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| Image courtesy of arstechnica.com |
It's amazing what you can learn if you just ask the right questions and listen carefully. Most of the time, their answers were the result of feedback they had gotten from their customers in the past. Here's what I learned from agents about how to best serve their customers:
Customers need us to show sympathy for their situation.
One agent told me that it's probably rare for her customers to hear "I'm sorry this happened to you" from the restoration company representatives and repair contractors. It's an easy thing to say. It's the appropriate thing to say in a disaster. However, most people rarely think to actually say it. Sympathy needs to especially be extended to the customer on residential jobs. Homeowners are emotionally invested in their homes, and they need to know that the people who are there to solve the problem care about that.
To the customer, this is one of the worst days of their life.
When you see severe water and fire damage almost every day, it's easy to become jaded and forget that what might not even come close to being the worst you've seen is probably one of the worst disasters the customer has ever experienced in his or her home. It's important to remember that everyone's disaster is extremely significant to them, even if it is just another day at the office for us.
Customers need us to set proper expectations.
Most customer dissatisfaction stems from the company they hired not setting proper expectations. The customer needs to know what we'll need to do; why we need to do it; how it's going to be done; and how long it will likely take. They also need to know at the beginning that some of those things might change, depending on what additional damage we might discover during the process. Finally, they need to be prepared for the disruption in their lives; the noise of the equipment, the demolition of ceilings, flooring, sections of wall, etc.; the possible adjustments to their normal schedule during the process.
Customers need to see confidence.
When we arrive on that job, customers need to see us take charge of the situation immediately. They need to see us alert and paying attention. No matter how bad the situation, we need to appear calm and in control. Our actions tell the customer a lot about our ability. They need to be reassured right away that we are trained to handle it and we know exactly what to do. It's important to not panic the customer, and often that means being careful how we phrase things, and using a reassuring tone of voice.
Smile
That should be a given. A smile always makes any situation better.
