By Emily Maltby

In Wednesday’s WSJ story, “How to Fix a Customer-Service Flub,” six entrepreneurs agree that the mea-culpa approach is best when dealing with a cranky customer.

Fessing up is popular for a reason: It’s the most effective way to win back the customer, the entrepreneurs say. But not all business owners apologize to patrons who voice complaints, even if it ultimately means losing the customer and his or her friends.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

A screenshot of the PSA aired at the Alamo Drafthouse, which pokes fun at the angry customer.

Take, for instance, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a movie theater in Austin that received an angry voicemail from a customer who was thrown out for using her cellphone during a film. It didn’t plead forgiveness, nor did it offer the happy patron free tickets to a future movie.

Rather, the theater turned the customer’s profanity-laden message into a public-service announcement that will be shown to audiences of R-rated films before the featured movie starts. (Censored version here.) While listening to the voicemail, viewers see the theater’s written interpretation of the message, which pokes fun at the customers’ usage (and misusage) of the English language, such as the “Magnited States of America.”

The closing remarks of the cinema’s PSA.

The message demonstrates how serious the establishment is about its no-phone policy. The founder and chief executive of the theater, Tim League, stands by the PSA. He posted a note on the company’s website explaining the theater’s unconventional move:

“Recently, we had a situation where a customer persisted in texting in the theater despite two warnings to stop. Our policy at that point is to eject the customer without a refund, which is exactly what went down that night.”

Readers, what do you think? How should business owners handle customers who aren’t always right?

’’Hi, gimme five’’… Superintendent Mark Wright with a young resident. Photo: Brendan Esposito

LOOK no further than the public servants carrying guns if you want service with a smile.

More than two years into a ”secret shopper” program testing police treatment of the crime-reporting public, the NSW Police Force was given a score of almost 89 per cent.

Police even outperformed some of the country’s biggest retailers, whose primary goal is to lure customers to their stores and keep them coming back.

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Friendly faces … Sergeant Wendy Johnson on the beat in Blacktown. Photo: Brendan Esposito

Mystery shoppers, drawn from the suburbs around each police station, test front-line officers’ greetings, farewells and attentiveness and make note of the station environment.

Using fabricated scenarios – and taking care not to break the law by reporting a non-existent crime – the ”shoppers” even measure the officers’ level of eye contact.

”We do it for about 60 different businesses and companies, and [police are] up there in the top five,” Steven Di Pietro, the

executive director of Service Integrity, which runs the program, said.

”It might be something like, ‘My son’s having an 18th birthday. I want to know what to do about potential gate-crashers,”’ he said. If an officer tried to ”fob them off” or was not helpful, the shopper would give the station a poor result.

”If they don’t look them in the eye or they take a long time to serve them, then that’s when the results are lower.”

Eye contact is clearly a strong point for police officers.

”Their results are really right up the top there,” Mr Di Pietro said. ”They compare with some of Australia’s top retailers.”

Since September, 2009 Mr Di Pietro’s pretend customers have ”shopped” 1120 different times at 124 police stations across the state, either in person or by phone.

While the scores were generally high, Penrith came out on top of the 80 local area commands in 2009-10, with an average result of 98 per cent. This year, Botany Bay and Eastern Beaches wear the broadest grins.

Despite resoundingly good results, the police force has no plans to ditch the $40,000-a-year program.

”We want to maintain those high standards and this is a good way of doing that,” Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said. ”Commands who improve on a bad report take pride in getting those better results.”

We got some nice positive publicity about our work with NSW Police Force. You can Mystery Shop almost any industry.

No matter how hard any of us try to deliver the best products and the best service, something can always go awry. For instance, there’s the online florist who sent Valentine flowers on February 16, or the online dress boutique who sent a little black dress in a size 14 instead of the ordered size 4.

If  similar mistakes had been made while shopping at the local mall, it’s a pretty simple procedure just to go there and work out the details for an exchange or adjustment, but the online business can be a bit trickier, and if you’re a new online business, the effect of unresolved customer service issues could irreparably hurt your future success. Keep in mind, for online issues, there’s no compassionate sales manager to speak with an angry customer to calm them down, nor is there an immediate way for a customer to find a resolution – that is unless you, as an online business, takes the responsibility of dealing with angry customers as a number one priority. Here are a few suggestions:

• Always start out with a FAQ. The more answers you can provide on your website, the easier it will be for customers to understand your policies, but remember that competition is keen for online businesses, and you will want to compare your policies with your competition.
• Don’t make excuses. Take responsibility when something goes wrong. If flowers were meant to be delivered on Valentine’s Day, there should not be the excuse that “it was a very busy day.”  What husband, boyfriend, or son wants to hear that the special bouquet he ordered was not delivered when it should have been? Take steps to resolve the problem in the future, but do something to assuage the anger and frustration of the customer. Begin the process as soon as possible, and if you don’t have an immediate solution, then follow-up with an email or phone call as soon as you do.
• Communicate with your customers. Offer relevant information. Have blogs for timely information. If you’re a florist, why not blog about planting and seasonal flowers in different parts of the country? Make your information useful, so customers and potential customers will want to return to your website. Offer discounts and coupons after you have resolved the customer’s problem.
• Answer complaints within one day. Imagine how insignificant and angry a customer could become if they don’t hear from the online organization? There’s no one they can face personally and no store they can visit.
• Ask for feedback. Make customers feel appreciated. In turn they will show their appreciation by clicking on your website again.

No one is immune from making mistakes, but keeping your head and appreciating customers in an honest, upfront manner promises success.

photo credit: Simone Lovati

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I’d add two more:
1) Give the benefit of the doubt – because customers feel they cannot project themselves (eg scream, plead, cry, argue).
and
2) Tell the truth – related to your point 2.