Now comes the hard part. While most people will accept your apology, they won’t necessarily forget the infraction. It’s like catching one of your teenagers smoking dope. He may ask for your forgiveness, and you may give it, but
it is prudent for you to watch him carefully for the next few years. You can forgive, but you are wise to not forget.
Same thing with your customers. It’s one thing to forgive, it’s another to forget. They won’t forget quickly or easily. So you have to earn their trust back by your actions, not your words. You’ve got to consistently do what you say you are going to do. Your company must, time after time, do what you say they will do.
Some years ago I came across a study that looked at two common selling situations. In one, a customer bought from a vendor for the first time. The order was received on time, and everything was in order and as it should be. In the second situation, the customer bought for the first time, but there was a problem with the order. The salesperson apologized, and did what he/she could do to fix the
problem.
The study then looked at which of the two sets of customers were most likely to order again. Interestingly, the second set of customers – those where there was a problem – were much more likely to re-order.
At first glance that defies conventional wisdom. However, if you think about it a bit deeper, particularly from the standpoint of the customer’s risk, the companies in the second scenario were less risk for the customer going forward. Now, the customer knew how the company and sales person would respond to a ‘worst case scenario.’ They were, therefore, a lower risk decision going forward.
Secondly, the act of inquiring into the customer’s satisfaction, apologizing it, and fixing it all led to a greater relationship with the customer.
The moral to this story is that ‘dropping the ball’ is not nearly as traumatic in the long-term as you may think in the short term – providing you handle it correctly.
Regaining trust is, in most cases, a long term project. It’s much easer to lose a customer’s trust than it is to gain it. Your actions, consistent and reliable, backed up by your heartfelt interest in the customer, will, over time, win them back.
