– Jim Hartigan
As a lifetime manager and service industry professional, I have a confession to make. I really like the reality TV shows that track the “fixing” of a hotel or restaurant. Of course, as a hotelier, my favorite is the Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible. This is where a struggling hotel owner/operator brings in Anthony Melchiorri, a hotel “fixer,” who can turn any establishment around in just weeks. Each episode features a hotel that is having problems or is not living up to its potential and Melchiorri secretly scouts the property and identifies its biggest problems. He then meets with the staff and the owners to determine how best to solve the key operation issues. Within the hour he has the place turned around! My other favorite is the Spike TV’s Bar Rescue. In this one, veteran nightlife expert Jon Taffer seeks to revamp and rescue failing bars. From his well-known “stress tests” to each episode’s inevitable “shut it down” Taffer’s tough love helps the restaurateurs try to save their business.
As I watch these shows, I’ve noticed that beyond the basics of cleanliness, keeping your establishment in good condition, and serving fresh, tasty food, a consistent theme in the “before” businesses seems to be poor customer service. Specifically, team members in these troubled hotels, restaurants and bars don’t seem to know how to deal with customer complaints. This takes me back to my roots, where we used the acronym H.E.A.T. to help team members remember the four steps to follow when presented with “the gift” of a customer complaint. It’s easy to remember, especially because when handling a customer complaint it’s important to remember you will likely be taking some HEAT until you turn things around! What is H.E.A.T.?
HEAR – The first step is to listen to the customer. Hear them out. Don’t interrupt. Sometimes a customer just wants to vent. Of course, other times they have a real problem that needs solving. Try to listen for cues about what’s really bugging them. Is it the problem with their meal or their room – or is it that they are now running late. If the real problem is time – that takes a different twist to your solution (you gotta solve this thing fast!).
EMPATHIZE – Empathy is defined as the ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas, and actions. One way to do this (and teach team members how to do it) is by “naming the emotion”. By that I mean to use the word to describe to the customer the feeling you hear them expressing to validate it. “I understand how you feel, I’d be frustrated too.” Or “I completely understand and if that happened to me, it would make me very upset.” By naming the emotion, expressing understanding, and placing yourself in the customer’s place – you begin the process of diffusing the situation.
APOLOGIZE – This is a big one, and easy too. It goes like this: “I’m sorry.” It really is that easy. Unfortunately, many line level team members tend to take this sort of thing personally and feel they shouldn’t have to apologize for something “they didn’t do.” My advice: Get over it. Nobody said it was your fault; we aren’t blaming YOU, so apologize already. To be more powerful, add a little of what we learned in the previous stage, “I’m sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you. I’m really very sorry this happened.”
TAKE ACTION – The segue from Apologize to Take Action should be seamless. The very next sentence out of your mouth should be what you’re going to do about the customer’s complaint. The customer deserves to know what is going to happen next and when. The foundation to most customer complaints is the disconnect from what was expected, what actually happened, and how long it took. This is your chance to reestablish an expectation and deliver on it. Taking the appropriate action can only be done if you really hear the problem, fully understand the customer’s feelings, and combine it with a sincere apology.
So, before you call on my friends at the Travel Channel or Spike TV, take some time and share the principles of H.E.A.T. with your team. I bet you find less customer complaints coming to you and more customer compliments about how team members dealt with unfortunate occurrences. If you’d like to learn more about how Orgwide can help you teach your team members better service skills, give us a call. You see, we hear what you’re saying… We’d be confused if we were you too… We’re sorry you’re having so many customer complaints…We’d love to create better employee eLearning training right away for you!