By Ron Kaufman, author of “Uplifting Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues, and Everyone Else You Meet”

The last thing a customer with a complaint wants to hear you say is: “You’re wrong.” What they want to hear is that you understand them, appreciate them, and agree with them on the importance of the value they have cited in their complaint.

Here are a few quick scripts to use when responding to customer complaints:

Customer Complaint: Rude Service

Your customer says: “Your staff was rude and totally unprofessional.”

You say: “You are right to expect courteous, respectful, and professional staff.”

Customer Complaint: Too Many Rules

Your customer says: “Your policies are rigid. Your company is so bureaucratic.”

You say: “I agree that we should be as flexible and user-friendly as possible. Your suggestions can really help.”

Customer Complaint: Overpriced

Your customer says: “This product isn’t anything like what I was promised. And your price is way too high!”

You say: “I am on your side in this situation. You have a right to be satisfied with whatever you purchase from us. You deserve good value for your money. Let’s review what you have purchased and see if there’s a better option for you.”

Customer Complaint: Too Slow

Your customer says: “I’ve been waiting forever. Why did it take you so long to take my order?”

You say: “We understand that in today’s world speed counts. You deserve fast, friendly service.”

Customer Complaint: Bad Website

Your customer says: “Your website is terrible. I couldn’t find the information I needed.”

You say: “You are right to want an informative, user-friendly website. What information couldn’t you find? Your suggestions on how to improve the site are a big help.”

Notice how your responses make the customer feel right. We don’t argue over the facts: rude staff, stiff policies, or insufficient product features. But we do actively agree on the importance of what they value most.

Let’s face it — the customer is not always right. But customers are always important, and we can make them feel much better by agreeing with them on the importance of the service dimensions they identify and value.

Ron Kaufman is the author of ”Uplifting Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues, and Everyone Else You Meet“. He is the world’s premiere thought leader, educator, and motivator for uplifting customer service and building service cultures in many of the world’s largest and most respected organizations, including Singapore Airlines, Nokia Siemens Networks, Citibank, Microsoft, and Xerox. He is the founder of UP! Your Service, a global service education and management consultancy firm with offices in the United States and Singapore.

by Abby Evans

Starting your own business doesn’t happen over night. It takes hard work, a leap of faith and a lot of heart. During the beginning stages of your business you will have to wear multiple hats: innovator, marketer, accountant and even custodian.

Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur, but if you think you have what it takes, read the traits below and decide how you can utilize them:

Resourceful.

Unless you are blessed with a wealthy background, most entrepreneurs are forced to build something out of nothing. Being resourceful is a must in the entrepreneurial world. How can you get the marketing message out and be effective? It takes some creativity — but it is more than possible on all fronts of business.

How can you pay your team with no funding? Being able to write a great business plan and find the funding your up and coming company needs is a great resource. Business plans can help you land the funding you need and get the right person for all necessary jobs.

Learn from Their Mistakes.

No one gets through life with making mistakes — they happen. Some are bigger than others. Not letting them hold you back to reach your dreams is the difference between some people and extremely successful entrepreneurs. Remember, at one time Apple voted Steve Jobs out of his own company — we all know how that turned out.

Constant Learners.

Staying up-to-date on industry trends is a must. Successful entrepreneurs know how to stay educated and ahead of the curve. This doesn’t always include formal education such as a masters degree or PHD. It is different for every industry, but the more you learn, the more prepared you will be for your company and your employees.

Focus.

We all can focus more at times, but entrepreneurs know when to focus and more importantly where to focus. Knowing where to focus is just as important (if not more important) as focusing itself. Keeping your main goal in mind, sub goals can sometimes get de-railed, so keeping on point is a must for any business.

Passionate.

Without passion none of these other traits could exist. Passion is what drives any successful person to greatness. It has been said people who figure out what they love and turn that into income never work a day in their lives. The most successful entrepreneurs can all say the same.  If you aren’t passionate, you won’t have the motivation to focus, learn new trends, learn from your mistakes or have the drive to be resourceful. So make sure you are passionate about the industry your company will be engaging.

Can people be successful on many levels? Absolutely. Do these five characteristics make or break an entrepreneur? No — but they do embody characteristics of a successful entrepreneur. As I stated earlier, it takes a lot to run a successful business, and it takes more than one person to do so. With the right amount of skill, attitude and drive you can turn your idea into a great business venture.

Abby Evans is an avid blogger who writes on everything from how to find jobs in Toronto to outlining the principles of how to write a killer blog post.

Many businesses start as an idea in the dorm room – one of the more popular examples is social networking site Facebook, whose inception by founder Mark Zuckerberg was immortalized in the movie The Social Network.

Other examples may be more humble, but no less inspiring. Let’s take the example of the founders of Pure Fix Cycles. The four childhood friends in one college dorm room could have been up to plenty of mischief, but instead Zach Schau (24 years-old), Austin Stoffers (23), Jordan Schau (23), and Michael Fishman (23) were discussing the cycling phenomenon in Europe. They noticed the fixed gear and track bicycle trends that exploded across Europe, but baulked at the prices some of these bicycles commanded.

On a whim, the boys took out their entire savings, birthday cash – and bar mitzvah money – to fund their first order of 165 bikes that they designed themselves. To their surprise, all 165 bikes sold out in two weeks during their spring break in Los Angeles. Encouraged, the four college boys entered their business plan in an UW-Madison business competition, winning a US$7000 prize even though they were pitted against undergrads and graduates. They invested the winnings to fund another order of 600 bikes, which again sold out in two weeks.

By now, the four knew they had a winning business. After another order of 1,200 bikes, they are currently putting in orders of 2,000 bikes at a time. Today, Pure Fix Cycles come at US$325 for various models in different color combinations and are carried out at many independent bike shops across the country. Since its launch and the end of 2010, Pure Fix Cycles has generated a revenue of US$1 million within a year and a projected revenue of US$5 million for 2012.

Not bad for four college boys with just an idea in a dorm room.

[Photo credit: Gary Krueger]

by Candace Hobson

The idea of being your own boss is appealing to most of us. Beyond the obvious financial rewards that come with creating a successful business, there is also that added benefit of accomplishment and freedom that working for someone else rarely provides. You can also have the pleasure of working from home if you choose. However, there are several important steps that you should take before embarking on the path to starting a new business.

While any new business is a gamble, you can stack the odds in your favor by observing these key steps to success:

Capital.

One of the unfortunate truths about many new start-ups is that owners often attempt to start their new business with too little capital on hand to see the business through the first year (preferably two years) of their business, when creating a customer base is essential. Even home businesses have to have some overhead expenses. Many small businesses don’t bring in large profits when just starting out, so it is important to have the financing available both in the early stages of your business as well as when unexpected costs occur.

Staff.

Hiring a competent staff is crucial to your business’s continued success. Keep in mind that your staff not only performs the duties assigned to them, but also is part of the public face of your company. This means they provide the first impression of your company to customers. If you are working from your home, this staff might be your family, but they should still be trained in customer interaction.

Business Plan.

It is vital to your business success that you develop a complete business plan that lays out not only the costs associated with starting your new business, but also the long-term costs of maintaining that business. Each aspect of your business plan should be as detailed as you can make it, through in some cases you will have to estimate things like potential earning and future expenses. If you intend to seek financing for your business or hope to attract partners ready to invest in your new venture, a detailed business plan can go a long way in helping you get the monies you are looking for.

Marketing.

No matter how well you plan your business, from hiring staff to stocking products to leasing or buying a building, none of your hard work will amount to much without an aggressive marketing strategy. This strategy must not only let potential customers know that you exist (which is harder with a home business) but must make the case as to why your products and/or services are superior to your competitors. Give consideration to who your products and/or services will most appeal to and then plan your marketing strategy accordingly.

For example, if you are a selling a teen clothing line your goal must be to attract customers in this demographic group by going to where they “hang out.” This could mean advertising in teen magazines or using social networking sites to your advantage. It is also important that the themes of your advertisements are a good match for the demographic group(s) you want to reach.

[Photo credit: Working from home by Dan Previte/flickr]

Candace Hobson is a stay-at-home mother and freelance blogger for Work At Home Info, a site she often recommends as a great resource for learning how to work at home.

If you’re a musician, actor, songwriter or any other kind of creative talent (yes, even comedians), you’re probably painfully aware of getting booked for work (even if you, like, really really good at what you do). This being the case, you may want to check TalentSplash (www.talentsplash.com) – it’s a talent network that aims to help you launch and build your professional career.

Launched in Fall 2011, TalentSplash brings together talent and those who need such talent. For talent providers, there’s a suite of tools necessary to help talents manage their careers; for those looking for talent, an advanced search engine helps you filter and identify the exact talents that you want. Its online marketplace allows bands to uncover local opportunities, actors and models to find casting calls, clowns to perform at local birthday parties, and more.

TalentSplash actually doesn’t look to manage, book or represent artists. Instead the company works with record labels, talent agencies, live venues, comedy clubs, performing arts schools, film academies, studios, and workshops to ensure sufficient work for its talent pool.

TalentSplash is founded by Joshua S. Garay, who holds an MBA from CUNY Baruch and earned his baccalaureate at George Washington University in Washington D.C. Garay abandoned a career in real estate to help others build their dreams – and especially because he himself had nursed childhood dreams of becoming a star on the big screen.

“I wanted to pursue a more meaningful life,” admits Garay. “As a lifelong fan of talent and entertainment, I wanted to help people live their own dreams and get their voices out.”

Creativity is the driving force behind many new products, services, and companies around the world, creating solutions to age-old problems and offering new ways to live our daily lives. Yet despite the indispensable nature of innovation, many businesses don’t exactly foster creativity in the workplace, sometimes even actively working against it. Whether they realize it or not, there are many ways that businesses kill creativity on a daily basis, which isn’t just bad for those creative minds but also the organization as a whole. So what can be done? The first step is learning what big innovation-crushing mistakes are being made so that changes can be made.

We’ve listed a few of the most common on our list here, a must-read for anyone in a management or supervisory position:

1. Playing it safe.

   Rejecting ideas out of hand because they are different than the way you’ve done things before might seem logical but when you think about it, it becomes immediately clear that this is pretty much antithetical to any goal of creative or innovative thinking. True creativity is about taking risks, breaking new ground, and coming up with things that are new and novel, not just more of the same. If you limit employees to only working within existing bounds, then you’re creating a pretty poor environment for creativity.

2. Restricting freedom.

   While employees need some structure and guidance in order to flourish and be truly creative, restricting freedom is one way to kill the creative spirit pretty quickly. One common way this happens is by making it clear to employees that new methods of doing things aren’t welcome or by forcing them to work within unnecessarily narrow confines to reach their goals. Understand that there are many ways to reach a desired result and give employees some free reign to be inventive on their own terms.

3. Rationing time and resources.

   Creativity can flourish in the most spartan of situations, it’s true, but generally, it takes time and money to make that happen on command. Asking employees to work with little to no resources and within an unrealistically short time frame might sound like a budget-conscious company’s dream, but it’s sure to burn out employees very quickly and leave them resenting you, hating their jobs, and fresh out of new ideas. Allowing employees both enough time and enough resources to do their jobs effectively is essential for fostering a creative environment.

4. Micro-managing.

   Trying to control anything and everything on a given project down to the last detail isn’t going to help creativity one bit. In fact, it’s sure to drive off the best creative talent leaving you with those who are less capable and who probably need a whole lot more supervision. Micro-management breeds frustration, wastes time, and ultimately kills morale as employees feel that you don’t trust them to get their jobs done right and on time. Step back and provide consistent guidance if you really want to foster a creative environment in the workplace.

5. Limiting group diversity.

   People who are alike generally get along well, but that’s not always a great thing when it comes to creativity. It also means that they may be thinking many of the same things and won’t have disagreements that will push and challenge members of the group to do something exceptional. Teams should be made up of people with differing skills, abilities, viewpoints, and even backgrounds so that they can bring a number of different approaches to the table when trying to solve a problem. These kinds of groups may not work as seamlessly but their work will likely make up for it.

6. Putting people in the wrong jobs.

   Just because it’s most convenient to have a certain person do a job doesn’t always mean that’s the right fit. Role mismatch is one key way companies can put a damper on creativity, giving assignments, projects, or even entire jobs to people who aren’t matched in their abilities with the tasks they’re being asked to complete. Ideally, an employee should feel as though they’re being challenged but that a given job is within their capabilities to complete on time and at a high quality. If those terms aren’t met, creativity suffers and so does the company.

7. Providing no feedback.

   It’s hard to know if you’re getting the results the company wants if you’re not provided with any feedback, and it’s likely to make you more hesitant and unsure in your future work as well. Companies and managers need to let their creative employees know when something is a success or when something could be better, as feedback is an essential part of the creative process. Without it, employees will start to feel lost, unappreciated, and perhaps even a little confused about the goals of the company and what their role is in achieving those goals.

8. Demanding immediate returns.

   Creativity takes time and often won’t offer an immediate and obvious payout to the company, even if the idea is a good one. Demanding creative people not only come up with good ideas but showcase exactly how and when they’ll benefit the company is unreasonable, and will make most reluctant to share their thoughts. Not every idea has to be a goldmine to be good or useful to an organization, a fact that’s important for any manager to remember.

9. Forcing all employees to work the same way.

   We all think differently and use different methods to come up with ideas, so why should all employees have to work the same? Some might have their best ideas in the morning; others might like to stay in the office long after everyone has left. If employees are getting the job done on time, not disturbing coworkers, and producing good work, there’s no reason to dictate the way they get to that end goal.

10. Shooting down ideas immediately.

    Some of the best ideas in history were pretty crazy at the outset and many others just needed time to be refined. When companies dismiss ideas right out of the gate with comments like “it’ll never work” managers stifle creativity and create an atmosphere where fear of rejection reigns supreme. In that kind of environment, employees simply don’t feel comfortable speaking up or sharing new and creative ideas. They’ll stick to what they see as safe and what’s less likely to get them reprimanded for daring to think outside the box.

11. Providing no support.

    Even good ideas don’t always work out and employees shouldn’t be punished for their creativity, even if a given idea fails. The quickest way to destroy creativity is to rub these kinds of failures in the faces of employees, and to remind them of mistakes on future projects. If you want to keep creativity high, stand up for employees, don’t tolerate gossip or infighting, don’t take sides or play favorites, and provide a supportive, open environment for employees to work in.

12. Not listening.

    How many times have people come up with amazing ideas that were brushed off or rejected by people who just didn’t want to listen to new ideas or already had a solution in mind? Sadly, it’s not at all uncommon and many of those great ideas were taken elsewhere with great success. Don’t drive creative people away from your company, even if their idea requires changes to the current modus operandi of your business. If you don’t listen, you’ll never get the kind of feedback you need to keep the company on top and people will just learn to go along with whatever you want because it’s too much trouble to do otherwise.

13. Giving employees no incentive.

    Incentives don’t always have to be monetary. Sometimes, employees just want to know they’ve done a good job and played a pivotal role in a team. Of course, more concrete forms of reward never hurt either, and can help boost morale and give employees a sense that they have a true investment in the future of the company. Employees who feel a vested interest in a company and see their own interests as being intertwined with the interests of the company are much more likely to turn out high quality work. Environments that lack these kinds of incentives will kill motivation, passion, and ultimately creativity as employees have no reason to really work hard.

This article was first published in Online MBA.

The retail business in Singapore is an extremely cutthroat one – between demanding consumers and intense competition, many retailers have to deal with rocketing sky-high rents and sometimes unreasonable landlords.

During the recent opening of the new Nübox concept store at JCube – one of Singapore’s newest malls – we managed to speak to Evelyn Chua, the chief marketing officer of IT retail chain Newstead Technologies, which owns and runs the Apple-focused Nübox stores across Singapore. Including Nübox stores, Newstead Technologies to date operates around 50 IT-related retail stores across Singapore – including its Digital Style concept stores – so we asked her how they pick their retail locations and for advice on running a retail business.

Picking Strategic Locations

This may sound obvious to most, but it is crucial that the retail location you pick has sufficient foot traffic – the reason why Newstead Technologies decided on JCube. “JCube is strategically located near to one of the busiest MRT stations in Singapore – Jurong East – and this ensures good footfall for the mall,” explains Evelyn. “We also see the potential in this area with the residential estates, nearby educational institutions and recent injection of commercial properties. It would be a hub for a large spectrum of consumers, including both commercial and residential dwellers.”

For Newstead Technologies, one of their key strategies was to place their stores “close to the home of the consumers”, and hence they view suburban malls as viable retail locations despite the generally more upmarket, higher ticket prices for premium Apple products. “We want customers to be able to experience our products and services close to home,” she adds.

Get Relevant Data

Many aspiring or new retailers often jump the gun by shortlisting potential retail locations without fully understanding the demographics of a retail mall or the area which it serves. And even if the demographics suitable, it is important to tailor your product range. “We get the customer demographics from the malls and plan our product offerings accordingly,” says Evelyn. “For example, some of our stores have more accessories for the families whereas others may offer more office solutions.”

Dealing With Landlords

Different malls position themselves differently, and approaching a landlord with a good and differentiated business value proposition that benefits the mall is extremely useful to help in any rental negotiation. “Landlords will want to provide a good mix of merchandise and have stores that offer distinctive value to shoppers. As retailers, these are what we need to bring to the table,” Evelyn advises.

Understanding Consumer Trends

There are countless books out in the market gushing about the goodness of social media marketing. There are also those of the ilk that encourage small and medium businesses to get connected with the online social sphere or “risk getting left behind”.

At first glance, “Engagement Marketing: How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World” by Gail Goodman seems to fall into both categories. The difference is that Goodman comes with credentials: she’s the CEO of Constant Contact, a provider of e-mail marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, local deals, and online survey tools for more than half a million small businesses (which means she knows what she’s talking about).

Another difference is that aside from the usual fluff and hype over social media, Goodman does provide a proper framework for small businesses intending to tread the dangers of marketing their businesses through social media. This is how I know Goodman’s legit: in her framework, the “Engagement Marketing Cycle” she argues that delivering a ‘WOW!’ experience to the customer should always come first. That’s right, not running out immediately to set up your company’s Facebook Page or Twitter account.

Here’s the “Engagement Marketing Cycle” in a nutshell:

1. Deliver A WOW! Experience.

The idea is that making your customers feel awesome lets them remember your business and have a positive feeling about the experience. Small businesses do that by providing exceptional service.

2. Entice To Stay In Touch.

Now that you’ve created a great customer experience, you need to now create a connection while the experience is fresh in their minds. This is where you connect with them on a variety of platforms such as social networks, direct mail, etc.

3. Engage People.

It’s only after delivering a great experience and having enticed them to stay in touch where engaging customers make sense. This includes having conversations with your audience and creating relevant content to drive active participation.

The rest of the book delves into the nuts and bolts of using various social media platforms, and also shares some tips and tricks that you can employ in your own marketing efforts. I like the various examples of how small businesses engage with their customers, and there’s a useful glossary at the end of the book for those who aren’t familiar with social media.

“Engagement Marketing: How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World“ is really aimed at those who owns or works for a small business and are looking to engage with customers on social media for the first time. Most of the ideas aren’t new, but can prove critical to those who’ve never attempted social media marketing before.

By Ron Kaufman, author of “Uplifting Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues, and Everyone Else You Meet”

Spirit Airlines recently flew into a big public relations disaster. Sticking to a no-refunds policy, the airline refused to refund the airfare of a passenger who had to cancel his trip after finding out he has terminal cancer. The incident unearthed earlier cases of Spirit’s difficulty handling customer complaints. A couple of years ago, CEO Ben Baldanza hit “Reply All” on an email from two customers who had missed a concert due to a delayed flight. Essentially, he told his employees and (accidentally) the customers themselves that Spirit Airlines didn’t owe the customers anything and the customers would be back the next time they wanted low airfare.

These examples are proof of just how tricky it can be to properly navigate customer complaints.

Spirit Airlines has a policy and they’re sticking to it. That seems to be how the company chooses to handle customer complaints. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen, that approach might not be what’s best for business. When any company receives a complaint, it essentially has two choices. One, treat the complaining customer like he’s a pain in the neck. Or two, appreciate each complaining customer and use the complaint as an opportunity to improve.

One complaining customer actually represents many other customers who had the same problem, but didn’t complain. And because that’s true, you should try to uplift them every time.

For every person who actually comes to complain to you, there is a quantum number who won’t come to you. They’re the ones who go off and tell somebody else, complain about you online, and take their business elsewhere. Let’s say 1 out of 100 of your customers actually comes to you with their complaint. Shouldn’t you really value that person times 100? Because they’re representing all the other people who never came to you, you should be happy — or if not happy, at least very, very appreciative — when someone actually takes the time to give you a second chance.

Read on for advice on how to use customer complaints to uplift your service:

1. Thank them for their complaint.

Give positive recognition by saying, right off the bat, “Thank you for reaching out.”

Show appreciation for the complaining customer’s time, effort, communication, feedback, and suggestions. Always keep in mind that the customer didn’t have to come to you at all. He could have simply taken his business to your competitor. When a customer gives you the opportunity to recover their service, be grateful.

2. Don’t be defensive.

It’s easy to get defensive when an angry customer is on the other end of the line. Customers with complaints exaggerate situations, they get confused, and yes, they may even lie about how things went down. It’s tempting, as the Spirit Airlines CEO did in his “Reply All” email, to just blow off the customer. You want to say, “No! That’s not what happened. You’re wrong!” But getting defensive will lead only to more problems.

When you get defensive, you raise the temperature even higher. Think about the last time you had a disagreement with your spouse. How did it make you feel when he or she told you that you were wrong about something or completely denied that a set of events happened the way you said they happened? Probably not very happy. When a customer complains, they’re doing so because they feel wronged in some way. You don’t have to agree with what they’re saying. But you do have to agree to hear them out. That’s how you keep the conversation moving in a positive direction.

3. Acknowledge what’s important to them.

Service providers must find a complaining customer’s value dimension (or what’s important to them). Even if you think the customer’s complaint is unfair, there is something they value that your company didn’t deliver on. Embrace that value.

What the customer wants is to feel right. When you agree with their value dimension, you’re telling them they are right to value this specific thing. For example, if a customer says your service was slow, then that customer values speed. You might say, ‘Absolutely, you deserve quick, efficient service.’ Or if a customer says your staff was rude, you might say, ‘We do agree that you should be treated with courtesy and respect every time you come to our store.’ In Spirit Airlines’ case, the man was complaining about their no-refund policy. The company might have responded by saying, ‘We understand that flexibility in appropriate circumstances is the right thing to do.’

When you validate what a customer values, you aren’t agreeing with them that your service is slow or that your staff is rude. You’re saying, ‘We agree with you on what you find important and what you value. And we want to deliver in those areas.’

4. Use judo, not boxing.

In boxing, you go right after your opponent, trying to punch him to the ground. In judo, you work with someone else’s motions to create a desired result. You use another person’s speed and energy to spin him around and then end up together on the same side.

When you show a customer you understand what they value, you’re catching them off guard with your own movement. They don’t expect you to tell them that they’re right. Suddenly, just as you might do in judo, you’ve avoided a defensive confrontation and you can spin them. In judo, you’d spin them to the ground. In customer service, you use the opportunity to show the customer that you’re now both on the same side and you can work together.

5. Apologize once, upfront.

Every service provider knows that the customer is not always right. But the customer is always the customer. You don’t have to tell the customer you were wrong, but you should apologize for the inconvenience they’ve experienced. When you do so, you’re showing understanding and empathy for their discomfort, displeasure, or inconvenience.

6. Explain the company’s desire to improve.

When you understand what the customer values, show them things your company does that helps you perform well in that area. For example, let’s say a customer is complaining because a package was delivered a day late. You would say, “We understand that quick, on-time delivery is important to our customers.”

Now the unhappy customer will probably say, “But you failed in my case! My package was a day late.” Then, you should calmly say, “Here’s what happened. On that day there was a snow storm that slowed our service. I’d like to reassure you that we are working right now to find a better solution. In fact, we’ve recently invested $1.7 million in a fleet upgrade that will allow us to better navigate inclement weather and keep our deliveries coming to you on time.”

Show you are sincere about your commitment to do well in the areas the customer values. At the very least, you can say, ‘I’m going to make sure everyone in the company hears your story. We don’t want this to happen again.’ When you express the company’s desire to improve, you start on the path to rebuilding its credibility with the customer.

7. Educate your customer.

Part of hearing the customer out is answering any questions they ask about their specific situation. Provide additional, useful information. If they ask a question that you can’t answer or don’t know the answer to, tell them you’ll find out the answer and get back to them. And then actually follow through. Contact the customer with the answers they requested. And even if they might not have requested an update about their situation, get back in touch with them with one anyway. These are additional opportunities for you to say through your actions, ‘We care about you. We value your business.’

8. Contain the problem.

Let’s say a family is at a crowded theme park on a hot day. The youngest child in the group starts to have an all-out meltdown. Suddenly, a theme park staff member sweeps onto the scene and whisks the family into a special room. Inside, they find an air conditioned room with water and other beverages, an ice cream machine, a bathroom, a comfortable sitting area, etc. The only thing missing in the room is any connection to the theme park’s brand. That’s because this room is used to isolate customers from the brand until they’re all — parents and children — having a more pleasurable experience. The room is also being used to isolate the unhappy family from the families outside the room who are enjoying their day at the theme park. And finally, they’re being isolated from some park staff who may not be as well-prepared as the staff member who brought the family to the room to handle these sticky situations.

That’s how you contain a problem. The Spirit Airlines situation is completely different, but they still had an opportunity to contain the problem before it became a national public relations disaster. They could have done so by having a service provider educated in uplifting service responding to the customer’s complaint. They might have said, ‘No matter what our rules or policies are, we see that your circumstance requires flexibility. We want to handle your special situation carefully. Let’s work together to figure out what’s best. But first, let me thank you for reaching out.’ Had they said this, they would have been working together with their customer to solve the problem. Instead, he didn’t feel like he was going to get help from the airline so he took his complaint elsewhere.

9. Recover.

Show the customer you care about them, even if you feel the company did everything right, by making them an offer. Companies worry that they’ll get taken advantage of if they give vouchers, discounts, or freebies as part of their service recovery, but the reality is that almost never happens.

Offer the customer something and then explain that you’re doing so ‘as a gesture of goodwill’ or ‘as a token of our appreciation. Sears takes recovery seriously. The company now has a ‘blue ribbon team’ of specially educated and empowered staff to handle recoveries. Once an issue goes to them, anything they recommend is what gets done. They have full support from the top down. Sears does this because the company understands that a successfully recovered customer can become your most loyal advocate and ally.

10. Give serial complainers an out.

Some people just love to complain. These kinds of customers complain, not so that they can become satisfied, but because they are never satisfied. With serial complainers, you must limit your liability and isolate them from your brand.

One leading luxury airline had a serial complainer who loved caviar. He loved it so much that on every flight he’d eat all of the caviar the flight crew had to offer and then he’d complain that they didn’t have enough. As a test, the airline even stocked extra caviar on one of his flights. He ate it all again, and complained… again. His constant complaints led the airline to send him a letter. Essentially it read, ‘Thank you for traveling with us for so many years. It appears that despite our best efforts we haven’t been able to satisfy you. Out of our concern for your happiness we’ve provided you here with the contact information for three other airlines that serve your route of travel. However, should you choose to travel with us again, and enjoy the high level of service we are able to provide, we will be delighted to welcome you on board with us again.’ With the letter, they gave the complaint-prone passenger an out. On the rare occasions when you deal with someone who complains all the time, that’s the best thing to do.

Your customers are not your enemy. It’s sometimes hard to remember that when you’re involved in a tense complaint situation. But they’re essential to your business and you really are both on the same side. Your customer wants the product or service you provide, and you want to give it to them. When you treat complaints as opportunities to build loyalty, you can create customers for life and uplift your entire company in the process.

Ron Kaufman is the author of ”Uplifting Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues, and Everyone Else You Meet“. He is the world’s premiere thought leader, educator, and motivator for uplifting customer service and building service cultures in many of the world’s largest and most respected organizations, including Singapore Airlines, Nokia Siemens Networks, Citibank, Microsoft, and Xerox. He is the founder of UP! Your Service, a global service education and management consultancy firm with offices in the United States and Singapore.