Dissatisfied Customers - Customer Orientation

Customer Orientation #1: Effects Of Dissatisfied Customers

Customer service is about meeting customers’ needs & wants. If you know the effects of dissatisfied customers onto your business, you’ll know the importance to make your customer happy, which is essential to the survival of our business.

Effects of Dissatisfied Customers:

1) A dissatisfied customer will tell 9 to 15 people about their bad experience.

2) Approximately 13% of all dissatisfied customers will tell >20 people.

3) It costs 5 to 6 times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep an existing one.

So, do your best to uncover customer needs & provide quality customer service.


Customer Orientation #2: Elements Of Quality Customer Services

Learn the BACK theory to provide quality customer service that meets customers’ needs & wants! The first 3 are soft skills that you need to interact with customers, the last is the knowledge that you need to deliver services.

1. Proper Behaviors:
- Prompt actions, professional behaviors & body language, reflective positive customer service attitude

2. Right Attitude:
- Be friendly & helpful to give customers a pleasant customer service experience

3. Effective Communication:
- Communicate clearly & politely.
- Handle enquiries & requests effectively.

4. Hard Knowledge:
- Have sound knowledge of the products, company systems & procedures.


Customer Orientation #3: Customer Service Levels

Different levels of service give customers different levels of satisfaction & delights, which can win customers’ loyalty to come back again & again.

1. Basic: It means the service delivery that
- meets the customers’ basic requirements;
- meets customers’ expectations;
- satisfies customers.

2. Support: It means the service delivery that
- delights the customers;
- is better than customers’ expectations;
- surprises customers.

3. WOW!: It means the service delivery that
- adds value to the customers;
- exceeds customers’ expectations;
- impresses customers.

Behaviors of Customer Service Levels -- see separate articles



Customer Orientation #4: Gain Loyalty By Moments Of Truth

Moments of Truth is the customer service experience given to your customers by you, as a service provider. It is about what you actually do for them. To ensure that your moments of truth live up to customers’ expectations, you need to focus on the following areas.

1. Service Language:
- Talk politely with appropriate body language & tone of voice.

2. Telephone Courtesy:
- Aware of your voice quality & use the appropriate language for different scenarios.

3. Identify Customer Needs:
- Apply the questioning & active listening skills to uncover customers’ needs & wants.

4. Deliver Bad News Effectively:
- News is bad only if the customer perceives that he or she has no control over it.


Customer Orientation #4a: Service Language

Service language includes talking politely, using body language & tone of voice appropriately. Be courteous! Treat customers the way you want to be treated. The purpose is to make every customer feel welcome.

Strategies for Service Language:

1) Use magic words

2) Make polite requests, not orders

3) Use if-contract

4) Adopt you-attitude, & use names & pronouns

5) Use affirmative tone

6) Do not blame the customer

7) Focus on what can be done

Examples of Service Language --> see at separate article


Customer Orientation #4b: Telephone Courtesy

Your voices reflect who you are. Pay attention to your energy level, rate of speech, pitch & your voice quality. These factors reflect your attitude & enthusiasm of answering the call.

When answering calls, your voice should:

- sound pleasant;

- have pitch variations;

- have a normal rate of speech (~125 words/ min);

- vary in volume;

- sound like you are smiling;

- have ample force.

Examples of Language Use Under Different Scenarios


Customer Orientation #4c: Uncovering Customer Needs

We must identify customers’ needs & wants before we can find ways to fulfill them. Use the questioning & active listening skills to uncover their needs & wants.

You should:

1) Involve your customer.

2) Use open questions to find out

        1. your customer’s situation.

        2. what is important to your customer.

        3. the implications of the identified problem.

3) Use questions to establish a relationship between what your customer wants & what you have to offer.

4) Listen* to your customer rather than giving information.

* Most customers prefer talking to listening & appreciate people who listen to them.


Customer Orientation #4d: Guidelines For Delivering Bad News


News is bad only if the customer perceives that he/ she has no control over it. So, follow these guidelines to minimize dissatisfaction.

Guidelines for Delivering Bad News:

1. Communicate early to let the customer has more control over the outcome.

2. Confirm your understanding of a problem from your customer & identify the underlying need.

3. Use neutral words & avoid trigger words.

4. Briefly explain the process for the type of request from your customer.

5. Explain first what you can do before the policy, then, offer options.

6. Explain work-arounds of a problem in a positive manner.

7. Listen to the customer. Take notes & paraphrase to confirm your understanding.

8. Make a follow-up plan, if needed.