I'm Sorry, I Don't Remember How to Say I'm Sorry
Joel Spolsky shares Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service that shares lessons his software company has learned (in come cases, the hard way). Many make sense for professional service providers. My favorite, though, is this one
Memorize Awkward Phrases.
It’s easy to get caught up in the emotional heat of themoment when someone is complaining.
The solution is to memorize some key phrases, and practicesaying them, so that when you need to say them, you can forget yourtestosterone and make a customer happy.
“I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t accept your money. The meal’s on me.”
“That’s terrible, please tell me what happened so I can makesure it never happens again.”
It’s completely natural to have trouble saying “It’s myfault.” That’s human. But those three words are going to make your angrycustomers much happier. So you’re going to have to say them. And you’re goingto have to sound like you mean it.
So start practicing.
Say “It’s my fault” a hundred times one morning in theshower, until it starts to sound like syllabic nonsense. Then you’ll be able tosay it on demand.
One more point. You may think that admitting fault is astrict no-no that can get you sued. This is nonsense. The way to avoid gettingsued is not to have people who are mad at you. The best way to do thisis to admit fault and fix the damn problem.