Posted by Kristin Baird
When it comes to service recovery, after active listening, an apology is the first step toward making things right. When patients and family members are unhappy, they want to feel heard. And the last thing they need is to have staff get defensive or pass the buck.
When doing some service recovery training recently, I was reminded how front line staff typically want to help resolve problems but don’t know what to say or do. We honestly had to practice ways to say I’m sorry in a neutral, blame-free manner. But the gaps in service recovery training doesn’t stop with how to make an apology. Leaders need to get crystal clear on what they expect of staff and what staff are permitted to do in order to make amends.
Approach to Service Recovery
I encourage you to take a good look at your service recovery approach and ask yourselves the following questions: Is there adequate training on how to handle dissatisfied or angry customers? What is the process for tracking resolved issues? Is there a central repository for service recovery concerns? How do you use information to prevent future service missteps?
The key to great service recovery is to make sure it is handled promptly. Use the data to learn and grow. How does your service recovery approach measure up?
- Service Recovery Is More Than a Coupon
- “An Apology Is the Superglue of Life”
- An Apology is the Superglue of Life – it can fix just about anything!
- Why Service Recovery Training isn’t Enough
- Do You Run from Service Recovery Opportunities?
