I flew into Orlando yesterday, and my arms are still tired (Ba dump bump)
Great to be back at Disney World. This time my boot camp is for a group of 23 Financial Planners. They are going to learn how to Disnify their businesses and blow the competition out of the water.
If you or your team is interested, I am doing a boot camp at Disney in September. You can check it out here:
Boot Camp
One of the things we will be studying is how Disney recovers from a service mistake.
Certainly NOT a sexy topic, but one that is critical the survival of any business.
But what if the guests problem is not Disney's fault or not something Disney can fix? They may have to bust out the dreaded two letter word "no".
So, how does Disney tell a guest no?
I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do." Sound familiar? I'm sure, at one point or another, we have all heard a response like this from a business or organization when dealing with a service failure. It's frustrating; it's aggravating; and it can significantly damage the relationship we have with the business, sometimes forever.
Now, let's think about this experience from the opposite perspective—as a service provider. What if a service failure has occurred and you want to provide service recovery, but you simply cannot give the customer what they are asking for?
While every situation is different, there will be cases when you cannot (or should not) give a customer what they are asking for—you have to say "no." What happens now?
At Disney, they believe that
the heart of service recovery is to pursue the reconciliation of the relationship, not just the resolution of the issue.
Very often, the reality is that when you must deliver a "no" message, the opportunity for preserving – and strengthening - the customer relationship has just presented itself. Here are two mission critical components that can help with this scenario:
- Give them the "why" for the decision. Customers are generally happier with a difficult decision when they understand the reason behind it. Without an explanation, you may be perceived as insensitive or that you are hiding behind a policy—which further aggravates the situation and can infuriate the customer.
- Provide some offsetting consideration for the customer's disappointment. It's far too easy to say, "Those are the rules" or "That's just our policy," and leave it at that. Remember, this is now about saving the relationship with your customer. By training service providers and empowering them with service standards and guidelines for recovery, this becomes an opportunity to turn potential negatives into "wins" for your customers and for your employees.
Is the topic of this Months Mouster Class sexy?
Far from it.
But it is vital to have a system. Not only for your self, but to empower your employees to be able to fix the problem, without having to bother you.
Get the Mouster Class here:
https://www.deliverservicenow.com/invitation-to-become-a-dsni-inner-circle-cast-member/
But don't dilly dally, this months Mouster Class goes into the DSNi vault at midnight on 1/31/21.