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When You Can't Say "Yes"...There is Opportunity for Success

Customers are the backbone of every business. Yet, there are times when you simply cannot give them what they want, because a customer may not always be fully aware of a company’s financial status, product development ability, or the majority of a company’s feedback. So, what do you do when you have a demanding customer whose needs you cannot meet? Start by getting into the mindset of what the customer is really looking to accomplish:

• Does the customer, maybe love your service and could possibly want to be more involved, but his/her way of showing it is to offer suggestions?
• Is the customer possibly an influential person in your industry, and is maybe looking to do more business with you?
• Is the customer truly a big fan of your service, and just wants to show you that he/she cares?
• Are there alternatives you can explore with the customer?

Online customer service is quite interesting this way. The customer behind the computer is always looking for reassurance that his/her needs are being met, but not everyone knows how to communicate needs with written/typed words. This is quite often the case with customer service emails that involve ‘product development’ suggestions, and that can be difficult because a basic customer with no computer experience may not understand why something is necessary or unnecessary.

After starting at Voice123.com in July 2007, there were several corrections that were implemented in our customer service team to assist customers, even at times when we had to say ‘No’.

• Never make a promise you cannot keep to make someone happy: A failure we had seen with several websites was that they were making statements such as, ‘We will work on it!’, when there was no intention of developing the idea. Broken promises have long-lasting and damaging results to any businesses reputation, online or offline.
• If you do use an idea by your customer, give that customer some credit on your website: Voice123 has done this in the past. When an idea never struck us until a customer said so, we promote them through our email campaigns and Voice123 blog. Showing appreciation for the website user has a powerful affect, and makes your users feel like celebrities. This is important because all customers need to feel special when using a product. If you are showing true appreciation, you should do something both in public and in private. Giving voice talent free subscriptions for helping Voice123 become a better website is one way we like to return the favor.
• Create personal relationships between your customer service team, and their customers: It is true that there are some customers who will have amazing ideas one day, and the next day, they may just contact you to complain a bit, and that is great! You will always have people looking out for your business this way, and you will be looking out for your customers! Even when working in Times Square at ESPNZone NY many years ago, I found myself being a friendly ear to customers who just wanted to let off some steam about ESPN, and their programming decisions. I did tell them that I had no control over such things, but they appreciated that I just listened. These same people came back time and time again, and it was a pleasure to serve them.

I have found that working online requires a larger ear for listening, if you will, because of its anonymous environment. There will always be that ‘need for reassurance’ from another person, that even though you said ‘no’, that the idea was taken into consideration.

Steven Lowell

About Voice123

Voice123 has been serving the needs of the online voice over casting world since 2004, and is the premier marketplace to post voice over work, and find voice over talent. It has maintained a customer satisfaction survey rating of 90% or higher for the past year and a half due to its development in the field of customer service and innovative product development to answer the needs of its customers. Steven Lowell is a customer service specialist & trainer, trained by top Fortune 500 companies from around the world, and former customer of Voice123.