Get my Free Customer Success Jumpstart Kit!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nStep 3: Discuss alternative plans while resolving the issue.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
That leads us to the third thing that you’re going to want to do, which is to discuss any alternative plans that could potentially help resolve the situation. As you probably notice from my story, as I started to listen to the client’s needs, what I found out was that, he had about an hour or so before he needed our site to be back up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So the first thing that I wanted to figure out with him was, was there any way possible in which we could gain more time back in order to get more engineers on the problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when I learned from him was that his assessment was actually going to have two parts. The first part was the online assessment, which was going to use our site whereas the second part was actually a paper test. And so from learning this piece of information, I was able to brainstorm with them that if we just simply swap the order of the exam, in which we first had the paper component, we could potentially buy the engineer’s about a half hour to 45 minutes of additional time to fix the site in time for the assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just as important as it is to apologize to your customer when you mess up, you also need to make sure that you are moving the ball forward like I mentioned, and starting to problem solve with them and be solutions-oriented towards specifically what their need is and how to meet that need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need to help everybody navigate through the situation and make the best of what we have. While also ensuring that expectations are super clear as to what we need to do next, as well as what our client needs do next in the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately, flipping that assessment so that the paper component was first bought us enough time to actually get the site back up and running so their assessment could go originally as intended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After hearing the story of how I pivoted with my customer, what’s a time that you had to pivot with the customer to make something right? What did you have to do? And why did you do what you guys decide to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 4: Execute the next steps that you have agreed upon.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The fourth step, when it comes to, to apologizing to your customer is just to simply execute the next steps that you guys have agreed upon. This is where you guys are going to team up together and actually execute the alternative plan that you’ve come up with in step number three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nowadays, it’s really common for people to feel like companies never really care about their customers. And so by you being there with them step by step, as you guys solve this situation, you’re showing them that you care about them a lot as a customer, and that you’re willing to go above the line of duty in order to solve and own up for your mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 5: Follow up and ensure your customer is satisfied.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The fifth step when it comes to apologizing to your customer, when you mess up is to make sure that you’re following up and making sure that they are satisfied. When the dust has settled and a few days or a week has passed since the event, it’s a good time for you to proactively reach back out to them and make sure that everything is okay with the client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hopefully by this point in time, you’ve solved the situation. Or if you haven’t yet, you are actively working to resolve the situation. If you think it’d be appropriate, you might find it helpful to write a handwritten note or to send over an apology email, or give you the small token of appreciation to just make up for the fact that your company let your customer down. Thank them for being super collaborative customers with you to come up with a solution and make sure that you leave a note that this incident happened in your CRM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is super important because whoever’s managing the customer success relationship, whether that’s yourself or somebody on your CS team, we’ll then be able to take appropriate action and act a little bit more delicately around this account for the remainder of its contract, which will then in turn, reduce your churn and the probability that this customer will leave you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With these more sensitive clients where there’s been a point in the contract in which you’ve let them down, it can be really helpful to keep them in the loop about any new features that you think might give them more value to how they’re currently using your product or service or anything that you want to send them in terms of tokens of appreciation, discounts, promos, and offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pretty much anything that you think could give them additional value than what they’re getting out of your product or service today, would help reduce the chances that they’re going to leave you at the end of your contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Big takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
There are two things that I want you to take away from this article. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- The first one is that when you mess up, make sure that you own up to your failure as quickly as possible. Fall on your sword and then start moving on.<\/li>
- The second thing is make sure that you remain solutions-oriented. Don’t defend what happened, just accept that it happened and start moving forward. It’s super important that you do this so that you can begin to rebuild the trust that you’ve lost in this moment with your customer.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
If you found this article helpful, be sure to check out my YouTube channel<\/a> to get new videos every single week I’ll help take you from zero to self-starter as you grow your business, get more customers, and hone your business acumen. Also, feel free to share this with anybody that you think might benefit from learning about these five steps to take when apologizing to your customers for your mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI’ll catch you guys next time in which we’re going to go over three good times to upsell your customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n