It’s no secret that the pandemic changed, well, everything. But when it comes to consumer spending habits, the ongoing boom in ecommerce and digital transformation is perhaps the most notable.
With more and more customers choosing to shop online for goods and services, businesses have focused on expanding their online offering, with many experiencing a flood of new customers.
But as a growing business, how do you capitalize on this increased exposure and ensure your ongoing success? It all comes down to customer retention. Cultivating a loyal customer base is crucial for sustained success. A whopping 65% of a company’s business is generated by existing customers, and increasing customer retention, by as little as 5%, can increase profits by 25% to 95%.
With consumers becoming more vocal about their experiences interacting with and shopping with businesses online, offering a great customer experience that encourages positive online reviews and customer loyalty is a no-brainer. But, what happens when something goes wrong and your customers experience a service failure (best laid plans and all)?
While assuming the worst (lost customers = lost revenue and poor word of mouth) is justifiable, you’d be surprised to learn that there can be a silver lining. Enter the service recovery paradox.
What is the service recovery paradox?
While it may seem counterintuitive at first glance, the service recovery paradox makes perfect sense upon closer examination.
Put simply: a customer develops a higher opinion of a company after experiencing a problem and having it fixed than they would if the problem had never occurred in the first place.
Essentially, a failure in service provides a business with an opportunity to make a better, longer-lasting impression on a customer than they could by delivering the expected level of service.
For example:
- A platform outage causes mayhem for a workplace messaging app’s users but they nail their response, wholeheartedly owning their failure and delighting their customers in the process
- A subscription box adds a free month to its customers’ subscriptions following major shipping delays
- An airline gifts a family with a free trip to Disneyland after bumping them from a flight that caused them to miss an important event
Not all of these may actually happen, of course, but they demonstrate the steps a company might take to turn a negative situation into a positive.
A real world example of a company that does customer service right, nearly every time, is the shoe retailer Zappos. Even before the pandemic, they were famous for their approach to customer service. But they made headlines again last year, when they rejigged their customer service phone line to a “Customer Service for Anything” phone line: A place for people to call and talk—about pandemic worries, bread recipes, missing their moms, anything they wanted.
But not even Zappos can get it right every time…
And a Zappos customer named Jay would be the first to confirm this. When the delivery of the dress shoes he was planning to wear to his best friend’s wedding, at which he was the best man, got lost in transit, threatening to leave him barefooted, Zappos stepped up in a big way and overnighted him a new pair, refunding his money at the same time.
Zappos didn’t have to do this—after all, it was the courier’s fault, not theirs, but they knew that this was a way to connect with and help out a customer.
And, of course, if Jay’s shoes had arrived as planned, he would most likely be satisfied with the level of service, but wouldn’t have a particularly strong feeling towards the company. After all, talking about how the shoes you ordered online were delivered to you on time isn’t really a story you tell at parties. But, because of the mistake and subsequent above-and-beyond fix, the tale of those shoes has spread to the far reaches of the internet.
How your agents can use the service recovery paradox to encourage customer loyalty
Building trust and earning customers’ respect both play key roles in nurturing loyalty. And by helping your team embrace the service recovery paradox, you can do both.
Though you shouldn’t set out to let customers down, when this does happen, the recovery paradox offers you a get out of jail free card: namely, the chance to acknowledge the failure, connect with your customers and make a lasting impression.
Empathy is the name of the game here. Basic psychology will tell you that acknowledging someone else’s feelings is the first step to solving an interpersonal issue. It’s no secret that people want to feel heard and understood. The same applies in an agent / customer interaction.
When a customer reaches out with an issue, make sure that your agents are primed to engage in an understanding and empathetic manner—acknowledging the error and then providing a solution. In order for this to go off without a hitch, your agents need to be empowered to make refunds, offer discounts and take as much time as they need with customers.
For a truly successful resolution, the goal should not be to close the case as soon as possible, but rather to create a meaningful interaction with the customer and leave them feeling respected and heard.
Unlock the next level of the customer service paradox by using data as your crystal ball
Being fully prepared to offer your customers a good experience once they’ve reached out to you with a problem is a good first step to leveraging the paradox, but what if you could intercept the service failure before they even noticed it had happened?
Sounds a bit like something out of a Marvel movie, right? The manipulation and mastery of time and all…
Well, lucky for you, you don’t need superpowers to pull this off — merely access to the right technology. By leveraging enriched data from 1st, 2nd and 3rd parties to intercept and capitalize on failures as well as successes, you can offer an even stronger customer experience.
By reaching out to the customer in question with both the issue and the solution at once, you’re minimizing their disappointment, and capitalizing on their surprise to offer a solution that makes it all better. Not to mention, you get to show your customers how much you value them by being open and transparent from the beginning. Before they even came to you with a complaint.
And that matters, especially when more than 70% of consumers claim they will lose trust in a brand permanently if they believe it’s prioritizing profit over people.
In order to do this, you’ll need a true understanding of your customers and for that, access to a customer service platform that seamlessly integrates all your data sources with historical events like previous customer interactions, conversation history, etc. and enriches these to offer predictions and recommendations to help your team stay ahead of the game, no magical powers needed!
An opportunity in disguise
The service recovery paradox highlights the opportunity inherent in failure and that despite your best efforts, mistakes happen, and customers will experience issues with your product(s) or service(s).
But rather than despairing, treat these mistakes as opportunities to change minds and win hearts. Leave your customers feeling understood and happy, and maybe with a story that they continue to share with friends and family for years to come.