How did this happen? The customer didn’t like the new rep. There were mistakes in the billing paperwork. The product arrived damaged. And finally, that customer decided to take his business elsewhere.

Is there any hope that a sales expert or marketing pro could step in, even at this late hour, and help restore this customer’s loyalty?

After all, it’s more than just an account that walked out your door. It was a consistent source of income.

What’s worse, that one customer could be costing your business more money, by sharing his bad experience with other potential or current customers.

It’s not too late

Good news:  It isn’t too late to go into damage control mode and reel him back in.

Here are four steps you can take at this point to rescue the relationship:

• Find out what the original problem was. Why did it upset the customer? What did the customer expect to happen? At this point, let the customer talk until he runs out of gas.
• Thank the customer for explaining the problem, and apologize sincerely for the inconvenience it caused. This doesn’t mean you have to agree, disagree or dispute what he said.
• Find out what, if anything, you or your company could do to get the relationship back on track. Perhaps the customer wants something very specific, which may not be very difficult to honor. It could even be something as simple as extending a discount.
• Work with the customer to come up with a plan to ensure this problem doesn’t repeat itself. Maybe there’s something your company could do that’ll benefit more than one customer. If so, the original customer probably would be pleased to know of the broader, positive impact.

Even if you don’t woo the customer back, he’ll know you’re sincere — which hopefully prevents him from badmouthing you in the future.

Who knows? That customer could even have a falling out with his new vendor and be back before you know it.

What are some of the things you’ve done to retain a once disgruntled customer? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Tags: loyalty, marketing, relationship, retain, sales