Repairing relationships feels great. I took me a while (too long) to get over my own emotional immaturity to realize that I was mistreating a customer. The "aha moment" for me occurred as I was writing a comment regarding service and customer relations on Eric Stoller's blog. It was clear to me that I needed to heed my own advice.
As soon as I got into my office I set about to make things right for a customer that I had under-served. Here is the opening and closing of my email to that customer:
"You are right. I would not want to be treated this way by my vendors. Forgive me for taking so long to come to that conclusion...Thank you for helping me be more aware of how I am serving (or not serving) my customers."
I immediately felt better, but the best was to come. The customer's reply was prompt:
"Thank you very much, and we appreciate your integrity! We have always liked your product and will be happy to continue supporting and promoting it."
I would not doubt if that customer was cursing my name and ProWorks just a day ago. With very little effort beyond making an honest investment into the relationship a very positive outcome has been reached. I even hope that our relationship with that customer is now better than ever. I will tell you that it was absolutely worth the emotional investment. Doing the right thing feels great.
Thanks, Loyan, for sharing this with me. Very interesting how integrity isn't being perfect but simply being authentic.
You are welcome Bill. And thank you for sharing your thoughts on the topic of customer feedback at http://www.summitsmallbusiness.com/blog/social-media-means-having-to-say-you-re-sorry with us.
Loyan- it feels like the SMB could camp out on this topic for some time. Much to learn all around, but oh so gratifying as you start to walk it out. As always, thanks for the candor.
It's awesome to see how this story of honesty and integrity in customer relationships is unfolding. We've seen in the span of just a couple weeks some of the best and worst examples of how to handle criticism. Thank you for sharing your experience Loyan.
ProWorks Corporation - Thu 23 May 13 @ 14:39"How Active Social Listening Helps your Financial Organization" - goes for ANY brand or biz http://t.co/JTBk6rahRm via @brassmedia
ProWorks Corporation - Wed 22 May 13 @ 22:58thank you @brassmedia - our pleasure