How To Win Back Unhappy Customers

I made a harried phone call at 4 pm to track a flower order - one I placed online but one that hadn't been delivered on the day it was supposed to. The company web site had taken my order, my credit card info and my delivery instructions and sent along a confirmation. But no phone number, no store ID and no person to contact. So I started calling the individual stores.

First store - 4:00 pm: (the closest geographically) "Nope, we didn't get the order here. How did you place it again? You could try this number and take your chances. Good luck."

Second store - 4:25 pm: "No it wasn't our store and I don't know how to help you. I don't know the codes to get into the system to find out where your order went. I just started working here a few weeks ago and I can't help much. But try this number (same as first store gave me). What? They're not answering? Hmm, then I don't know what to do. Sorry."

Third store - 4:30 pm: "I'm not sure who would have gotten the order but let me make a couple of calls and I'll call you back (which she did ten minutes later with the number for the fourth store)."

Fourth store - 4:45 pm: (a forty minute drive away) "Yeah we got your order and we'll call our delivery guy to get that out to you pretty quick here. Oh, you're not going to be home? Oh yeah, it does say you'd only be there until 5. Well what do you want us to do? Forget it? Really? Well OK. Yeah, we can refund your money but that's going to take a couple of days. Sorry."

But here's where it all changed. The fourth store called back the next morning and the store manager, who personally had messed up the order, offered this: "Mr. Burns, I am so sorry what happened yesterday. I messed up. I didn't read the order right and I wasn't on the ball. There are no excuses. I'm so sorry that we missed the special occasion. But the buck stops here. I'm the one who messed it up and I'm the one who is going to fix it. Your credit card has been reimbursed but I still want to send you your order today and I will pay for it, if you will accept it, as well as a $25 gift certificate in our store. Will you accept my apology and allow me to fix what I messed up? Please."

That's how you build strong service and win back lost customers: you are accountable, responsible and you make it right, no matter what it takes. People mess up, sure they do - and most would make up some lame excuse to not have to put their tail on the line. Some will protect themselves instead of keeping the customer. Some will use the "I just work here" clause to abdicate responsibility. And then some will damn the torpedoes and do it anyway - just to make it right. I am now a satisfied customer - one who is prepared to cross the city to get my flowers from here on in.

There is "WOW" or there is "not-wow." Fourth store gets a WOW - even though they messed it up the first time. That's how you win back unhappy customers.

Poor Leadership or Bad Management

It’s a simple question easily answered: it’s always bad management. Here’s why. Poor leadership doesn’t exist. There is either a lack of leadership or bad management but there is never any poor leadership. If it’s poor, it’s not leadership – it’s an absence of leadership.

So why do I even bring this subject up? I bring it up because I’m sick and tired of organizations encouraging their people to abdicate responsibility for their actions by blaming an entity that is faceless, has no name nor can be considered tangible. Mediocre organizations and their employees are too quick to claim poor leadership when something goes wrong when, in fact, it is either a lack of leadership or bad management that causes a problem. And if there’s a lack of leadership, then that’s just bad management.

It’s as though we need to blame something but we just don’t have the stones to point the finger at someone specific.

But when you blame bad management, that always falls on one person. One person becomes accountable and responsible. And if you’re going to be able to blame one person for a mess-up in an organization, then everyone can be blamed for their actions – including you!

Leadership, as a whole, is anonymous – anyone can have influence in leadership. Management, however, has a name. And anyone with a management position could be on the hook at any time.

Not much wonder organizations are falling all over themselves to move to leadership training over management training: there are no consequences if you get it wrong. It allows an organization to collectively shoulder a burden when something goes wrong but no one specifically is to blame. But when you point the finger at management, you point the finger at actual names on the doors of the offending department. When management gets it wrong, one person gets singled out – every time.

I applaud the managers who stick their necks out and who are accountable and responsible for their actions. It will inspire employees far more than trying to hide behind cowardly “leadership” labels.
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Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

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Put The Money Back

When the recession hit, you asked your employees to sacrifice with you while you adjusted to a market downturn. You asked them to give up their expected raises, to find ways of cutting costs, to cut back learning and to do it for their own job security and the good of the company. And now that the company is back on the mend, how quickly are you reinstating pay raises, learning opportunities and meetings and giving back the budgets they helped slash?

Or are today's better margins going directly to the company bank account?

My, my, how quickly we forget who helped you make it through the tough times. It's no wonder that over 60% of the job market is looking for another job. It's an insult to be asked to cut back for the good of the company and then not pour that money right back to the people who sacrificed "for the good of the company." You gotta dance with the one that brung ya.

If, as a middle-manager, you're not actively pitching senior management to open the financial floodgates again, your people are going to lump you in the same bucket. If that's the case, they won't engage for you, they won't produce for you and they won't really care much what you have to say. It's because you did what senior management asked you to do and made them find ways to cut back. But now, you're seemingly not championing for them once that money is flowing again.

This is exactly how cultures of trust and mutual respect get destroyed: by how you emerge from the downturn. If you asked your people to cut back then you MUST give them back what they sacrificed to get you through - or at the very least (if you've become lean over this past two years) ask their opinion on what should be reinstated and what is better left as is. Get their input and make them feel a part of the process right now. If you don't, expect a lot of new faces in your workplace shortly.

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Part 2 - Here's where you can find me on the social networks these days:
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--
Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

You Don’t Have To Go To Meetings

Recently, I was chosen to address the full staff of a small municipality – everything from Administration and Social Services personnel to Fire, Police, Library, Recreation and Public Works staff. This was their annual Staff Day, a half-day session to inform all of the members of the municipal government staff of what was happening with new projects, new staff additions and new directions for the coming year. I was brought in to wrap up the morning offering a new perspective and a new attitude towards work, safety and developing a personal leadership role within the job environment.

During the early part of the meeting, while representatives from each department were addressing their updates to inform the rest of the staff of the goings-on, a few employees sitting in the back row decided that it was more important to chatter amongst themselves instead of keeping up to speed on what their own employer and organization was doing and how it may affect them, their work and the community in which they live and work. There was little respect or courtesy being demonstrated by these few workers especially during the part of the program in which the CAO was addressing the topics of Respect, Trust and Integrity.

Just prior to my session commencing, there was an open forum to ask questions. One back-of-the-room disruptor muttered under their breath loud enough for others around them to hear, “Do we have to be here?”

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: No you don’t have to be here. You don’t have to attend any staff meetings. You don’t have to show up at work on time. You don’t have to endure three hours of coffee, donuts and free pizza for lunch. You don’t have to give your attention on the job. You don’t have to be considerate to your fellow workers. And no, you don’t have to sit through a boring meeting. Simply hand in your resignation and you’re free to do whatever you want.

However, if you take the job, you need to suck it up. You take all of the meetings, the procedures, the bosses, the whining of your co-workers, the hours, the holidays, the paycheck and the benefits you’re entitled to. You don’t have to do any of the jobs you don’t like – but you will have to give up everything you do like in order to stop doing what bores you. Some parts of the job are not as much fun as other parts of the job, granted. But they are all necessary.

My guess is that the Staff day was developed in response to, “How come no one ever tells us what’s going on?” I’m willing to bet those comments came from the people in the back row who chose not to pay attention anyway. And in a few weeks they’ll ask, “How come no one told us this was going on?”

Full kudos to the Administration for bringing the staff together to communicate what is happening with the municipality. They demonstrated respect, trust and integrity with their employees. Too bad not everyone reciprocated.

People who show no respect for their fellow workers will likely show little respect to their work, their equipment, their responsibilities, their co-workers, their bosses and their customers. Would it be a loss if these people left the job? Really?

The Résumé Is Dead

What is a résumé? It’s nothing more than a collection of things you’ve done in your work life – a sort-of “eulogy” at work. Oh sure, it may also point out some skills that you were allowed to use while on the job but it really gives no indication of your aptitude, your natural talents nor your values and attitudes toward the work world.

Michael Bloomberg, NYC Mayor, once said, “You are not paid for what you have done in the past. You are paid for what you’re about to do in the future.”

Isn’t it interesting that you (boss or HR professional) decide who you want to interview is based purely on what your candidate may have done in the past – not what they are about to do in the future.

Why is the résumé dead?

• There is no indication from a résumé of what heights could have possibly been reached – only what someone has been given the opportunity to do.
• There is no indication from a résumé of what a candidate is capable of learning – only what they have learned in the past, what school they graduated from and what pieces of paper (degrees) they may hold (relevant or not).
• There is no indication from a résumé that a particular candidate could be the next great leader for your organization – especially if never given the opportunity to lead.
• There is no indication from a résumé of how brilliant a mind may be when hidden behind average grades and average positions in an organization – especially if the candidate was kept down by a tyrant boss.
• There is no indication from a résumé of values and ethics being paramount – especially if only ever given a lowly entry-level position and no opportunity to provide input.
• There is no indication from a résumé that a candidate is a decent human being – credentials on a wall don’t make you decent.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: The workforce is changing. Baby Boomers are retiring and Gen Y is here to stay. In a few years, Gen Y will be taking over management positions and leadership roles and the organizational structure that we know today will be dead – along with the résumé.

The great leaders of tomorrow and those who will change the world, including your organization, will be the people with ideas and those who will challenge the standard workforce strategy. They won’t be hired because of their résumés. And as long as you continue to believe that the résumé is the best way to find a suitable candidate to fill a position, you will be eating the dust of the organizations who have found a way to attract people with brains, ideas, values, ethics and a shared-effort philosophy. These people are found in chat rooms, blogging, e-networking, texting and hanging out with those of like-mind.

Who do you think would bring your organization a higher degree of greatness: a person looking for a job (armed with a résumé) or one who is already sharing ideas with others (armed with a Blog, followers and a huge network)? Which of the two choices do you think would give you better results in the future?

The résumé is dead.

You Are Here

It was 1942 when Bing Crosby first sang the immortal White Christmas in the movie Holiday Inn. As a Canadian, there haven’t been a lot of Christmases that I can remember that weren’t white. But the trick in Canada, because the country is so large with weather that is so diverse, is having a coast-to-coast-to-coast (Pacific to Atlantic to Arctic) white Christmas which hasn’t happened in Canada since 1971. This year it will happen.

The weather across the country has been, well, wintry this year. The East Coast is getting hammered with snow this week. The central provinces have had their snow and Canada’s busiest airport, Toronto’s Pearson International, is still trying to catch up with the hundreds of delayed and canceled flights over the weekend due to heavy snow. Those flight delays and cancellations have rippled across North America creating a backlog across the continent. In the meantime, the Prairie Provinces have been hammered by snow and brutally cold temperatures. Then there’s the usually seemingly tropical West Coast - which usually has more rain during the winter - which has been pounded by snow this year (a foot of snow or 30cm which is huge in areas where hardware stores don’t normally stock snow shovels) this weekend alone. It’s white right across the country and we’re just a few days from Christmas.

In fact, this morning, as I was starting my car to warm it up because the temperature this morning was at -28°C (24° below zero F), my neighbor from across the road asked if I would give him a jump. Now if you’ve never heard that term (it is so Canadian), it means to help him start his car by connecting “jumper” cables from my car battery to his. Sometimes cars don’t start when it’s cold like this. I was pleased to oblige.

I recall my Uncle in Northern Ireland once asking me while I was on a visit there, “So what kind of temperatures do you have in Canada?”

I replied that depending on the area of the country, you could see swings of +40°C to -40°C (112°F to 40° below zero F).

Incredulously he asked, “Well why do you live there?”

Funny, but I never really thought about it before. I just live here. It’s the way it is and it is definitely winter (first day of winter was yesterday) in Canada. Canada is where I have chosen to live and the weather is the weather and there’s not much we can do about except embrace it and deal with it.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: As you walk through the shopping malls at this time of year looking for a particular store, you may find yourself in front of the big mall directory sign by the entrance. The most important thing on that big sign is the little red arrow that simply reads, “You Are Here!”

Nothing else on that sign makes any sense without the “You Are Here” arrow. And that’s the way it is in life. Without knowing where you are, you will never find a way to where you say you want to go. So as you take stock of the year you have just completed and begin to set your sights onto where you want to be in 2009, tell yourself the truth. Where you are is not the fault of the economy, the government, your boss, your spouse, your education, your circumstances or anything else outside of you. You are where you are by your own doing – no exceptions.

The economic downturn happened. Were you ready for it? Did you make the decisions this year that prepared you or hindered you? You always have a choice – always. You may not like the choices before you but there’s always a choice. (This part will require a serious attitude adjustment for some. If you’re resisting this idea, then life is NEVER going to get any better for you – ever.)

My friend and mentor, Ken Larson, says something that makes such perfect sense, “If you aren’t living your life by design then you are living your life by default. If you aren’t actively choosing to design your own life then you are living by default, and allowing anyone else’s design to be your life.”

Over this Holiday season, do something that helps you take better control of your own life for 2009.