Becoming a customer advocate

- You can learn something from nearly every customer interaction, what customers like and dislike, what confuses them, and where they need your help, and what problems they experience most often. In this video, I'm going to introduce a process you can use to gather feedback and become a customer advocate who is a champion for great customer experiences. The first step is identifying a problem that's harming the customer experience. Here's a scene where a retail associate encounters an unusual service failure. - So I double checked and we're completely out of stock. I'm so sorry you came all the way down here. That should not have happened. But I do have a couple of solutions to get you what you ordered. - Okay. - Great, so we have it in stock at a store across town, so I could call and verify it's there and have them hold it for you. Or we have it in stock at our warehouse, so I could have it shipped to your place even by tomorrow. And, of course, we'd cover the shipping cost. - Well, I appreciate your effort. I'm not in a huge rush, so let's just send it to the house. - The retail associate did a great job solving the issue and helping the customer feel better. It might be tempting to just move on to the next customer and assume the problem won't happen again or that somebody else will fix it. But what if no one else knows about it? You can be a customer advocate in these situations by finding a way to prevent other customers from experiencing the same problem. Here are three questions that can help you investigate issues like this. First, ask yourself what caused the problem. Next, decide whether it's likely the problem will happen again. And finally, determine who can fix the issue. Some problems you can solve on your own, while others might involve your boss or even someone from another department. At the retail store, the employee discovered an inventory problem. The computer thought the store had items in stock that it really did not. This problem will keep happening until the inventory gets updated. The employee will need to share this feedback with her boss who can ensure the problem gets fixed. Now this is where things can get tricky. Some organizations have excellent systems in place for sharing customer feedback. Perhaps you or your boss have a direct line of communication with other departments or there's an internal messaging channel dedicated to finding and solving these types of problems. In other organizations, sharing feedback can be much more difficult, there's no good way to communicate with other departments, coworkers are unresponsive or they seem unconcerned. If this describes your situation, I encourage you to be persistent. Part of being a customer advocate is working tirelessly to help your customers have a better experience. You might have to find creative ways to connect with people and follow up several times, and you may even need to get help from your boss or a trusted colleague. I encourage you to practice being a customer advocate by choosing a common problem your customers face. Download the Customer Advocate Worksheet and use it to walk through the steps to finding a solution. There are times when this is not easy work, but your effort can make a real difference for the people you serve.