© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 1 McGraw-Hill part Define what a service breakdown is. 2.Apply knowledge of behavioral styles in difficult customer situations. 3.Recognize different types of difficult customers and effectively deal with them. Building and Maintaining Relationships Service Breakdowns and Service Recovery Learning Objectives, Chapter 7

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2 McGraw-Hill Service Breakdowns and Service Recovery Learning Objectives, Continued 4.Use the emotion-reducing model to help keep difficult situations from escalating. 5.Explain why customers defect. 6.Develop effective strategies for working with internal customers.

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3 McGraw-Hill 7.Identify strategies for preventing customer dissatisfaction and problem solving. 8.Explain the six steps of the problem solving model. 9.Implement a front-line service recovery strategy, and spot roadblocks to service recovery. Service Breakdowns and Service Recovery Learning Objectives, Continued

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 4 McGraw-Hill Understand Service Breakdowns: What are service breakdowns? Service breakdowns occur daily in all types of organizations. Definition: Situation when customers have expectations of a certain type or level of service that are not met by a service representative.

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 5 McGraw-Hill Behavioral Preferences Play a Major Role The Role of Behavioral Style The more you know about style preferences, the better you will understand your customers. See Ch. 6 to review the behavioral preferences if you have need to confirm their patterns and strategies for dealing with them.

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6 McGraw-Hill Difficult Customers Various types of difficult customers will be faced. Demanding or demeaning Be professional, respect the customer, be firm and fair. Say what you can do. Indecisive customers Be patient, ask open-ended questions, listen actively, suggest options, guide decision making

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7 McGraw-Hill Difficult Customers, continued Other types of difficult customers Dissatisfied and angry customers. Be positive, acknowledge customer’s feelings, reassure, remain objective, listen actively, reduce frustrations, negotiate solutions and follow up. Rude or inconsiderate customers. Remain professional. Don’t retaliate.

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 8 McGraw-Hill Talkative Customers Tips for dealing with talkative customers Remain warm and cordial, but focused Ask specific open-ended questions. Use closed-end questions to control. Manage the conversation.

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 9 McGraw-Hill The Emotion-Reducing Model Review each area of the model. Use the model for reducing customer emotions.

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 10 McGraw-Hill Customer Defection Reasons to Defect Poor service and complacency. Inappropriate complaint resolution. Unmet needs. Failure to be sensitive to diversity may set you, your company, and your customer on a collision course.

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 11 McGraw-Hill Internal Customer Relations Relationships—Internal customers are special also Stay connected Meet all commitments Don’t sit on your emotions Build a professional reputation Adopt a good-neighbor policy

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 12 McGraw-Hill Strategies to Prevent Dissatisfaction: Use problem solving Ways to deal with a service breakdown is to prevent it: Think like a customerExceed expectations Pamper the customerRespect the customer Focus on the customer

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 13 McGraw-Hill Prevent Dissatisfaction : Focus on the Customer Take the following actions to focus on the customer: React to remarks or actions. Empathize. Take action. Reassure or reaffirm. Follow-up.

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 14 McGraw-Hill The Problem-Solving Process Steps to Problem Solving

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 15 McGraw-Hill Implementing a Service Recovery Strategy The five phases of the service recovery process are: 1. Apologize, apologize, apologize again. 2. Take immediate action. 3. Show compassion. 4. Provide compensation. 5. Conduct follow up.

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 16 McGraw-Hill Service Recovery Process, Fig. 7.7 Use the form to format the discussion easier

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 17 McGraw-Hill Examples of Service Breakdowns Review each with an eye to solving the problem.