3 Tips To Providing Authentic Customer Service

Sometimes, things do not work properly. Sometimes, things break. Sometimes, things are unfixable.

As a customer service representative, you have to explain this to the customer who currently has an issue that is causing frustration in their life.

The customer calls YOU, yells at YOU and YOU have to fix their issue.

Then, you hear that the issue is “unfixable”.

Yikes!

I’m not talking about any specific situation–but there are things that we often just have to deal with–things happen.

So, how do you explain this effectively to a customer?

3 Tips To Providing Authentic Customer Service

Be Honest

We want the truth and our customer wants it too. While sometimes the truth is difficult to understand, it’s better to be honest than to not be. Helping the customer understand you’re being real with them allows them to trust you and your business. Explain the situation, as honestly as you can to the customer. Perhaps your management team can have a written statement issued out for everyone to follow and be on the same page with.

Apologize

Apologize. Apologize. Apologize. Say “I’m Sorry” and mean it. The issue stinks. You can’t fix the situation and your customer isn’t happy. You may feel like you failed, but alas, you didn’t. You were being honest to them about the issue and you apologized. Apologizing shows you took ownership of the situation, even if it’s isn’t 100% your fault.

Compensate

This one is tricky–but compensating your customer for an unfixable issue doesn’t always have to be with money. You can give them your time and help with additional issues, set things up on their account, put them in touch with someone higher up–do something–to help make up for the inconvenience.

So the next time something breaks, be honest, apologize and compensate!

[custom_author=jenny]