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Business Apology Tip #1: Never ignore an unhappy customer!
By Lauren | April 3, 2009
Imagine this: Despite your best efforts, you or one of your business associates made a serious mistake. Your customer (substitute “client” or “patient” as appropriate) is furious and threatening to either sue, take her business elsewhere, or both. You’re already overworked, stressed, and reluctant to spend a lot of money on legal fees.
What should you do?
Resist the temptation to do nothing and hope the whole mess just goes away. Although it’s relatively rare for an unhappy customer to actually follow through on a threat to take you to court, doing nothing is not a no-cost option. Disappointed customers can have big mouths, and these days most of them also have accounts with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other social media. A lot of them also blog, and those who don’t can always report you on all of the online equivalents of the Better Business Bureau. One angry, Web-savvy customer can do major damage to your company’s reputation around the world.
Failing to apologize to an unhappy customer is a great way to lose that customer’s business (and it’s a lot easier to retain an existing customer than to find a new one) and end up on the defensive in court. Worse, it’s also a way lose business opportunities with anyone else who hears about your customer’s complaint. Once you know that a mistake has occurred, swallow your pride, step up, and apologize.
Want to know how? More next Friday.
Topics: Apologies, Business Ethics, Risk Management, business communications, customer relations, ethics |
April 9th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
[...] presents Business Apology Tip #1: Never ignore an unhappy customer! posted at The Business Ethics Blog, saying, “Hoping the problem will go away on its own is [...]