MBA1271 What to Say To a Customer When You’ve Failed Them

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Hey O. Welcome to the $1 or business is pleasure every day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online. And in today's lesson you will learn what to say to a customer when you failed them. From time to time you're going to have customers that are disappointed, that are not happy with the results of the business transaction or whether it's a service or a product, whether it's your fault or not, it's irrelevant. The end result is your customer's not happy. As the leader of the business, you need to come up with the messaging, with what you should say. What is the line that your business should be saying? How should they be approaching this? Do you apologize? Do you not apologize? Do you explain yourself? What exactly do you say to them? They're not happy. This is a moment of truth for you and your business. The customer is going to remember everything, everything about this interaction, about this moment. How you react will define you. You know you're going to have hundreds of customers that are happy with what they have and they're going to be pretty silent. But those who are not happy, that are disappointed, they're going to be really vocal if this is handled inappropriately. So let's get into exactly how to handle this. What to say to your customers when you failed them. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. As I begin today's lesson on what to say to customers when you fail them, I want to make sure something's super clear. When a customer is disappointed, when they feel like they didn't get what they expected or they're just flat out not happy, they could have invalid reasons for that. I say invalid because a lot of us, we feel like, hey, if somebody's not happy, tough luck. That's not my problem. I did everything right. This is not a time to get defensive. This is not a time to be proud. This is a time to listen. And it's also a time for you to really shine. Regardless of what the reality is of what really happened, this is how the customer feels. The customer feels that you failed them, that you didn't give them what they wanted. So having some sort of compassion and empathy with that is going to go a long way. So I like to start this conversation with a customer, like this whole with recognizing the fact that I understand that they're not happy. Hey, I'm really sorry you're not happy with what happened or you're not having a good experience. That's not what we want. Now, a lot of people stop there, but I don't think it's enough. The customer really wants to understand that you understand them. And the best way to do that is to explicitly say why they're unhappy. And you could just iterate, Hey, I understand that this is what happened. 1, 2, 3, 4. And this is not to your expectations. This is what you were looking for. At this point, the customer's like, yes, this person's actually listening. They understand why I'm unhappy, and they're actually saying, hey, so sorry for what happened. There's nothing wrong with apologizing. Even if you think you're right, apologizing gives you higher ground. You're not apologizing because you think you did something wrong. You're apologizing because you don't want them to have a bad experience. So starting off like that is a good way to start empathizing, even apologizing, as well as iterating why you believe they're unhappy or what happened. You know, what caused this to happen. Number two, make it clear that you're trying to make this right. Hey, we want to make this right for you. We're working on a solution or here's my solution. What do you think? Would this work for you? You want to be as proactive as possible and show that you want to make them happy. You want to make this right. You want to set this right. If this is not an option, if they are beyond this point or they have canceled already, or they just want to leave totally, okay, and say to them, hey, we understand why you're leaving, so sorry this happened. And believe it or not, this is a golden opportunity for you. And what I like to do is I actually ask them, do you mind if we hop on a call for 30 minutes? I'd love to get some feedback on how we can improve and make sure that all our customers have a great experience. Most people actually say, yes, hey, I'll get on a call. They want to be heard. A lot of us think, hey, who's going to waste their time with me? They just want to, like, leave. No, they want to be heard. They want us actually to say what they want to say. And most people, when I get on a call, every single time I'm about to get on the call, I'm like, oh, man, this is going to be nerve wracking. They're going to be upset. And every time they're pleasant and they're fine and they're happy and they're happy to give the feedback. Now in this feedback, I'm listening. I'm trying to find out how we can improve, but also I'm trying to win them over. I'm not trying to like, sell them again, but I'm also trying to say, hey, we want to make sure this is better. We want to make sure that you think of us in the future. And what happens often is because I do that at the end of the call, they're like, hey, you know what? I really appreciate this call. And if these things change, I'll be more than happy to come back to you guys. Please reach out to me. This has happened to me more times than it hasn't because I've taken the time to make a quick call, get some feedback, hear them out and say, hey, if we can fix these things, change these things, improve these things, offer these things for you, would you be willing to come back to us? And by that time, you've built so much goodwill and they have appreciate and respected you that they're open to that option. And on top of that, they feel like, hey, their voice is being heard and the product, the service, the whatever is being catered to their needs. Most people will not go the Extra mile and do this. And this is why you're going to differentiate yourself. If it's not you, somebody else from the company can make these calls, a customer service manager, an agent, whatever, but it's somebody who's actually willing to take the time to listen to them. Next. Once you're done with that call, I like to share the notes from the call with my team, with the people that are involved in this project, in this product. Why it's important for them not only to be praised and, you know, to give them all the good news, but you gotta give them the reality too. Hey, there are people that are not happy because of this. Now, there are some invalid reasons and there's some valid reasons. And even if the reason is, hey, they perceived the product to be this and it turned out to be that, it's not broken or anything. But maybe our messaging needs to change. Maybe we need to market in a different way. Maybe we need to change our website in some sort of way to be a little bit more aligned with the reality and the expectations and all that kind of stuff. Most people are not crazy, so they're getting these ideas from somewhere. So maybe you can look at your product, your marketing, your messaging. How can we fine tune it so we can avoid these situations in the, in the future? Now, sometimes, rarely, but sometimes you will get off these calls and there's nothing really that you can implement. They want something totally different from what you're offering and you're not even mentioning any of the stuff they want in your marketing. So you're not really sure where they got this impression. They just shot in the dark and said, I'm trying this product out. But that's totally fine. You still have goodwill, you still made a good impression and you still handled it correctly. And you'll have word of mouth from that person, you know, telling other people of their experience in that phone call. Lastly, I like to follow up with an email thanking them for their time. Thank you for the feedback, thank you for giving us a chance and I'll be reaching out to you in the future as we implement your ideas or your suggestions or if we implement your suggestions. Because, hey, you don't want to make a promise that you can't keep. Maybe those ideas are not in line with your brand or what your mission or if you're going to implement the suggestions because maybe the ideas that they're suggesting are not aligned with your business plan or your brand or whatever you're planning to do in the future. Your whole mission. That's Totally. Okay. But a follow up, thank you email goes a long way. But one of the things you need to do so you actually know you failed your customers is to have an exit survey. We do this with everybody who's canceled. There's an automated email that goes out once they've canceled their account or they are no longer a customer. We send them an email with a survey, ask them to fill it out. Hey, we would love to know how we can improve. And then from that survey we can contact them. And if you'd like to get on a call, most of these servers are going to say, hey, I'm not ready or I changed my direction in my business or whatever it is. And that way I don't need your product anymore or service anymore. But sometimes you're going to get people that weren't happy that you failed, that you didn't really give them the experience they're looking for. And that's a golden opportunity for you. Thy ticket lady Jennifer of Coolidge.

Well, many thanks, good sir. Here is my Discover card. They accept Discover at Renaissance fairs? Yeah, they do here. Discover is accepted at the places I love to shop. Geth with the times. With the times. You're playing the loot.

Yeah.

And it sounds pretty good, right?

Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report, you've made it on time for the McDonald's breakfast menu. You think to yourself, finally, I can start my day. But what if breakfast could be even more perfect with the hot honey sausage, egg biscuit. It final. Go to McDonald's and get it while you can, guys. To wrap up today's lesson, when you have a customer that is upset, that feels like they didn't get what they wanted out of your product, your service or whatever, it's not the time to play the blame game. It's a time to listen, to improve, to really see this as an opportunity to get the best out of the situation where people are upset. Business is about relationships and your relationships with your customers, even those that leave you matter. It's your brand, it's your business. It's what they're going to remember. It's what they're going to talk about. It's what they're going to write in reviews, is what they're going to write about in social. Even if they leave you and they're unhappy, you can salvage the situation and make the best of it. Thank you so much for listening. If you love the show, drop us an iTunes rating and review. Let us know what you think, what your favorite episode is, your favorite takeaway. We read every single review and it's a great way for us to learn a little bit more about you, our listeners. Before I go, I want to leave you with this no one wants to have a conversation with somebody who's unhappy. Especially they're unhappy because of you. But trust me, when you get on that call, when you actually write those emails, it's not as bad as it seems or not as bad as you think it's going to be. This is not life or death. People are trying things out to improve their business or prove their life, trying a product out and rarely do they get to speak to somebody from that company that really cares. So really, it's a privilege for them. They really feel special. So grant them that privilege. Alright, I'll check you in. Tomorrow's episode Freeride Friday. I'll see you then. Take care.

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