How to Handle a Negative Client Experience
How to Handle a Negative Client Experience
Welcome back to another episode of the Business Ease Podcast. In this episode, I want to talk about how to turn a negative client experience into a positive experience.
So, let's dive into today's episode.
It's highly likely that you're going to experience a negative client experience at some point in time. You might have all the right systems in place and a great team, but it still happens. Despite taking great care in my client experiences, they haven’t always worked out positively.
I’d like to talk through a few examples and how to handle them.
The first thing that you've got do is to acknowledge that this was a negative client experience. If you realise first, reach out to the client before they come to you.
Secondly, apologise. Sounds cliché and too simple, but never underestimate the power of saying sorry.
Coming up with a timely solution is the best course of action. Find the solution, work on that and solve the problem within 24 hours.
Learn from your mistakes so you don’t make them again in the future. You may need to tweak your system or process or speak to your team. Sometimes it’s an easy fix and you can move forward and continue your client relationship.
After you have done all of the above steps and they are still being tricky, then you just might have to release them. Kindly let them go. It's not worth the headache of constantly trying to manage a disgruntled client. Do what you can, fix the solution and then after that it's up to them. If they put it behind them and continue with you or be difficult, the choice is theirs to make.
Sometimes, it’s not always your fault but still your responsibility for a solution. After all, they are your client and you are providing a service.
Some examples of my past negative client experiences are:-
I had a situation where a Pinterest client’s account was hacked overnight. There were pins of ugly neon signs with expletives on them and as they were a wedding photography business, it was horrible. I was pretty distressed about what had happened. The client first realised it and I received an email from them. After the initial shock wore off, I responded quickly with an apology to the client and I deleted all the pins. My solution to stop it happening again was to change passwords, look at the Pinterest algorithm, and make the site more secure. The client responded very positively and we were able to continue our working relationship.
Another example is something that I had inadvertently missed in a client experience. I had missed a due date for something, so in return I offered them a discount for the future months. I apologised, fixed the issue and offered a discount. In that situation, the discount made sense because it was an error on my end.
Not all the fixes have been positive experiences. I've also had an experience where the client wasn’t happy with an apology and the fix, so the solution ended up being to finish services with them.
I've definitely had experiences of my own where I have been ghosted by a service provider and they didn’t provide a solution or apologise. You’ve really got to look at what makes the client happy and sometimes, go above and beyond to fix the situation. Think about how you like to be responded to when you are the one receiving a negative client experience.
So, I hope that this has been helpful and I hope that you haven't had too many bad client experiences. I’d also like to add that after you had that negative experience, handled it etc that you need to have someone to debrief too about it. A business coach, friend or family member who has a listening ear would be perfect to get it off your chest. This will make it easier for you to handle the negative in the future.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Business Ease Podcast. If you found this episode helpful, I would love for you to tag me on Instagram @withHannahandCo and share your biggest takeaway from this episode. I would also love if you could leave a 5-star review, those two actions mean more than you will ever know.
I can't wait to hang out with you on next week's episode.
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