5 Tips to Help When Things Go Wrong…

Our family made the annual pilgrimage to our theme park haunt in Lake George last Friday.  We’ve been doing this for the past 13 years and always come away with a lot of great memories.  My son and his cousin had visions of the Steamin’ Demon, The Commodore and the Boomerang, while I envisioned floating down The Lazy River… (you see where I’m going already, don’t you?)

We bought the tickets (full price) and to our dismay, found that all those rides were closed along with ½ of Splashwater Kingdom.  Now, I didn’t drive 2 and a half hours to wade in the kiddie pool…  So what did I do?  I went to the Hospitality Office and asked for a refund on one ticket.  If I couldn’t use any of the attractions, I wanted my money back or at least a discount because a good portion of the park was closed.   I tried to compromise with just refunding one ticket… Nope.  Free lunch?  Nope.  A cookie?  Uh-uh.  The employees wouldn’t even give me eye contact, so I knew this was a pretty common occurrence. 

So, what would I do if I owned a theme park with half the attractions closed?  What would I do if I simply couldn’t staff the park adequately?  Would I offer killer employee incentives?  Would I discount the tickets?  Offer a lunch voucher?  While I don’t have an amusement park, I do need to keep my customers happy.  Here are some Codes of Conduct to help you on your way to a positive customer service experience:

1)    Rules upfront:  Granted, the park did have a list of all the attractions that were closed, however, they were posted on the far left of the entrance where I didn’t even see them.  Next time, I’ll know to look before I pay.  Tell your customers upfront your payment policy.  It’ll avoid some nasty hassles down the road.

2)    Pay for Inconvenience:  If you have dis-satisfied your customer somehow, try to make up for it.  Granted, there are some people you’ll never please, however if you offer a discount or a free voucher for the next visit, your customer will appreciate this far more than you making no effort at all.

3)    Listen:  Even though the park had plenty of unhappy campers on Friday, the best part was when one of their employees listened to me.  She looked me in the eye, apologized and offered some solutions.  She even went out of her way to find out when The Lazy River would re-open.  She was pro-active in doing her very best to resolve the problem. She might not have been able to fix all of the issues, but she made me feel a bit better than the woman who looked at her clipboard and responded in grunts to me.  Eye contact, listening and caring go a long way in business…

4)    Compromise:  If you can’t refund the ticket, offer a voucher for the next visit, or offer a discount on another product or service.  I have a lot more respect for a company that tries to make it right than one that just refuses to help in the first place.

5)    Power to the People:  Give your employees the power to offer discounts should a problem occur.  It’s a lot better to lose money on a ticket, service or product than to lose your reputation if someone chooses to discuss their disappointment in public.  You’ll also improve employee churn rates if you give your team the power to resolve issues on their own; nobody likes to face the music when things go wrong.  Give your employees the tools to resolve issues quickly and efficiently.

What do you do in your business to increase customer satisfaction?  How do you handle customer complaints?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Happy Clicking