Virtua Software Blog

Most companies I have dealt with offer the shoddiest customer service. Then they wonder why I don’t go back to buy more from them. There is something so simple and free that they can do to improve my experience.

So here it is, the big secret of great customer service:

“Apologise, ask what you can do to put the problem right, do more than the customer expects, sort it out from your own pocket.”

Sorry to disappoint you if you were expecting some sort of sensational new advice, but that’s pretty much all there is to it.

Let me use an experience I had the other day with one of my web design clients who also happens to be my personal trainer.

Although its not something I am keen on doing, I agreed to help her out with getting some flyers designed to promote her services. I spoke to my usual graphic designer who created the artwork which she was pleased with. I then took these to the printers to get them printed professionally but she was unhappy with the colours on the prints. It turns out that the designer hadn’t calibrated his monitor properly so the colours he saw on screen weren’t what printed out (designer’s fault).

I was in a rush on the morning that I took the finished artwork to the printers so I forgot to ask for a proof (my fault), and the printer didn’t offer me one (printer’s fault). Now I’m not going to turn this post into the importance of finding reliable suppliers although I am pretty disappointed in the level of service I received from both. Each blamed the other and refused to offer any compensation, leaving me to pick up the tab for before I had even rectified the problem. Ok, I know I should have asked for a proof and I will put that down to experience, but really if either of the suppliers were professional enough, I shouldn’t have needed to. Need less to say, I will be insisting that my clients receive a proof before any printing happens!

Anyway, once the client had refused the prints I was faced with having to foot the bill for another round of printing. I wasn’t happy about it but I didn’t see why the customer should pay for the collective mistakes of three supposed professionals.

How I solved the problem

The first thing I did was apologise profusely and take full ownership of the issue. This is very important as clients will be unconcerned as to where the actual blame lies  as far as they are concerned, they came to you so you’re responsible. You would be the first to take the praise for a good job, even if there were other suppliers involved so it has to work in reverse too. My client was clearly disappointed with the prints and was keen to get the flyers and posters up as soon as possible. She was having a bad day and this just added to her problems (these things matter even in business, we aren’t robots after all!). I immediately offered to take them back and get some them reprinted, and reassured her that she wouldn’t be paying any extra for the reprints.

Although at first it hurt my pocket to sort the problem out, the amount of goodwill it generated from my client is probably worth 100 times more to my business in the long run. My client has since referred another web design client to me (worth at least several thousand pounds) and also gave me a gift voucher for a free training session. The voucher alone is worth nearly the whole printing cost being trained by a world champion isn’t going to come cheap! If I continue to offer that level of customer service and care, I will have a client for life who has already referred several new clients and will continue to refer more over time. As you may already know, referred clients are usually the most profitable.

As far as I am concerned, nothing I have described above is particularly special (or new!) and it should all really be par for the course. However, many companies are very poor at handling customers problems and I’m sure you could easily lose count of the times when you were unhappy about the service you received. Luckily, this presents an opportunity to those of us who really care about our clients, as they are often amazed that someone has taken the time and effort to solve a problem once they have been paid. Many companies will take the money and run.

In this industry, finding new clients is expensive and time consuming so it makes good business sense to take excellent care of existing clients. The designer and printer have each lost a client who could potentially become a significant source of income for them both.