DESIGN. By paying attention to your customerservice process when things go wrong, you can focuson your customers, and your business will automaticallybecome more customer centric. A complete approachto service recovery will enable you to listen moreintensely to your customers who tell you about flaws inyour business that you otherwise may overlook. Thiswill enable you to retain more of your customers,thereby protecting the investment in time and resources you made to get those customers.

MEASURE. To effectively determine how well your service recovery process is working, you need robust measurements in place. Many organizations collect a variety of measurements, summarize them in reports, pass on to the CEO or Board of Directors, and then never looked at again. Robust metrics must be usable and compelling so that something is changed to improve.

ALIGN. Policies dealing with returns, refunds, and guarantees must be aligned with organizational goals for its customers when they face problems or disappointments. It’s easy to say that you will stand behindyour customers, but when they stand in front of you with a complaint, the customer may discover there are restrictions on this promise.

RESPOND & RECOVER. All staff, and particularly customer-facing staff, must be educated in the psychology of complaint handling. They need to be empowered to take fair and reasonable positions on behalf of their customers. And they need to be supported so they are willing to take responsibility for caring for customers when they face problems, are disappointed, or don’t get what they want.

INTEGRATE. If sharing knowledge from customers across the entire company is not carefully tended, it is possible that no real change will take place. When the voice of the customer is brought inside the organization and given a platform so everyone can hear it, real change is possible and more customers can be retained.