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JIM LOGAN: A reality of the business is that if you’re in business long enough, you’re going to have to deal with an upset customer. It’s inevitable. When that happens, I’ve found there’s three things you can do, to not only handle the upset customer, but turn it into a positive event that strengthens your relationship.

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What You Can Do:

-Listen and Understand the Real Issue

The first thing is to listen. There’s nothing worse than being upset and thinking no one’s listening to you. So be sure and listen and let your customer vent. Understand what the real issue is that they are upset about.

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What You Can Do:

-Listen and Understand the Real Issue

-Don’t Make Any Foolish Promises

The second thing to do is don’t make any foolish promises that you somehow won’t be able to keep. What this means is, they are already upset, so don’t add any fuel to the fire by offering something that you know you won’t be able to live up to.

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What You Can Do:

-Listen and Understand the Real Issue

-Don’t Make Any Foolish Promises

-Make a Concrete Commitment and Follow Through

The third thing is, is be sure and actually make a promise or commitment that you can. This takes you a long way towards rebuilding trust and confidence with your customer. So for instance, offer to call them back in two hours to give them an update. Or offer to give them something updated sometime in the future. When that time elapses, go ahead and give them a call or give them an update, even if all you can say is, “This is what we’re working on internally.” That goes a long way in getting the confidence that you need to strengthen that relationship.