By James Sells, Dir. Client Services
Jodi Taylor Refosco from Taylor-Made Deep Creek and Denny Honsey from Catalina Vacation Rentals gave a great talk at the VRMA conference on Customer Service called “From Yelling at You to Boasting About you: How to Deal with Difficult Situations and High Maintenance Owners and Guests”.
They shared many great tips and humorous examples (the cockroach story was great) during their session. Some of the things they covered that I thought were really great ideas and reminders to those of us in the Customer Service world are:
• Assume responsibility for misunderstandings
• Stay Positive
• Listen to the guest carefully, let them vent, and read between the lines
• Use the 2 Person Rule – if you are the second person to talk with a guest, take charge of the situation and resolve it.
• “I want to help you with this situation” – always use the words “We” or” I”.
• Anticipate needs/volunteer necessary information
• When you are discussing the situation give the guest 2 choices (always make the one you want them to choose more enticing)
• Have a specific goal when negotiating. For instance if you are negotiating a discount, make sure you know the maximum you are willing to do.
• Keep Track – once a problem occurs, record it
• Do not find the nearest exit when you see an angry guest come into the office
Do not let someone determine your behavior. When you are around behavior you do not like is the best time to exhibit behavior you want.
L- Listen attentively without interrupting, encouraging the guest to voice all of their concern
E – Empathize – Let the guest know you “understand how they feel”. It may be appropriate to acknowledge that you would also be upset in their situation
A – Apologize – Sometimes a simple apology is all guests really want. An apology is not necessarily an admission of fault, but an acknowledgment that the intentions were good.
R – Restate the options/Resolve the Problem. When a guests complain they want results. If their request is directly in conflict with policy, offer alternatives. (Avoid actually saying “policy” to guests)
N – Never Try to Prove Guests Wrong. Sometimes guests may offer undue criticism; you might even determine the guest actually caused the problem themselves. However, attempt to prove guest wrong never leads to satisfactory solutions.
I actually had the pleasure of attending this session- Very informative and high energy! We look forward to sharing all the wonderful things we learned in DC with the rest of our Seaside Vacations family
Posted by: Seaside Vacations | November 04, 2009 at 12:54 PM