What is the cause of aggravation? Yourself?

It’s Saturday night around 6 p.m. Early dinner for Jessica, Gabrielle and me.
We’re sitting in Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Charlotte. We’ve been customers at this location for as long as it has been there. Seen several managers come and go, seen hundreds of servers come and go.
This particular visit was pivotal because it may have been our last. Their 10-year consistency has been compromised at least three ways: 1. New bread – lower quality. 2. New croutons – lower quality. 3. New espresso – lower quality. They used to serve the best espresso in the city (Illy). But it seems corporate decided to remove all the machines and substitute with a lesser (cheaper) brand.
Same price. Lower quality. More profit. Not good for anyone but them.
And they’re not bragging about their new low quality. I guess they figured no one would notice. I was disappointed. Not angry or anything, I just had an expectation when we entered the restaurant that wasn’t met when we were served.
The manager happened by. I asked him about the sudden reduction in quality. He smiled, hemmed, hawed, and looked embarrassed that we “caught” them. He, of course, blamed it on “corporate.” I asked him for an email address to voice my concern. He promised he would return with it. Never did.
As the manager walked by our table a second time, we heard him say, “Another aggravated customer.” He was referring to some people waiting to be seated. Did nothing about it. Sad.
When a customer is aggravated, complaining or angry, there’s a reason. If you’re smart enough, empathetic enough, and willing enough, you can discover the reason, help the customer, resolve the issue and prevent the same thing from happening again.
I’m not just writing about Carrabba’s. I’m writing about YOU. You have customers that complain, don’t you? How do you receive the concern or the complaint? How is a complaint handled? What do you do about it? How do you turn it into a WOW?
Here’s what it is – and what it isn’t:
It’s an opportunity, NOT an aggravation.
It’s an opportunity, NOT a problem.
It’s an opportunity, NOT a complaint.
It’s a chance for WOW, NOT an angry customer.
It’s a chance for management to convert to leadership.
It’s a chance to get a positive post on Facebook.
It’s a chance for the customer to “tweet” their pleasure. It’s a chance to create a loyal customer.
It’s a chance to generate positive word-of-mouth advertising.
It’s an opportunity to prevent this situation from reoccurring.
&#8226 Blaming others.
&#8226 Blaming circumstances.
&#8226 Telling the customer how to talk. (“I’d appreciate if you’d calm down” rather than try to find the reason they’re angry.) Condescending comments by “customer-service” people makes a mad customer more mad.
&#8226 Don’t defend it. No one cares about the reason or the excuse.
If you really want aggravation, complaints, and anger to diminish, here are the elements you must possess and execute:
&#8226 Attitude of acceptance.
&#8226 Attitude of reception.
&#8226 Attitude that’s willing to listen with the intent to understand.
&#8226 Attitude of taking responsibility.
&#8226 Resilience of manager or leader.
&#8226 Ability to respond in a friendly, pleasant manner.
&#8226 Challenge yourself not to make an excuse, blame someone, blame something, or make some snide remark.
&#8226 Challenge yourself to promote positive, internal communication.
&#8226 Genuine gratefulness to help and serve.
Every aggravation, complaint, concern, discussion or question posed by a customer is a huge, FREE, opportunity to improve your business by a factor of WOW – and for little or no money.
And a bit more reality: when managers and employees turn over at a high rate, it’s not the “nature of the business,” it’s the cheapness and policies of the home office. When you try to milk a nickel to save a penny, when you sacrifice quality just to increase profits, you lose employees, customers, goodwill and reputation.
Me? I’ll go away with a little bit of noise – others will just go away.
You? Document the issue, the resolve, the response and the outcome.
These are the steps: Listen. Process. Think. Take responsibility. Question. Respond. Say something positive. Do something positive. WOW.
Train that. &#8226


Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of “The Sales Bible” and “The Little Red Book of Selling.” President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at (704) 333-1112 or email to salesman@gitomer.com

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