’t separate their personal experiences from your advertising and your products and your website — they see all parts as a cohesive whole. Creating policies and procedures to deal with negative events is as much a part of building a brand as designing a marketing campaign or creating an attractive window display.
Read moreWhat Have I Done? What to do When You've Angered a Customer
You will make mistakes. Your actions following those mistakes will determine what kinds of relationships you build. When we make a mistake it’s up to us to determine what to do next. This week, we will examine what to do when we screw up and, by deconstructing that process, come up with ways to fixed broken customer relationships.
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