Customer Service

How customer appeasement is the new next-day delivery

Dan Slavin, CEO and co-founder of CodeBroker, shares that the solution to an unhappy customer is an appeasement system that makes it easy for service reps to instantly issue and deliver appeasements to a disgruntled customer but which also holds the rep accountable.

Photo by istock.com

March 25, 2021 by Dan Slavin — ceo, CodeBroker

It's going to happen. No matter how much you invest in customer service representative training, no matter how high your customer satisfaction survey scores or how many accolades you receive online, you are going to be faced with dissatisfied customers.

Justifying these unhappy customers by stating "it's a small minority" is like saying you only have termites in a closet or your car only makes 'that noise' at a certain speed. Dissatisfied customers who remain unappeased are a problem. They are apt to cause reputational damage. A damage that can fester, spread and grow increasingly problematic.

Here are a couple of statistics to bear in mind:
• It has long been accepted in psychology that it takes five positive experiences to eliminate a single negative one. Research indicates that it may take as many as 40 positive online comments to neutralize the impacts of a single negative comment.
• About 95% of people who have a negative customer service experience will proactively share it with others.
• The younger people are, the more likely they will share negative experiences with others.
You don't need to be a genius to realize how big of a problem unresolved customer service issues can become.

Holding the CSR accountable

Customer appeasement can be a slippery slope. Companies (justifiably so) have a fear of abuse. Dissatisfied customers may make repeated claims, complaints may not have merit, and when pushed too far, customer service representatives can be verbally abusive.

There is concern, of course, that making it too easy for disgruntled customers to be placated may actually encourage complaints. There's also the risk that service reps may issue rewards too freely without close oversight.

The solution is an appeasement system that makes it easy for the service rep to instantly issue and deliver appeasements (in the form of digital single use coupons or gift cards) to the disgruntled customer to make the customer happy, but which also importantly holds the rep accountable, thereby giving management the ability to ensure that a customer service rep is not overissuing rewards. If the service rep is free to decide which pre-approved appeasement option is the best to issue given the customer situation and can then instantly deliver the rewards via the customer's preferred mode of communication (whether that's via text, chat, email, or social), then you have a winning combination.

Of course, it is important that each appeasement can only be used one time, so they need to be either single use coupons or gift cards.

Adding a reporting layer on top allows management a front seat to study what amount of appeasements an individual rep has been issuing, including brief summaries of reason codes for the appeasements, to further maintain customer service accountability.

The power of appeasement

Some organizations invest heavily in online reputation management, hiring dedicated personnel at great expense to directly respond to negative online reviews or comments. They understand how destructive unhappy customers can be with complaints that go viral on social media. But they also understand the power of quick appeasement.

When you are able to satisfy a disgruntled customer immediately, you are able to:
• Minimize the spread of any negative feedback or bad reviews.
• Improve the chances of making that person a repeatable customer.
• Dramatically Improve your odds of turning that customer into a fan.

The difference between a dissatisfied customer and a big fan of your services is not just a matter of losing or gaining a customer. The equation compounds, demonstrating further the power of appeasement.

Let's take, for example, a dissatisfied customer who remains unsatisfied. Their $100 purchase is not the only thing that is lost. They may influence others to avoid making a purchase. If they negatively impact five potential customers, that is $600 in lost revenue from a single unappeased consumer.

When that customer is appeased, that loss is minimized to the costs associated with the coupon, far less than $600. Further, should you be able to turn that customer into a brand advocate through your prompt, no-hassle response, they may actually recommend your business to others as a fan. If that results in five $100 additional sales, you have turned a potentially negative $600 experience into a positive $500 one. That is a huge swing.

When you account for future sales, the power of appeasement is amplified further.

Working toward quick customer appeasement

While digital delivery of single-use coupons and gift cards have long worked well for customer appeasement they alone don't solve the problem without a system place that can ensure accountability and monitoring of CSRs to prevent abuse.

With safeguards in place, the CSR can can be allowed a range of flexibility into what appeasement level may be appropriate.
Instant delivery of single-use digital coupons inside a dashboard system that can closely monitor the CSR-to-customer relationship is a trusted and accountable way to appease dissatisfied customers.

If your organization has struggled to find a resolution for customer appeasement issues, it should investigate how important the role technology can play at keeping tight control over digital rewards issuance, risk avoidance and CSR oversight.

Dan Slavin is CEO and co-founder of CodeBroker